The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Be Specific - A Key for Spiritual Growth (Books and Sacraments)

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

If you want to grow spiritually, you really have to focus on some specific areas and go for it. In this third and final part of a series on “Being Specific,” Jeff Cavins turns to the areas of Sacraments and books. He offers suggestions for specific areas to focus on in the sacraments. He also advises a particular way to approach reading books. Snippet from the Show “Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession, there is a chance for mercy.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is episode 358, Be Specific, a key for spiritual growth, part three, books and sacraments. Welcome back to the third part of the three-part series on being specific. If you want to grow spiritually, we really have to focus on some of the specifics and go after them, just like any discipline in life. Whether it's baseball, some kind of sport or music, you say, I want to become a concert violinist. Well, good. You're going to have to be a little bit more specific.

If you want to be a dynamic concert violinist, that's good, but you're going to have to be specific. And how would you be specific? Well, you might start with a Suzuki method. Three of our girls started there. None of them are concert violinists today, but they learned a lot about music. Had they wanted to go on to be a concert violinist, they would have had to continue to be specific about learning how to play. So in our first episode, we were talking about being specific in the area of Bible study,

going deeper into Bible study. Of course, your prayer life. If you want a dynamic prayer life, you certainly have to start focusing on specific things about prayer life, the time, the place, what you're going to pray about, models for prayer, you know, bringing your cares to the Lord, all of that. In episode two, we were looking at virtues and family. If you want to grow in virtues, if you want to be a holy family, like the holy family, then you have to be specific about how you're going to go about it. And today, I want to talk to you about several things, but I guess you could sum it up

in saying that we're going to talk about books and all the way from books to sacraments. And we're going to look at a little bit more about holy hours and going to confession, decision-making, that type of thing. I know that this is very helpful in my life. And after hearing from several of you at the conference, I know that it's striking a chord. If you would like the show notes, all you have to do is text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and text it to the number 337. 7.7. It's the most biblical number you can come up with. 3377. We'll get you on board with all of the notes in perpetuity. And if for some reason you stopped receiving the notes, which can happen, there can be a glitch, you know, on your end or our end.

I'm not sure, but I know that at times there can be a glitch. And if you're not getting the notes, go ahead and sign up once again and we'll get those to you. Okay. So nothing gets dynamic until it gets specific. I've been using Philippians chapter 4 in verse 8 as, I guess you could say criteria for being specific. You know, when you say to someone about any particular discipline, like we're going to talk today about holy hours and confession, we're going to talk about the saints a bit. If you are going to be specific, you need some kind of criteria. Jeff, how do I whittle it down? How do I know what to focus on? And I've always loved Philippians 4-8. Here, let me just share it with you. It says, Paul says to the Philippians, finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy, of praise, think about these things. So, for example, if I were to say to you, let's become more dynamic in the area of music, you know, in your life. Well, you're going to have to become specific. So I would ask you, well, what music are you listening to right now? What are you filling your heart and your mind with right now? You want to see music that honors God and It's a tool to worship God, a means for you to rest in God. Well, you're going to have to be specific. You're going to have to start to choose music that is true.

The content is true. It's honorable. It's just pure. Lovely, gracious, excellent. And it's worthy of praise. Well, that's the kind of music you want to start to collect and to listen to. So I love that in Philippians 4-8. And all the topics that we were talking about earlier, whether it be Bible and prayer or virtue and family, you can use that as your guide for sure.

So let's talk about some more topics this week. What about a holy hour? For those of you that are just joining me and you're not sure quite what a holy hour is, well, a holy hour certainly is 60 minutes, but it's holy. and a holy hour for us as Catholics is taking an hour and just spending it with the Lord in prayer, Bible reading, sitting in silence before the Lord. Typically, a holy hour is done at church in a chapel or in the main sanctuary if the Blessed Sacrament is exposed by the Blessed Sacrament, meaning the host, the what looks like bread in a beautiful monstrance, and we adore the Lord. We do Eucharistic adoration.

