Hi, my name is 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 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 310. We're reading paragraphs 2373 to 2379. As always, I'm 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 for the last 55 days. If you want to, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash cI. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Just a last quick thank you for all those who have supported. The production of this podcast with your prayers Thank you so much, your financial gifts. We could not, literally could not do this podcast without you. Thank you so much to get us here today. As I said, we're reading paragraph 2373 to 2379 yesterday. We talked about the fecundity of marriage and conjugal fidelity. So faithfulness. Remember we had those four marks of God's love. The four marks of

God's love is always free, total, faithful, and fruitful. And so we recognize that here in paragraph 23, 64, and 65,

the faithfulness of marriage, that's an essential part of this love. Also, fecundity, and that fruitfulness is an end of

marriage. And so it naturally tends to be fruitful. Now, what do you mean by fruitful? Well, today,

we're looking at 2373 and 2379, is the gift of a child. And so today we're going to actually

take a couple paragraphs and talk about what is that gift.

And not only what is the gift of a child, but because children, not just children in general,

but every child, each and every child, because each and every child is a gift and has a dignity

and that the creation of this child is intrinsically connected to the sexual act.

Because of that, there is a massive boundary, I say, or even protection around children.

Since children are a gift, and since the creation of a child is intrinsically connected to the reality of the sexual act,

there is, again, there's a thick and powerful boundary protecting that dignity of each and every

child and connecting them to the sexual act as well as preserving the integrity of the sexual act

for the sake of what, not just for the sake of the sexual act, for the sake of persons, right, for the sake of the dignity of each and every person. If that doesn't make any sense to you, it's going to make sense. Hopefully, as we read these paragraphs, let's launch into today. I know the last couple days have been long days. So let's see what we can do today. Let's pray, Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. And thank you. Thank you for bringing us to this

moment, bringing us to this day, today, 310. Lord God, thank you so much for revealing to us.

Truly, what our gifts, the gift of life and the gift of family, the gift of friendship, the gift of love?

Thank you for the gift of conjugal love in the context of marriage. the gift of friendship, the gift of love. Thank you for the gift of conjugal

love in the context of marriage. Thank you so much for all those people who have been called to

marriage. In midst trials, amidst thorns, amidst thistles, amidst the burdens of life, we thank you

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