The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - 10 Ways To Baptize Your Smartphone

Episode Date: October 12, 2017

Have you ever put down your smartphone only to realize an hour has gone by? Do certain apps tempt you to sin? Are you sometimes overwhelmed with a desire to have the latest and greatest technologies? Here are ten simple ways you can “baptize” your smartphone for the glory of God and for your spiritual growth, while becoming more a part of God’s family, the Church.

You're listening to The Jeff Kavan Show. Episode 37, 10 ways to baptize your smartphone. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show.

Welcome to the show. You may be listening to the show on a smartphone actually today, or in a car or just taking a walk, whatever you might be doing. And I want to talk about our use of the smartphone because I'm not a big fan that they make a smart or that they are smart or wholly necessarily, but I think they can become really valuable tools. And I was thinking about this just this week, you know, and looking at my own use of the smartphone and asking myself, how can I use this better?

How can I use this better? And so I'm going to give you 10 ways that you can baptize your smartphone. And one of them, which I'm going to say for just a little bit later, is one that I just started incorporating, and I've got to tell you, it has made one of the biggest differences in my life. I'm not kidding. It has really made a big difference in my life. And I'm really glad that I have adopted this particular step, and we will go over that

together. And when I talk about baptizing, of course, I'm not talking about those accidents that take place. I remember one time the family was in a boat and named names, but one of the kids got so excited, had a smartphone in her hand and was just exuberant. And that phone, as she was exuberant, left her hand and became about an $800 piece of bait for fish. and we learned the hard way there. We're not talking about that kind of baptizing. We're not talking about getting it soaked and then baptizing it into a bag of rice so it dries out.

We're talking about really using these smartphones for the glory of God, for our own spiritual growth, and so that we can become more a part of God's family, the church. Hey, I've got a couple of emails I want to share with you. I appreciate you writing me. Terry writes in and says that he loves the shows for a good dose of daily scripture. And actually, he writes in and asks if there's any other good sources to get daily scripture into his life.

Of course, we're going to be mentioning scripture on a weekly basis here. Two things I would say, Terry. One is go to Encountering the Word. That's a free video series I offer every week for the Sunday readings. and we'll put the connection into the show notes for you. But I would have to recommend, above all things, probably the Magnificat. Magnificat is a marvelous small magazine, a little book, if you will, and it gives you the daily readings.

And I know a lot of people who go to daily Mass, and the Magnificat accompanies them. And it's also very good for Lexio Divina, and just meditating on God's Word on a daily basis. So that's what I would recommend to you. I think it's a great source. Mark writes in, says, Thank you so much for your podcast.

Your topics are very relevant to the struggles that many people face. You approach spiritual roadblocks in such practical ways that it has allowed me to overcome some hurdles in my own life. Praise God. The episode about spiritual optometry was so very good. It opened my eyes, no pun intended, he says, to some pitfalls I did not even know I was experiencing. I have already been examining my life on a much deeper level since.

I'm always blown away, always blown away with the podcast. The podcast is so relevant. I feel as though you are mentoring me and helping me find ways to grow deeper in my relationship with Jesus. By the way, he says, found out my wife's pregnant, third daughter on the way. He says he's very excited. and he said, I can guarantee you I will have the episode on Raising Daughters Close at Hand. Well, thanks, Mark. I appreciate that. I appreciate all of your feedback. And if you would like to write me an email and tell me your thoughts about the show

or if you have ideas on what you would like me to talk about, you can just simply send it to the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. That's the ascention. That is the Jeff Kaven's show at ascensionpress.com. And I will get that, and I will read it, and I appreciate your feedback. And you can also go to iTunes and rate the show, give some comments. It really makes a difference, and I would ask you to do that. It helps in bringing shows to the top in terms of Catholic shows and relevance, and I do appreciate it.

