Father Mike Schmitz, the popular Catholic priest known for “The Bible in a Year” and “The Catechism in a Year” podcasts, is hitting the road for a live tour this fall. 

Father Schmitz will visit four cities for the “Father Mike Schmitz on Tour: The Hour that Will Change Your Life” tour, making stops in Columbus, Ohio; Akron, Ohio; Indianapolis; and St. Louis from Oct. 21–24.

According to a press release, the tour comes as part of Schmitz’s ongoing fundraising efforts to build a new Catholic campus ministry center for the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he is the chaplain, as part of an assignment given to him by his local ordinary, Bishop Daniel Felton.

The current worship space used is a converted two-car garage. The new center will include a student center to welcome students, a new church for worship, and a new recording studio to help Father Schmitz with his digital evangelization.

After being a part of a tour earlier this year with psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, acting as host for the Q&A portion of Peterson’s show, Father Schmitz was approached to see if he was interested in having his own tour. Hesitant at first, someone then brought up the idea of using the tour to help raise funds for the ministry center on campus. 

Father Schmitz said the other factor that intrigued him about doing a small tour was the opportunity to connect with people in person.

“There’s this kind of, you know, virtual relationship, but I haven’t necessarily been in the same space as a lot of folks who have been exposed to things like the homily podcast or ‘Ascension Presents’ or the ‘Bible’ or ‘Catechism in a Year.’ And so the idea was like, well, maybe to be all in the same place,” he told CNA in an interview. “Especially as human beings we’re wired to connect — we’re wired for connection — and so an opportunity to say let’s connect, not just virtually, let’s connect actually in the same space.”

Father Schmitz explained that the show will be split into two halves — the first being a talk he will give on the Eucharist and the second being a Q&A.

“I love speaking about the Eucharist,” Schmitz shared. “The Eucharist is everything, and so to be able to talk about the Eucharist in a way that hopefully is compelling and opens people’s hearts and minds to how God loves them in the Eucharist and to be able to love him back.”

The Q&A will then serve as the more “personal and relational” part of the show and will allow people “to show up with their questions, and I’ll be able to do my best at least to offer some kind of answer,” he said.

Father Schmitz said he hopes that those who attend a show will get a true sense of “connection” and that it will serve as an opportunity for people to invite friends or family who “maybe need to hear about the love God has for them in the Eucharist.”

“Also, there’s something about showing up for an event, because almost every talk or teaching could be online, everything could be virtual, but I think there’s something really powerful and special about having the opportunity to come together and being in the same space and sharing an experience,” he added.

“There’s something about these kinds of events, a live event, that says, ‘Let’s have a shared experience’ and let that experience hopefully be uplifting and educational and inspiring and hopefully transform hearts.”