And a lot of people will go to their church and spend an hour with the Lord just to be in the presence of Jesus. So if you're going to become dynamic in that area, and the holy hour is going to become a dynamic thing in your life as regards your relationship with the Lord, you've got to be specific. Meaning, when are you going to go? Are you going to schedule it? Are you going to be a substitute like my wife and I are in our parish? We're substitutes for midnight to five in the morning. We get a lot of calls. So when are you going to do it? Are you going to sign up for it? What are you going to do during that hour? Are you going to read scripture? Are you going to pray the rosary? Are you going to read the life of a saint? Are you going to Sit in silence. Are you going to do Lexio Divina? And so I found that in my life, if I'm going to go to a holy hour, that it is a good thing to be specific about what I'm going to do. Now, Stubanville, where I used to teach at Franciscan University, they have the portuncula, which is a small chapel, and I could go in there at two in the morning, and there would be people that would just be sitting there around the edges, the perimeter of the building, doing homework, and they just wanted to be with

the Lord. That goes, you know, that was a kind of a beautiful thing to see, actually. At two in the morning, someone's getting ready for a test and they're just sitting with the Lord and they're comfortable with the Lord. So if you're going to become more dynamic in your holy hour, make it purposeful. Think about what you're going to do. When you're going to do it, what are you hoping to get out of it? Are you going to bring your prayer list before the Lord? Are you going to bring your family to the Lord in prayer? Are you just going to sit and listen and say, Lord, I really need you to speak to me?

Are you going to take one scripture and do Lexio Divina? So that's becoming really more specific. Now, another area that is huge when it comes to becoming dynamic in your life, is confession, reconciliation, going to confession. And, of course, it's one of the sacraments, which a sacrament is an encounter with Jesus himself. And there's seven of them. And the sacrament of reconciliation is that beautiful experience that the Lord has given us in the church, a sacrament. It's a wonderful opportunity to come before the Lord and to deal with sin.

in our lives. And this is probably one of the best examples that I could use on why it's important to become specific. When you go to confession, a lot of people, I can't say a lot of people, I'll just say I have before, okay? I have gone to confession before and not even really thought about what I was going to confess until I was standing in the line, you know, three minutes away from going into, to make my confession. And as a consequence, my confessions were sort of benign. They were

kind of surfaced. They were generalized. And I think a priest after a while sort of gets to know when someone's really thought about this. And they're digging down into the deep, you know, to really deal with the issues of the heart. Or whether they're just going and kind of, okay, you know, pass free, collect $200. I think they can, well, I, I, know I would be able to tell just by listening to someone if I was still a pastor today. Of course, we didn't have reconciliation as a pastor, even though people came to their pastor and talked about the problems that they were going through. But my point is this, that when you go to confession, if you want this to become a dynamic

moment in your life with Jesus, you really have to be specific. Now, when you go to confession, my suggestion is that you go prepared. and that is that before you go you spend some time checking your heart and you're looking for two things you're looking for venal sin which venial sin weakens your relationship with the Lord it doesn't break the relationship and the covenant relationship but it it weakens your relationship you might be lying about something you might have you know been it been dishonest about something at work maybe you gossiped about somebody you know well these are certainly venial sins and it's not going to keep you from God for eternity. That's for sure,

but if you don't check it, it can start to move into something more serious. Think of a cancer cell, if you will. When you just take out, you know, a cancer cell, well, you're pretty good then. But if you don't do anything about it, that cancer cell can grow into something that metastasizes and you could be in trouble. It might be grave. It might cost you your life. And so the end of sin, James says, is death. That's what's in the DNA of sin. It's programmed to bring you down.

It's programmed to end your life. I don't care how small the sin may be. It's overarching story and plan is to bring you down. And so Jesus gives us this wonderful opportunity to come together with him and deal with it. now mortal sin this is sin that is of grave matter you knew it you gave your will over to it you understood and you did it and the relationship with the lord is broken you need to go to confession for that and you don't get to go to youchrist if you're in that state of sin that that grave sin mortal sin we call it a sin unto death you need to go to confess you need to go to confess

and you need to be specific, very specific. Do not hide from Jesus. Do not be benign with Jesus. Don't be general with Jesus. He knows it. Be honest. Number of times. What did you do?

