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

when we encounter God's plan of your goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down

through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you 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 our heavenly home. This is day three. Congratulations. You made it to day three. And today, we are introducing the very first pillar of the catechism. And to that, I want to welcome back for those who are Bible and your listeners, Jeff Kavins. Good to be with you. I'm so glad that it's exciting to introduce. We had our first two days already. I'm so grateful that you're here to introduce the first pillar. How's your voice doing? Oh, you know, it's, I got a cup of coffee here. I'm ready to keep on trucking away. So with this introduction, we have the catechism has four pillars, right? And so for each one of those pillars, we're going to explain those in a second. But we're going to have people introduce those. And so you're the one to introduce the very first pillar on the creed, what we believe. As we begin, is it okay if I just open us up with a prayer? Absolutely. Awesome. Father in heaven,

we give you praise and glory. Thank you for bringing us today, three. Thank you for bringing us to this

place where we can learn more about you, nor we can know your identity and know our deepest identity

as your beloved creation, as those who have been adopted by you in baptism, and made

into your sons and your daughters. Help us to know you as our father. Help us to know you God

as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and be drawn into your love. This day, we ask you to please

bless this conversation. Bless Jeff. Bless me. and please bless everyone who's listening to us today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day three. And I'm using, for when it comes to the catechism, I'm using the ascension edition of the catechism of the Catholic Church, which includes the foundations of faith approach, which you're going to talk about in a second. Those who are listening, if you like, you can download your own

campaign. the Ascension edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which includes the foundations of faith approach, which you're going to talk about in a second. Those who are listening, if you like, you can download your own catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, the C is for Catechism in here. Also, if you want to, you can like, you can follow, you can subscribe, whatever that is, whatever, however you're listening to this podcast,

it's only day three. And so why not? Why not subscribe today? Why not follow today? I think it's worth it.

Okay. So, Jeff, pillar one. What, what have we gotten into here on day three as we're starting

this catechism? Sure. Well, first thing we need to do really is to kind of

go zoom back and look at the big picture. Yeah. And the beautiful thing about the catechism is that

it presents our faith in four pillars. And you might remember that great quote of Frank Sheeds.

He talked about one of the problems with Catholicism is that kids go through from kindergarten all the way to high school and they graduate and they've got what? They've got a pile. A big pile of Catholicism and they're not quite sure what to do with it. I remember when you said this, you're like, hey, do you Catholics believe in such and such? And you're like, well, looking at the pile, like, I think it's in there. I don't know. Got to be in there.

I heard of that.

I got an A in that class.

You're right.

It's got this pile of Catholicism.

And what the catechism does is brilliantly, brilliantly separate all of this out so that we can understand our faith and even the separation into four pillars, is a teaching, it's a teaching

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