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The Bible is amazing… but sometimes confusing and hard to read. How can we understand the whole story?
From Ascension and Fr. Mike Schmitz—creators of the Bible in a Year podcast—comes a beautiful, clear, shareable summary of the story of salvation: the Bible in 10 Minutes. If you’ve never had the whole narrative summarized for you (or if you could use a refresher), this video will change your perspective on humanity’s relationship with God.
https://www.youtube.com/@TheBibleinaYear
Navigating healthy relationships can be so difficult.
Developing good relationships—whether friendships or romantic ones—and deepening them in a fragile world can be challenging. We can be tempted to leave a relationship or dissolve a friendship when things become difficult or when we’re hurt by the other person. It can be challenging to work on deepening these relationships when others have said hurtful or difficult things—but that doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel.
Today, Fr. Mark-Mary challenges us to go beyond surface-level friendships and work on deepening our relationships—even though they can be fragile and hard to maintain.
https://www.youtube.com/@AscensionPresents
Rebellion, Resentment, or Rejoicing
We are called to surrender to God’s will. But how do we surrender? Is it a matter of feeling or is it a matter of something else? Surrender is an active, dynamic thing. And it is the opposite of rebellion and resentment.
https://www.youtube.com/@SundayswithAscension
Momma always said, “Son, you don’t like something? Well, offer it up!”
Today, Fr. Mike explores the traditional understanding of offering up your pain, embracing your suffering, and making sacrifices in the spiritual life.
https://www.youtube.com/@AscensionPresents
This video is one installment of a 4-part series on the Theology of the Body presented by Fr. Mike. For free access to the entire series, please visit https://www.ascensionpress.com/tobtalk/
If the deepest secret of God is that God is love, and he made you in his image and likeness, then what’s the deepest secret about you? You are made for love. What does it mean to be human? What was God’s original plan for humanity? For relationships? For marriage? For sex? Why is the body important? In these four lessons, Fr. Mike leans into the teachings of St. John Paul II and Christopher West, unpacking the mysteries of the human heart, the human body, and relationships. In this first lesson, we learn about the origins of the Theology of the Body, what it means, and why what we do with our bodies matters. We are taken back to the beginning in Genesis Chapters 1-3, the creation of Adam and Eve. Despite their differences as male and female, we discover how they were equal in terms of dignity yet complementary in their differences.
This series is brought to you for free by Fr. Mike’s local ministry, bulldogCatholic. This series is worth more than $80, but bulldogCatholic is providing it free of cost to you. Please donate to support their mission! https://bulldogcatholic.org/seeds-of-…
If this information is as fascinating to you as it is to us, you can dive deeper with Christopher West and the @TheologyoftheBodyInstitute
This video is one installment of a 4-part series on the Theology of the Body presented by Fr. Mike. For free access to the entire series, please visit https://www.ascensionpress.com/tobtalk/
“But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:28
Sin has broken the world for men and women. Because of sin, our relationships with God, with each other, and even in our own hearts are broken. But as Fr. Mike encourages us during this second lesson, Jesus is on our side. He came to redeem our ethos and give us a new heart. The Theology of the Body highlights the fact that in the beginning, a broken world did not exist. In the beginning, we were free to love and be loved fully. But now, for men and women, that freedom has often become twisted in our hearts. We can find ourselves desiring to use another person. If you find yourself in circumstances where you have fallen in these areas, remember that it’s not just about discipline or grit. Above all, it’s about grace. If you fall, just keep praying. If you fall, fall into the confessional. And if you feel empty, fill yourself with Jesus in the Eucharist.
This series is brought to you for free by Fr. Mike’s local ministry, bulldogCatholic. This series is worth more than $80, but bulldogCatholic is providing it free of cost to you. Please donate to support their mission! https://bulldogcatholic.org/seeds-of-…
If this information is as fascinating to you as it is to us, you can dive deeper with Christopher West and the @TheologyoftheBodyInstitute
This video is one installment of a 4-part series on the Theology of the Body presented by Fr. Mike. For free access to the entire series, please visit https://www.ascensionpress.com/tobtalk/
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34
The word “love” can often be overused and undervalued. In this third lesson of the Theology of the Body Crash Course, Fr. Mike outlines love. He explains the four different kinds of love, the four marks of God’s love, and how the body intrinsically has a language in and of itself. To be made in God’s image and likeness means that he made us to love like him. To love as he loves involves the four kinds of love: storge, eros, philia, and agapé. Within those four kinds of love, we find four markers of God’s love:
1. It is always free
2. It is always total
3. It is always faithful
4. It is always fruitful
Our body has a language, and we are constantly saying something. Speaking the language of the body takes time and practice, but it’s worth it. Why? Because we will be speaking the language for the purpose for which we were created: love. This series is brought to you for free by Fr. Mike’s local ministry, bulldogCatholic.
This series is worth more than $80, but bulldogCatholic is providing it free of cost to you. Please donate to support their mission! https://bulldogcatholic.org/seeds-of-…
If this information is as fascinating to you as it is to us, you can dive deeper with Christopher West and the @TheologyoftheBodyInstitute
This video is one installment of a 4-part series on the Theology of the Body presented by Fr. Mike. For free access to the entire series, please visit https://www.ascensionpress.com/tobtalk/
“And now, O Lord, I am not taking this sister of mine because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that I may find mercy and may grow old together with her.” Tobit 8:7
In this fourth and final installment of the Theology of the Body Crash Course, we apply these teachings to Scripture. We look at the marriage of Tobias and Sarah and a reading from Song of Songs. We learn how the promises made during the sacrament of the Rite of Marriage bear the four marks of God’s love. Fr. Mike Schmitz then highlights three ways in which our society works against love that is free, total, faithful, and fruitful: through the use of contraception, pornography, and homosexuality (same-sex attraction). Summarizing what we’ve learned in each session, Fr. Mike instructs us in fasting, looking someone in the eyes, and saying no to ourselves. Implementing this way of life is a process, not an event.
We end this course with the words of Jesus and St. John Paul II: “Be not afraid.”
This series is brought to you for free by Fr. Mike’s local ministry, bulldogCatholic. This series is worth more than $80, but bulldogCatholic is providing it free of cost to you. Please donate to support their mission! https://bulldogcatholic.org/seeds-of-…
If This Isn’t the Life You Asked for . . .
Who is orchestrating your life? If it’s God—and not you—what will you say to him? Fr. Mike suggests trying “yes.”
Whether life circumstances bring the best out of you or the worst out of you, you need Jesus more than you think you do. And that is a very good thing. Here’s why.
//Ascension – YouTube – 4/22/2024//
St. Paul tells us, “Do everything without grumbling,” but even the best-intentioned Christians can fall into a toxic habit of constant complaining. It’s true that sometimes, sharing a complaint can help rectify an unjust situation or call attention to something that needs to change. But when you start fixating on the negative things around you and voicing your critiques or grievances about everything in your life, you imprison yourself in your own personal hell.
Today, Fr. Mike encourages us to ask for God’s grace to break free from the habit of complaining.