That's at iTunes. And then, of course, you can listen to the show at ascensionpresents.com. couple of ways. Spread the good news. I appreciate it. Well, back to our topic for this week. I want to talk about how to baptize our smartphones. I'm going to give you 10 different ways that you can do this. I do think that the smartphones can actually be a problem for some of us. It can be a problem for people as far as, number one, wasting time. And that goes with all of the social media that at the end of the day, if you give, the average is three hours, actually. You want to know the truth.

People spend about three hours a day in front of their phones and interacting. And at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, was this really worth three hours of my day to spend with this phone? So that's number one, is that you can really waste a lot of time on a phone. Number two is that you can get into trouble. I'm talking about pornography and I'm talking about things we do with the phone. that can land us in trouble. And so we've got to watch out. We've got to watch out for that.

The third thing is, it's just the expense of a smartphone and really trying to always have the latest and greatest. I don't think that's a good recipe. As a disciple of the Lord, as a good steward of the gifts and the finances and so forth, the time that we have. I don't think that's a good steward.

Always have to have the latest and the greatest. And I think that speaks a lot about, about who we are today in our culture and that if we have the latest and greatest somehow it's going to bring some joy or happiness, I don't think so. And I have not found that in my own life. But I can say this, that if we use the phone in a wise way, it can really be a benefit in our life with the Lord. And I'm going to give you 10 ways that that can take place. Are you ready? These are not in any particular order, but I am going to save my favorite for last. All right?

So, bear with me. Number one, what I would encourage you to do is to set an alarm on your smartphone for 6 a.m., noon, or 6 p.m. And the reason for that is those are the typical times for the Angelus to be able to pray every day. not only can you set your alarms in your in your smartphone for those times of prayer, including, by the way, 3 p.m. for the divine mercy, but you can also set those times for reminders for you to pray for your husband, pray for your wife, your kids, your grandchildren, whatever it might be. Because what I have found in my own life is that life gets going so busy that I just forget. And I have found that if I can set an alarm, which in my phone, I'm

looking at it right now, I happen to have an iPhone 7. It's the larger one. And in my alarm system, my clock, I can set multiple alarms. And I have them. I have alarms for every day. I have alarms for the weekend. I have alarms for getting up in the morning and so forth. And you can make these alarms, you can set them for different times of the day to remind you of your prayer concerns or some of the more ordered prayers of the church like the Angelus or the divine mercy. And so that is a really good thing. Or here's another way that you can set those alarms on a daily basis. Are you struggling with some kind of sin in your life? Are you struggling with a pattern of sin in your life? Maybe on the way home from work, you get yourself into trouble every day.

well, you can set an alarm for five minutes before you get off work just to remind you to take that other way home or to listen to something in the car on your phone that would be more uplifting than what you normally do. Get out of the pattern. Break the pattern of sin in your life. So number one, set an alarm with your smartphone for the purposes of the kingdom of God. Number two, I would recommend that you use your smartphone to create what I would call holy lists. That's right. Holy lists like a prayer list. How many of us have been telling other people, hey, I'll pray for you. You know, we visit them at the hospital or whatever it might be. Hey, I'll pray for you. I'll remember you in my prayers, but we don't. And one of the reasons we don't

is we don't write it down. And so what I've done in my phone, and by the way, these are things I've done. I'm not telling you to do something that I'm not doing myself. I do set alarms. during the day, number one. Number two, I do have holy lists. And the two lists that I have in my smartphone are, number one, a prayer list, which is long, and a lot of people I'm praying for, and starting with my family and those that are closest to me, but then by way of extension, I've got friends and I've got acquaintances and ministries and so forth that I lift up in prayer on a regular basis. And then the second list that I think is important, and I'm not going to tell you where to put it, but you know your smartphone well enough is a list of things

