Fr. Mike Reflects on 5 Years of The Bible in a Year
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Ascension
4.9 • 7.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
2026 marks the 5th anniversary of Bible in a Year! Over the past five years, the Lord has taken this podcast to extraordinary places -- reaching listeners in more than 150 countries, becoming the #1 podcast in the U.S., and remaining the #1 religious podcast in the world, even five years later.
Through Bible in a Year, God has transformed hearts and minds, and we are deeply grateful to every listener who has made this journey possible. As we continue creating new videos, podcasts, books, and articles each day, we invite you to press play once again on Bible in a Year.
Join Fr. Mike, and all of us, in the Ascension App, as we encounter God’s voice and learn to live our lives through the lens of Scripture.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Some people get done with the Bible in the air and they think, what's next? |
| 0:02.5 | Press play. |
| 0:21.6 | Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and today I wanted to take a moment as we get ready for another year of the Bible in a year. It's hard to believe, but 2026 is actually the fifth anniversary of this journey. When we launched the Bible in a year back in 2021, none of us, the Ascension team, Jeff Kavins or myself, had any idea what God was going to do with it. We never, never anticipated the reach, the impact, or even just the sheer number of people |
| 0:27.0 | who would say yes to reading scripture every day, whether with their eyeballs or with their |
| 0:32.6 | earballs. As you might know, the Bible in here is the number one religious podcast in the world still five years later. |
| 0:40.3 | It's reached listeners in over 150 countries. |
| 0:42.5 | Years ago, I was watching a Christian movie. |
| 0:45.1 | And in this Christian movie, there was a Muslim woman. |
| 0:48.3 | She was listening to her iPod. |
| 0:50.4 | That's how old it was. |
| 0:51.6 | Listening to her iPod, listening to a man preach on, I think, |
| 0:55.1 | First Corinthians. And she had a conversion to Jesus. I remember thinking, God, that would be |
| 0:59.8 | incredible. It would be incredible to be able to do that. We've got messages from people who were raised |
| 1:09.5 | Muslim, who have now professed faith in Jesus. |
| 1:12.8 | And not just in this country, the United States of America or in Canada, but people in |
| 1:18.1 | countries where if they publicly become Christian, their lives are forfeit. But they've listened |
| 1:24.5 | to the Bible in a year and have come to that place. God's word has transformed their heart, it's transformed their minds in such an incredible way that they're like, no, I believe. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is God. When I first heard about the first person, that first story, I remember thinking, oh my gosh, Lord, that's what I prayed for. And here we're, you know, 150 countries, some of them, countries where it would be illegal |
| 1:46.2 | to listen to the Bible in the air. |
| 1:48.5 | Talk to another man who talked about, oh, he lives in a country where it is illegal. |
| 1:53.4 | It is illegal to openly practice your Catholicism, your Christianity. |
| 1:57.8 | And he said, use a number of VPNs to get around all these things to be able to listen to the |
| 2:04.3 | word of God through the Bible in ear. It's consistently top not only actually the religious charts, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ascension, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ascension and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.