Let's get this out. Let's kill this sin. Let's stop it in its tracks. And renew the relationship that you have with the Lord. Establish that relationship again, which is broken by mortal sin. So when you go to confession, of course, there is the becoming specific in that I'm going to go to confession tomorrow. I'm going to go to confession at nine. I'm going to go to this church.

And tonight I'm going to spend an hour checking my heart before I go. That's specific. And when you go, you are specific about what you are going to confess. Again, if you're general and you're just doing this because it's, well, it's that time of the year, you know, I go three or four times a year, you might say, and I'm due, where are you going to confess? Well, I'll worry about that when I drive up into the parking lot. That's not being specific. That's kind of a general, a general thing, you know?

So anyway, I would encourage you to be very specific when it goes to, when it comes to confession, okay? When we come back from the break, I am going to talk about your reading habits. what does a dynamic reading habit look like and how does being more specific help you in your reading? You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Okay, here's the gut check right here because if nothing changes, nothing changes. Do you want to be holy? And do you want to be an instrument of renewal in this world? And if so, do you believe it's possible? Do you know what it looks like? Do you know where to begin because if nothing changes, nothing changes. My name is Father Mark Mary.

I'm a Franciscan friar of the renewal. And I wrote a book called Habits for Holiness. And it pulls from over 800 years of Franciscan tradition, wisdom, and experience of radical and total discipleship in the midst of the world, but in a way which begins with little steps and works not only for religion, not only for priests, but for everybody. The change you desire is possible.

The conversion you desire is possible. The renewal you desire is possible. The healing you desire is possible. and it begins with little steps. So to guide you on your way and to help you make the next best step of renewal in your life, I'd invite you to pick up a copy of my book, Habits for Holiness. God bless you. Welcome back.

Talking about, again, nothing gets dynamic until it gets specific. And I'm here just to help you. And as I do that, guess what? I'm helping myself. and I need to be reminded of this myself all the time. I don't care how old you get in the Lord or who you think you are, you know, but you need to really pay attention to the details of your life. As they say what?

The devil's in the details, right? Well, I got good news. God has me in the details too, and I'm going to bring them to him. So I want to talk a little bit about reading these days. reading as a modern day disciple of Jesus Christ is something that you really do have to be specific about. Why? Well, I want to include social media in this. I want to include the internet in this discussion of what to read because I don't know of many things that can or affects a person's life in such a way that they do not have a dynamic walk with God. Why? They are so caught up in social

media in the internet and they are they are sending memes to everybody and and silly little videos to everybody i mean there's nothing wrong with watching a silly little video once in a decade or so you know but kidding but you know what i mean if your day is spent just watching squirrels on skateboards and watching people slip and slide and have accidents and laughing and tripping. Well, really? You want to have a dynamic relationship with the Lord, but the squirrel on skateboards has really got you going there. You're not going to do it because you're not being specific about what you're going to consume. You know, the scripture says, Job says, I've made a covenant with my eyes. He's not going to look at things that are going to violate that

covenant with God. And I think that we need to do that on the internet as well. And our reading as well, a reading. And so when it comes to reading, we have to be specific. What websites are you going to be looking at regularly? Maybe for the news or inspiration, you know, podcasts. My word, there are thousands of podcasts that you can listen to all the time. But you have to regulate how much you're going to listen to. If all you do is listen to new teachings or new data, you know, you're not going to get around to assimilating it or doing it. It's just a constant receiving, receiving, receiving. Well, it's kind of like the Dead Sea over in Israel. It doesn't have any outlets. It just takes in, takes in, takes in. And as a result, it's dead.