that I'm dealing with that I need to bring to confession. How many times do I go to confession stand in the line and suddenly have to think, okay, I've got to gather up all of this, all of this, you know, that's been happening over the last month or last few weeks or last couple weeks and I've got to bring it to the Lord. What I have found is that if I can put together a list, and I'll be honest with you, code it, put some kind of code on it. Like if someone got a hold of your phone, they would never in a million years know that that is your confession list. You know, I mean, you might go into Evernote or your notes or whatever app you keep your texts in and create a file like animals at the zoo or something like that. And underneath,

you can talk about how the giraffe had a hard time with being. angry, you know, whatever you want to do. I'm being a little bit funny here, but you understand what I'm saying. You can come up with a list of things that you're really dealing with, and you want to make sure that you make a good confession, and you write them down on that list in such a way that it'll remind you, and I think that's a good use of the smartphone. So, lists, holy lists, and if you've got other ideas for holy lists, please send them to me at the Jeff Kaven's show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeff Kavins show at ascensionpress.com.

I'll share them with the audience. I think it would be good to know what some of the other lists might be. All right. The next one, we've got two so far, set an alarm. Number two, holy list. Number three, you can use your phone for Lexio Divina and the examine prayer.

Now, what are those two? Well, Lexio Divina is a four-step method of listening to God daily from Scripture. Now, it's no secret that you can get Bibles on your smartphone. I'm going to talk about that in a little bit, but you can use your smartphone to read scripture on a daily basis and go through the four steps of Lexio-Devina in the morning. Now, Lexio-Devina gives you the opportunity to talk to God on a daily basis,

but it also gives God an opportunity to talk to. to you. And that is a wonderful thing. The four steps are Lexio. You read a portion of scripture and you look for the words that pop out at you. They spring off the page and say, hey, there, Larry. Hey, Susie. I'm for you. I'm for you. And number two, meditatio. And that is where you begin to go deep into the scripture and meditate and you actually enter it and you see yourself in that scripture in relationship to the Lord. Number three is Oratio, and that is where you begin to pray and you ask the Lord about that text and what he's saying to you, and if there's anything that needs to change in your life. And number four is contemplatio. That's contemplation. That is a place

that you arrive at, not so much something you do, but more of a place of enjoyment, of just sitting with the Lord and enjoying what he has done in your life. Well, the phone can be used for Lexio-Devina. If you are sitting in the parking lot ready to go to work, you might do your Lexio-Devina there, and you can use your phone for that. On the other side of the day is what we call the examin prayer. And the examine prayer is kind of a look back at the day. And Father Gallagher has a wonderful book on that. There's a lot of good sources, but this is not the time for me to go into how to do the examine prayer.

Perhaps we'll do a whole show on that, but later. But I would say that the smartphone can be used for Lexio and Examined Prayer at the end of the day. All right. Number four. Podcasts and videos. That's right. You're listening to a podcast right now. You're listening to a show right now,

and maybe you're even listening to it on your. smartphone. Yay. You did it. That's one of them. That's one. And there's a lot of really good podcasts out there. There really is. In addition to the podcast you're listening to, Father Mike Schmitz has a great podcast on Ascension Presents. And then if you go on to iTunes and you just search for, like, for example, if you search for my show on iTunes, you're going to get a lot of other shows that Apple is saying people that listen to Jeff also listen to these shows, and that might be really helpful for you. But I think that if you're going to use your time in the car wisely, that listening to podcasts just might be a really good use of your time rather than listening to some of the local

radio stations or even if it's serious radio or whatever. So I think that being a steward, of time is important as a modern-day disciple. And I think that when you're in the car, first of all, you don't want to be distracted. But if you're going to listen to something, listen to something that's going to be uplifting and it's going to contribute to your life. I know here, the Jeff Kaven show, we are really focused on trying to offer things that are practical, things that will make a difference in your life. Am I perfect? No, by no means. Am I perfect? But I can share some things that have made a difference in my life.

