Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast,

where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through

the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to by ascension.

In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church,

discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home. This is Day 295. We're reading paragraphs 2270 to 2275. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in the podcast after daily updates and daily notifications. One quick thanks to all of you who continue to pray. I always ask, but you always do it. I'm so grateful. Thank you of all those also who have supported the production of this podcast with your financial gifts. We couldn't do this without your prayers, without that help. Just thank you so much. As we launch into today, we recognize that in paragraphs 2270 and 2275, we're going to talk about abortion. Again, yes, we're right in the midst, I mean, we started a couple days ago right in the midst of the Fifth Commandment, you shall not kill, you shall not take an innocent human life.

And we're going to talk about in paragraphs 2270 to 2275 that there are very few lives you

could consider more innocent than the life of an unborn baby, an unborn person.

And so as we go into this, we recognize also, kind of like I mentioned

yesterday and yesterday's prayer, that this is the story of many people who are listening.

This is, or maybe, it possibly could be the story of many people who are listening. We know that

abortion has marked our culture. Abortion has marked the lives of many, many people in our church

even. And so we recognize

that the church gives very clear teaching with regard to the evil of abortion. But this is also,

we need to keep this in mind. The church gives very clear teaching also with the reality of God's

mercy. Remember, for 294 days leading up to today, day 295, we've heard again and again of

God's mercy. We've heard again and again about the fact that God desires that all of us turn to him

and be saved and turn to him and receive his mercy, turn to him and allow him to love us. And so

as we read through these teachings, all the teachings, of course, as we read

through this, yes, we recognize that here's the church that holds the line. It holds the line of

truth, holds the line of goodness, holds the line on the part of those who are innocent and defenseless,

but also holds the line on those who need God's mercy and those who need God's forgiveness.

So we're praying for

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