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Fr. Mike Schmitz’s New Booklet, “Growing Through the Motions”, Teaches Catholics to Find Meaning in Obligations of the Faith

[Exton, PA, October 14, 2024—]

Growing Through the Motions: Living Your Faith with Intention teaches Catholics how to understand the true meaning behind the “motions” of life.

Adding another title to The Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz Collection, Ascension has released Growing Through the Motions: Living Your Faith with Intention, a booklet for Catholics of all ages who want to learn how to engage with their Catholic Faith with intentionality and meaning.

Written by Fr. Mike Schmitz, chaplain at the University of Minnesota Duluth and host of the chart-topping podcasts The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)® and The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz), this booklet reminds Catholics that there is more to life than just going through the “motions” of going to Mass, saying prayers, and attending to the tasks of daily life. Through stories and personal anecdotes, Fr. Mike explains how to find the meaning behind things like the Liturgy, prayer, and more!

The easy-to-digest booklet features transcripts of Fr. Mike’s homilies, and with “Reflect,” “Pray,” and “Act” sections following each chapter, readers are given more opportunities to understand the wisdom of Fr. Mike and apply it to their own lives.

Fr. Mike elaborates on what to do when feeling stuck in the Faith: “If you feel like you are going through the motions, if you feel stuck in your faith, realize that faith can grow. If it can grow, it’s alive, and you can do something about it. God wants your faith to grow, but you also have agency, so you can do something to get unstuck. …Rather than just showing up and going through the motions, we can choose to live differently and start growing through the motions.”

Growing Through the Motions: Living Your Faith with Intention is part of The Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz Collection. By assisting Catholics in living a more authentically Catholic life, it is the perfect addition to the other 7 booklets in the collection: 

  • Set Apart: Living for Heaven Here on Earth
  • Come to the Altar: Worshiping God with Your Whole Heart
  • It’s Personal: Cultivating Your Relationship with God
  • Untroubled by the Unknown: Trusting God in Every Moment
  • Ordinary Time: Finding Purpose in Everyday Life
  • What’s Next? Surrendering Your Plans to Jesus
  • Are You Saved? The Catholic Understanding of Salvation

Growing Through the Motions: Living Your Faith with Intention is available at www.AscensionPress.com

About the Author

Fr. Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest and evangelist well known for his social media videos and podcasts, hosted the 2021 breakout podcast The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)®, which became the #1 podcast on the Apple charts after its January 2021 launch, and is the most popular Catholic podcast of all time.

Fr. Mike was also the host of the 2023 daily podcast The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz), which guides listeners through the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church, providing explanation, insight, and encouragement along the way.

For the impact of The Bible in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike was recognized as one of Our Sunday Visitor’s 2021 Catholics of the Year as well as a recipient of the 2022 Cardinal John P. Foley Award for excellence and innovation in Catholic storytelling.

Fr. Mike is the director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth as well as the chaplain for the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Fr. Mike attended St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was ordained for the Diocese of Duluth in 2003.

About Ascension

Ascension is a multimedia network and the leader in Catholic faith formation and digital content. Over the past 25 years, Ascension has helped nurture the faith of more than 20 million Catholics through award-winning books, the chart-topping Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)® podcast, more than 50 unique faith formation programs, and Ascension Presents, which hosts one of the largest Catholic YouTube channels in English.

Media Contact

For media inquiries, contact (800) 376-0520 or Newsroom@AscensionPress.com