And I do really, really enjoy sharing them with you. So podcasts and videos, by the way. You know, if you become a YouTube, I don't have any stock in Google, but YouTube, if you become a member of YouTube and you get into what they call the red, you buy that. I don't know how much it is a year. It's not very much. You can actually download YouTube videos that are uplifting and, and you can spend some time, if you're going to watch your videos on YouTube, you can actually

download them so that if you don't have Wi-Fi or you don't have a big package as far as a data streaming package, you can still watch the videos offline. And that's a good use of the smartphone. All right. So number, what are we up to now? We've got number one, set an alarm, number two, Holy List. Number three, use it for Lexio and the Examined Prayer. Number four, podcasts and videos. number five mass times this is a great one this is it's actually an app on the iTunes store or on Google and in mass times is a great app because as I travel around the country and I know you may make some I know that some of you are are businessmen business women who do travel or if you're on vacation you want to know where you can go to mass and this is a fabulous app and you can just

go on there and tell, you know, say what city you're going to be going to. And then suddenly you have all of the mass times in that area. And as you know, receiving the Lord in the Eucharist is the greatest source of grace. And that's something that we all, we all need. And so to have an app on your phone that will remind you of where all of the, you know, the masses are in your area, that's a that's a gold mine to be honest with you and then quite often those same churches will give you their confession times and and that's something that we totally advocate of course is going to confession and and keeping yourself right with the Lord very very important so that's a good one right there mass times that should be on smartphones if you're a Catholic and you want to receive

the greatest source of grace, then look it up wherever you are. It's a good thing. All right, I'm going to take a break. And when I come back, I've got, let's see, I got one, two, three, four, five more. Five more great ideas culminating in the last one, which is the one that I have recently adopted and has made a huge difference in my life. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Don't go away. We'll be right back. It's hard to live out your Catholic faith on your own. In fact, the Bible reveals that we need a community of people to help us on our journey of faith. If you're interested in finding that community by joining or starting a small group study,

visit ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free Ascension account. With your account, you'll get all the tools you need to start walking with others towards Christ. Okay, welcome back. We're talking about our smartphones, which I contend. and oftentimes make us dumb people as we sit before them with hour after hour of the dumbest stuff. Being honest with you. But there's ways to use them in a smart way. And there's ways to use them in a holy way.

Maybe we should rename our phones. Instead of saying they're smartphones, maybe we as Christians should say they are holy phones. The idea of holy is the Hebrew word kadoosh, kadoosh, kadoosh, kadoosh, holy, holy. It's also the word for marriage, kadooshin, the prayer for the dead, kadoosh, you know, the kaddish. The word kadoosh, holy, it means to be separated, to be different. And I'm just going to ask you, and I ask myself, are we any different than the world when it comes to the use of our phones? be honest. Are you really any different? Are we totally absorbed in the world's music, the world's entertainment? Do squirrels on roller skates really trip your trigger, you know, on YouTube,

as much as a good talk on chastity or the theology of the body or the power of the Eucharist? All I'm saying is that we need to use our phones in a smart way, in a holy way, and I think I think we can, and we do have the opportunity. We left off before the break with mentioning podcasts and videos, mass times, and here we are. This is number six. I would recommend that you get a Bible program and a Catholic study program, and there's two of them that I want to recommend to you. I don't have stock in either one. I do use both on my phone, and I enjoy both. Verbum. V-E-R-B-U-M. It'll be in the show notes. Verbum. Verbum is put out by Logos. Logos has been around for years and years and years. And Logos slash Verbum, the Verbum is the Catholic part of Logos, and they are headquartered out west. They have wonderful package where you can study scripture, the catechism, the church fathers, the writings of the church fathers, the liturgy. really, really nice programs. They do. And if you get it on your computer, you can also sync it with

your iPad or some form of a pad and also your smartphone. That's a good one, okay? And I like it. The second one is Accordance, A-C-O-R-D-A-N-C-E. It'll be in the show notes, Accordance, headquartered out of Florida. And I was actually a beta tester with Accordance for Hebrew. years and years ago. And I have both of these Verbum and Accordance, but both of them are very, very, very good, very good. The learning curve on Verbum is a little steeper. Accordance is a little easier, I think.