No fish grow in the Dead Sea. It's the mineral content and the salt content. is just way too much for anything to live. Now, the Sea of Galilee in the north, that has water coming in and water going out. It is teeming with life. And so when you are taking in so much on the Internet, it's a good idea to get a spiritual and intellectual exercise program where you can share with other people

or put it into practice. Now, I am here deep in the woods right now, And deep in the woods, I have some books around me, but not like all of the books in my other library. But I have enough here to keep me busy for days, days, reading, reading. I learned something from a wise priest about 20 years ago. Prior to about 20, 25 years ago, my reading habit was just to read whatever caught my attention. and I didn't really have a plan on reading. I just sort of, oh, that's a cool title.

I'm going to buy that book. And I'm going to read that. You get three quarters the way through. Oh, look at that one. I want to read a little bit about that. And you read once you. Oh, that book. My mom gave me that.

Oh. And for my birthday, wouldn't you know it? My mother-in-law gave me a book about biblical battles. And before you know it, you have like 15, 20 books that you're kind of reading, but you're not being specific. And that can happen to any of us. It really can. But here's what this great priest told me, and he passed away this last year, the last couple of years. He said, when it comes to reading, he said, don't go wide, go deep.

And when he said that to me, I thought, what do you mean? He said, when it comes to reading, don't go wide. In other words, you don't read everything that you can possibly read. You read smart. You go deep. Go deep with what. But with those things that you really want to understand, those things that draw your heart. So, for example, in my library, back in the city studio, I have bookshelves and there are certain shelves that are dedicated to the things that I want to go deep in, like Bible study, love, discipleship is a huge one.

John Paul the second. Oh, studying the early church. I love those books on the early church. I have a whole section just on Jesus, two whole shelves, just on Jesus. And those are the areas that I go deep into. Now, you can use this when it comes to the saints as well, because that same priest told me that when it comes to the saints, don't go wide, go narrow and deep. Don't go wide and shallow.

And what he meant by that was, you in your life are not going to get to know 1,500 saints. So what he suggested was pick out a few that you really need, you're really attracted to them, and go deep, become specific. So I'm here right now. I've got a necklace with, I've got five saints that I go deep with. I have become specific about my relationship with the saints by choosing five that are very. very helpful in my life. I've got St. Augustine, because I'm a Bible study teacher. I have St. Joseph, because I'm married. I'm a husband and a father. I've got Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Calcutta, because I need to be reminded that Jesus comes to me in the most hideous disguises sometimes,

but I have to see Jesus. And remember, remember that. And St. Francis, I have to remember to keep it's simple. And I have to have that simple love for the Lord. And the fifth, the only one I ever met, St. Pope John Paul II. Why? Because he was a man who faced a society that was opposed to the gospel and he was able to break into it and speak into it. And I need that so much. So those are my five. I have made the saints specific. Now, am I going to read 300 other saints and all about their lives? don't have time. I just don't have time. Somebody else might. But these are mine right now at least. And I have St. Athanasius on my table in the bedroom. And sometimes I'll go there too. I love St. Athanasius. But you might have St. Therese. You might have Gregory the Great.

You might have St. Jerome. I'm just thinking about some of the early saints. You might have totally different saints and they speak to you in a different way. So when it comes to reading, I would say make some room on your bookshelf and start to become specific. What do you want to really know? You can't know everything. So what do you really want to know? What is your heart drawing you to? When you do that, man, you can really start talking to people about that topic rather than just being half an inch deep on everything. We really don't, you don't want to be a generalist as much as you really want friends like certain saints and you really become knowledgeable about certain areas.

That's your area. A real good podcast, if you really listen to a good podcast, it's someone who weekly goes after the same types of things. It's not just an all-life generalist. You got to really be good to do that, I guess. But like, for example, on the Jeff K. and show, I talk about scripture, discipleship, and witnessing the corigma. I stay in my wheelhouse here and this is what I study. This is what I really enjoy. So reading and with the saints,

be specific. It will serve you so well. It really will. And now here's another one. There's two other ones I want to share with you briefly. One is decision making. When it comes to decision making, I'm always reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 337. It'll be in the notes, let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil, the evil one. And so for decision making, I have to ask myself, am I going to become specific in my decision making?

