meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Picking a Thing for Lent

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Ascension

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.97.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2019

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fr. Mike knows the tricks we can play on ourselves when it comes to picking something for Lent. So he gives a straightforward guideline: Don’t pick something that’s arbitrary. Pick something that is necessary.

In other words, don’t say you’re giving up watermelon when you know you will hardly eat watermelon anyway; and don’t give up hot showers if you know cold showers actually won’t help you grow in holiness. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking strictness equates to holiness. Likewise, we can fall into the trap of thinking that the easiest thing will be the most helpful.

What do I really need to do or give up for Lent? If I take an honest look inside myself, it may be something difficult, but I will know.

Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

How my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.

0:08.0

So let's come up and you've got some decisions to make.

0:11.9

Some of those decisions are what you're going to do for Lent.

0:14.5

Here's one of the traps we almost always fall in.

0:16.7

We talked about this before but I think it's important to revisit some of these things

0:20.0

because at times we can fall into the trap of being way too, I'm going to say lenient

0:26.0

and way too whatever the opposite of lenient is strict.

0:31.2

Strict with our penances for Lent.

0:34.9

So we do something like, oh I'm going to do something that I don't even notice.

0:37.6

It might as well have said I'm going to eat watermelon or no watermelon for Lent just

0:42.6

like my sister and keep bringing it up because she did say it once and I think she should

0:46.4

not ever forget that's what she said she's going to do for Lent is give up watermelon.

0:50.4

Now we're mind her, we'll never make a video about Lent.

0:53.7

Before being way too strict which is basically like what is the hardest thing I can imagine

0:57.8

myself doing I'm going to do that for Lent because it's probably going to show that I really

1:01.8

really care about Lent and I'm going to really grow on Lent and I really love God because

1:04.8

I'm doing something that's really hard.

1:07.0

Now here's the problem.

1:08.4

The problem is not being lenient and the problem is not being strict.

1:13.2

The problem is a lot of times we choose something that's unnecessary.

1:17.6

We choose something or another way to say it is we're choosing something that's arbitrary

1:21.2

which is fine.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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 2025.