Verbum has a very comprehensive Catholic package. They both do. They both have Catholic stuff. But Verbum, I think, has a little bit more. But I would look into either one of those. They're both on my smartphone, Verbum and Accordance. and I use them regularly to look up verses and information I need from the catechism or one of the church fathers, those types of things.

So very, very good. All right, number seven, here it is. I love it. Praise music. Come on, my friend. We need to start listening to praise. Praise music will lift you up. It'll take you from the doldrums and it'll bring you to a place of joy and a place of peace.

people have asked me for years they say what do you do when when you feel down or discouraged or depressed or anxious and i've told them this and i in fact i mentioned it in my book praise god and thank him uh published by sceptor or published by um a franciscan media sorry sorry franciscan media um but i mentioned in there that This is one of the things I have said for years, even when I used to be a Protestant pastor, is that if you're struggling with these things, depression, anxiety, and so forth, you need to begin to praise God. You need to begin to praise God because praise allows you to see the situation that you're in from God's perspective, not from your perspective, which is limited and weak, and you don't have enough wisdom,

but you want to go from your perspective to God's perspective. He's unlimited in power. He is so wise and he's not limited in any way. And when you begin to praise God, you are basically proclaiming who he is and what he is done. And that changes your circumstances. So I want to, I'm just going to tell you what I tell people. If you're struggling, go get maybe four or five CDs from iTunes or whatever choice you have, Google, whatever. And put them on your smartphone and in the car on the way home from work or on the way to

work or before you go to bed, whatever it might be in the morning, start listening to praise music. King David did it. King David, he praised God in front of Saul. Saul was beside himself and Saul was relieved by the praise and the beautiful music of the harp from David. If it's good enough for David, it's good enough for you. Okay? So seriously, do it. Do it. Get some praise music. and then we've got number eight here's a real good one Catholic radio hey how about it

you know it used to be when I was when I was with relevant radio and did the morning air show years ago and when I was with EWTN with Life on the Rock you had to go to that radio station you had to go to that TV station and you had to watch it you know and they didn't even have DVR

way back then for TV well now with your smartphone, you can carry around Catholic radio. You can. So there's three of them that I know of at least, and if there's more, please write me because I'm not pretending to be an expert here, but I do know that Ave Maria, you can stream their programming on your smartphone. Relevant radio, you can stream their programming right there on your phone, no matter where you're at, and EWTN. Three great sources. I would also recommend Immaculate Heart of Mary. Immaculate Heart Radio. There was.

working with relevant radio now. So I'm not sure exactly what they call themselves, but both of them work together. But there you are. There's four, Ave Maria, Immaculate Heart, Relevant Radio, EWTN. You've got a radio station in your pocket right there. And that's a wonderful tool, wonderful tool. All right. Number nine, number nine, apps, all kinds of apps that will help you. And I'll go over a few of my, I mentioned mass times earlier. I think that's a really good one, mass times. There's, there's apologetics. You can get apps that will help you with apologetics, epilogia, the idea of defending the faith. Ladate is a real good one. L-A-U-D-A-T-E. All this is in the show notes. Don't worry about it. But that is a one, that is a great one there.

I am amazed at how much information these folks have on La Date. They've got the daily readings, bookmarks, Liturgy of the Hours, Order of the Mass, calendar, daily prayer. Daily Bible verse, Rosary Chaplet, Stations, Latin prayers, My Prayers, Confession, Catechism, Catholic Media, EWTN's on there, Catholic Bites, Heart of Mary, Dewey Rames Bible, Vatican Documents. It's just, this thing's loaded. It's fat. It's fat with good stuff, okay? So that is a good one, LaDote. They also, here's another one. Let me give you a few more here real quick. We've got My Parish. A lot of people are getting this one because, they are speaking with other people and getting announcements about their parish at my parish.

