Fr. Kris Schmidt Homilies · Fr. Kris Schmidt

Lenten Retreat 2026 - Part 3

April 8, 2026·36 min·3 clips

Father Kris outlines a three-part Lenten retreat session on sharing the gospel, starting with St. Paul's approach in Athens.

1. Fr. Kris Schmidt delivers the third and final session of a Lenten retreat at his parish, on the theme of sharing the gospel as confident witnesses of the faith. 2. Fr. Schmidt is the sole speaker; the session ends with an open question-and-answer period with the parish, making it a hybrid talk and community dialogue. 3. The session's organizing question is: how do you actually talk to someone about the gospel, given where they are emotionally and spiritually? 4. Fr. Schmidt opens with St. Paul's sermon in the Areopagus in Athens — a pagan philosophical culture — noting that Paul began by acknowledging their altar to 'an unknown God' before proposing he could name that God. 5. He emphasizes that Paul never used the name Jesus during that entire sermon: the audience heard about the resurrection and some thought he was an idiot and left, while others wanted to hear more — but none were ready for Jesus by name. 6. Fr. Schmidt then reads a quote from St. Francis Xavier, patron saint of the parish, who baptized more than 10,000 people in a foreign language, advising evangelizers to assess each person's spiritual state — calm or troubled, open or hardened — before speaking, and never to 'flatter the disease.' 7. The four thresholds of conversion are introduced: trust, curiosity, openness, seeking, and discipleship — each illustrated by a moment from the Samaritan woman at the well in John's Gospel. 8. Before any threshold, Fr. Schmidt identifies an emotional-response stage: if someone reacts with anger, fear, or anxiety to anything about God, the only tool is listening — no arguments, no counsel, just absorbing until they are done. 9. At the trust threshold, the work is sharing personal testimony of faith — he recommends having 2-minute, 5-minute, 10-minute, and 20-minute versions ready — and being vulnerable first, since trust requires witnessing another's willingness to be vulnerable. 10. He advises speaking about 'God' rather than 'Jesus' at the trust stage, because the concept of a God-man is too much for someone still healing from wounds tied to faith. 11. At curiosity, illustrated by the woman asking for 'living water' without knowing what it means, the instruction is to ask questions rather than provide answers — understand how this person processes the world before offering propositions. 12. At openness, illustrated by the woman's admission 'I have no husband,' Fr. Schmidt invokes Pope Benedict XVI's rule: 'propose, do not impose' — offer propositions of faith, not dictates. 13. At seeking, illustrated by the woman calling Jesus a prophet, Fr. Schmidt says this is the first point where Mass attendance is beneficial: before this, a person attends for the inviter, not for themselves, and cannot receive anything from the Mass. 14. At discipleship, illustrated by the woman returning to town to call others to 'come and see the man who told me everything I've ever done,' the work shifts to prayer, teaching, meditation, and adoration. 15. Fr. Schmidt warns that thresholds are not linear — a committed Mass-attending Catholic may still be only at curiosity, and the gospel may need to be shared with the person sitting next to you in the pew. 16. He advises apologizing when you misstep in evangelization, and distinguishes the goal: leading someone to what Jesus wants for them, not to your own expectations or version of the faith. 17. On unanswerable questions, he models the right response as 'I don't know, I'll look it up' rather than 'that's just what the church teaches' or 'it's a mystery.' 18. The tone is practical and self-deprecating — Fr. Schmidt acknowledges his own spiritual directees rarely credit him with the moments that shifted their faith, and admits that even disciples continue to cycle back through earlier thresholds. 19. Parish members who want a structured, practical guide to faith conversations with family members, coworkers, or lapsed Catholics will find this session directly applicable. 20. Listeners outside the Catholic tradition or those seeking systematic theology rather than pastoral evangelization strategy will find this too parish-specific in its framing and examples.

As heard by us

A practical retreat talk on sharing the gospel with clarity, adaptation, and trust.

This talk follows Fr. Kris Schmidt as he uses St. Paul in Athens to frame practical advice on sharing the gospel. He points to adjusting length and emphasis for different audiences, telling a vocation story in more than one setting, and keeping the focus on what God has done…

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You want a calmer, clearer way to talk about your faith.

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