Is my decision making going to be focused on Philippians 4-8, which I read at the top of the show? Is my decision-making going to be based on what would Jesus do? do, what would a disciple of Jesus do? Am I thinking about other people or simply putting myself first? Is this good for my soul? Do I have counsel in my decision making? If I need counsel, am I specific? Who would I talk to? Become specific in your decision, in your decision making. I've been on the wrong side of decision making where I just made a quick decision. It wasn't informed. It wasn't based on anything solid. I certainly didn't get good counsel. And I paid for it.

I made a dumb decision. And I've made a lot of dumb decisions. Someone says, well, that's how you learn. I'd like to kind of shorten that a little bit. If you don't mind, I'd like to just make some good decisions instead of just learning from bad decisions. Sure, you can learn from bad decisions, but why not learn how to make a good decision? By the way, I have a whole class on this. I have walking toward eternity, which is seven classes on virtues. And I have walking toward eternity, eight classes on how to deal with vices. And those are at Ascension Press, walking toward eternity. But my Bible study on wisdom, one whole study is on how to make good decisions.

So if you're interested in how to make good decisions, I would really encourage you to be specific, get that study, wisdom. It's part of the great adventure series, and that one study will help you out. It's everything I would want to tell you right now about how to make a good decision. And finally, and this one you might not have put in the category of be specific, but it's this. When it comes time for you to encourage other people, be specific. you it's one thing to say hey you're a great guy you know next time you see him hey you're a great guy and the next time hey you're a great guy it's kind of like i used to come home all the time and say to my wife when i came home hey love you babe next day hey love you babe next day love you babe next month

love you babe and one day she stopped me and i came home and said hey love you babe and she said why and I looked at her stunned. I said, well, because I love you, babe. And she said, I know, but why? Now, what she was asking me to do is be specific. And I thought, wow, she's expecting me to think here. So I did. I started thinking about the specifics as to why I love my wife

or why I might love a friend or whoever. And things were coming up out of my heart into my mouth, into her ears that, wow, I realized I have not been specific. It if you're specific, it communicates. So if you have someone like a spouse or kids or roommate or whoever relative and you want to give them a compliment, be specific. I really appreciate your friendship because I think you are such a great example of a Christian because be specific.

Be specific. I want to encourage you in be specific. I was thinking about you when I was reading the Bible and I came upon this specific verse. You see, when you become specific in a relationship, particularly marriage, you become dynamic rather than love you babe. Love your babe only goes so far, maybe two, three days. But then start becoming specific. I love you because you've got this internal beauty about you and this, this faithfulness to the Lord that is inspiring to me. Well, people need to hear that kind of thing, don't they? People need to hear. Now, let me, let me wrap all of this up by sharing with you a scripture that is been on

my heart, and I love it. It's been on my heart for about a month now. It's Hebrews 12. The writer of Hebrews, which some people think was Paul, others think it was Apollos, it says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses saints let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us my friend if you want to run that race that's set before you you got to be specific you got to be specific and run that race. Just don't run screaming with your hands in the air. Run with purpose,

run with focus, run with a goal in mind. Again, I'll say it for the final time, nothing gets dynamic until it gets specific. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I love you and I know Lord that my friend loves you and together we lift up our lives to you and ask you to help us to become more specific in areas of our life where being specific will yield so much more in our relationship with you, in our character, virtue, the journey that we are on, your messianic mission, staying away from sin and cultivating the gifts of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit in our lives. Lord, take us off of automatic pilot, please, and help us to wake up and to see where we're going. Help us to become specific. I pray this in the mighty

name of Jesus. And I also ask for the prayer of our dear mother, Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women. And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners. Now and at the hour of our death, amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, my friend, do me a favor. Share the show with your friends and go ahead like the show, make some comments, but share it with people who are, in fact, share episode 356, 357 and today's show 358 with your friends. Let's all become more dynamic. Let's become specific.

Look forward to talking to you next time.