Catholic calendar seemed to be useful. I was looking through that. I rosary. I missile. Confession. There's a number of Brewery apps so we can pray the daily office. It's really pretty cool. And there's a confession app that'll help you go to confession. It's a Catholic devotions app and the USCB. They got an app. They got an app too. keep you in line with what's going on around the country. Plus, they have the daily readings. That's a real benefit. I know I'm missing some, so go ahead and write me with constructive input. But there's a lot of good apps out there that can really help you baptize your smartphone and use it for the kingdom of God. Well, those are a number of things, but there's one left, huh?

There's only one left, and I'm going to give that to you here. And it is one that I have recently changed on my phone, and I, to be honest with you, I didn't even know I could change it. It shows you how kind of ditsy I am with these smartphones. I'm not that ditsy, but you know what I mean? You don't even notice some of the power that these things have to help you in your daily walk with the Lord. Well, for the last probably seven years, I don't know, six years, something like that, I have been waking up in the morning every day to simply one sound. in my iPhone. And that has been a harp. It's a beautiful heart playing. It's good. Don't get me wrong. But I was at Mass a while ago, and we were singing this song in Mass. I'm going to play a

little bit of it for you here in a second. And I was on the way home thinking to myself, man, I'd like to wake up to that song every day. I'd love to wake up to that song every day. And so So when I got out of mass, I got in the car, and I don't bring my phone into mass. So I got into the car, I opened up the phone to look at my alarm system on the iPhone. And I realized that I can choose an alarm, yeah. But it also gives me the opportunity to choose a song. And I knew the song I was going to play. It was Matt Redmond's song, 10,000 reasons.

And here is where I'm going to ask for your input, okay? I'm going to play this song. This is what I've been waking up to every morning. And sometimes I wake up five, ten minutes before the alarm goes off and I don't get out of bed because I want to wait and hear this song. And what a way to wake up. But here's where I need your help. I want to know what songs you would recommend waking up to when it comes to praise music,

when it comes to uplifting spiritual music, beautiful words that get you, going on the day, not to jar you like a regular alarm or heavy metal or something like that, but something that just eases you up in the morning as you wake up. Listen to this. This is called 10,000 reasons. Maybe you've never heard that, but I think once I play it, you're going to say, okay, I've heard that. And this is what I've been waking up to now for a while. And I want to share it with you. Shaw, I'm going to play it right now. At this point, I'm thinking, Oh my gosh, a new day. Normally I'd be rattled by the harps, but this is a blessing.

Bless the Lord, oh, my soul, oh, my soul, worship his holy name. Still I never before, oh, my soul, I worship your holy name. Now I'm thinking I should get up, but then I think, no, this is really beautiful. Isn't that beautiful? I just love that. I love it. I love it. And I want to encourage you as we close out this particular show to take some time

and to put that phone down in front of you and just ask yourself, how can I use this to the glory of God? How can I use this in a way that will help me grow in the Lord? and not just suck the time out of my day, where at the end of the day, I feel empty, I feel like I really haven't given myself to the things that are really, really important. In fact, I've told people that I just simply don't have enough time. Let's be smart. Let's be holy.

And let's be good stewards of the time that we have and the resources that we have. I really do look forward to hearing from you this week. I think this is the show that if you're going to contribute, now is the time to contribute. Please go to iTunes, rank the show, tell me what you think. But email me with your ideas on how the smartphone can become a tool towards holiness. My email is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And I hope you have a great week. I really do.

And I'm looking forward to hearing from you. And next week, I got another show already prepared for you. I'm excited about that. And I do pray that this week will be very productive as a modern-day disciple for you. Remember, study hard and pray and look for opportunities for the Lord to use you this week. It's been good talking to you once again. This is the Jeff Kaven Show. God bless you and have a great week.