The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Eating and Exercising in the Spiritual Life

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Spiritual growth is like eating and exercising: taking in truth is essential, but transformation only happens when faith is exercised through prayer, virtue, obedience, and love. Jeff challenges us to move beyond just consuming spiritual content to actually living it out intentionally. 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 https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com. 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 show 481, eating and exercising in the spiritual. life. Welcome, my friend, to this week's episode. Today we're going to be talking about something that is incredibly important, something that kind of came up on the radar screen for me quite a few years ago. Within the last 10 years or so, I received an email from somebody that informed me as to all the studies that they had been a part of for a period of about five years of their

life. And as someone who teaches, as someone who puts out Bible studies and writes books and things naturally, you'd want people to indulge in what you are writing. But I started to see a pattern, and it's a pattern that I have experienced in my own life. And so as I talk to you about this topic today of eating and exercising in the spiritual life, please know, I'm not talking down to you. I'm talking to you as I need to hear it myself from time to time. And this lovely person wrote in beautiful email. This is a while ago, and they gave a list of all the studies that they had been through. And there must have been, I don't know, 15 of them or something like that. And many of them were my own study, which I was thrilled.

You know, people were learning and growing, hopefully, in the faith. But it was the way that the email ended. And I understand what you're saying, no condemnation whatsoever, no judgment whatsoever. But the way that they ended it made me think. And it was, after listing off all of the studies, their next question was, what should I study next? Or what should I do next? And that got me to thinking, kind of an autobiographical meditation. And I had to ask myself, am I like that? Am I fitting into that pattern of ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth, knowledge of the truth being an experience of it, actually experiencing that truth in my life. I think I could say, and maybe you've heard this before on this show, that if we don't put God's word into practice,

those things that we are learning, those things that we are accumulating, look up at the bookshelf in your home, look at your phone and see all of the podcasts that you subscribe, to if we don't put what we have learned into practice by pausing and taking it into our heart, meditating upon it, praying about it, talking to God about it, and asking how can I assimilate this into my everyday life? And of course, when we talk about assimilating the truths that we're studying into our everyday life, there's even a kind of a hierarchy of truth there. And that is that I need to apply this to my own life personally, number one. And if you have the vocation of marriage, well, then you would want to start to apply what you're learning to your

marriage and to your children and extended family on into work, you know, in society at large. But what happens so often is that we become so intrigued by the truth and we should be that we just keep feeding. It's kind of like binge feeding, you know, going from one thing to another, from one book to another. Now, there's nothing wrong with reading a lot. There's nothing wrong with listening to podcasts a lot or going to seminars or whatever you are doing to take in the faith. But if you don't pause and try to assimilate it, then you run into what James said in James 217. So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. And we don't want to do that.

I guess I could say this, and I have said it before, that if you don't watch it and you are a continual consumer of the faith, then the problem is your faith could become your hobby. That's right. It could become a hobby rather than the arena in which transformation takes place in your life. You know, it was estimated last year that close to 100,000 titles were published in the Christian genre. That's a lot of books. Now, if you extrapolate that and you go to the last 10 years, you're talking about upwards of a million titles published.

A million. That's a lot. And I'm sure a lot of them are very good. And the aggregator feed spot lists over a thousand notable Christian podcasts right now that are currently tracking. they're active. And those are only two aspects. There's conferences and there's CDs and there's Bible studies and all kinds of things. Now, 30 years ago, Scott Hahn and I came in, he came in before I did, into the church I came back, he came in. And there wasn't really a lot of studies and a lot of things that really fed people. There was good stuff. Don't get me wrong. It's really good stuff. But my point is

that it is grown exponentially over the last 30 years, and it's really, really amazing. So please know as I talk about this that I'm not saying don't study, don't buy a book, don't get into the Great Adventure Study. I'm saying, do that, but do it with the idea that you're going to look for the truths that can be put into action, and then do it. give yourself maybe a pause. Who knows? It could be a day for you. It could be a week, a month. But to give yourself some time to assimilate all that you are learning.

You know, Jesus is the model here. He was busy all day long teaching. And he was casting out demons. He was raising the dead, healing the sick, giving words of encouragement. But he always went up on that hill north of the Sea of Galilee to meet with the father. and paragraph 2602 of the catechism says that that what he did and what he said was the outward manifestation of his prayer in secret. So he's the model for us here.

Okay. So let's talk about this a little bit. James chapter 1 in verse 22 says, be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving yourselves. One of the problems that we can get into is that we can hear the Word of God, take it in on a continual basis. But if you leave the part of doing it, two things. One, you're not going to be transformed. You're not going to change. But you're also going to deceive yourself because you give the image to yourself of, I'm in this.

I'm totally involved. I'm 100% dedicated. I'd die for this. but you never did it. And it's the ditting of it. That makes the difference. It's the ditting of it. That's a new word.

Also, and I mentioned this, James 217, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Now, when Jesus was teaching, he made a big point out of doing what he said to do. But if you're going to go from one thing to the next to the next to the next, when are you going to have time to do it?

When are you going to have time to really bring it into your heart and determine how can this be a reality in my life? He said in Matthew 724, and I'll put this in the show notes. Again, if you want them, it's just text me, Jeff Kaven's one word at 3377. He said, everyone who hears these words of mind and does them will be like a wise man who built his house. on the rock. So think about it for a moment, your house, your family, your life, your friendships, is your household built on the rock? You say, well, we study the Bible, we have devotions, and we listen to the podcast and so forth. And yeah, we're right down the pipe here, right down center plate. But is your house reflecting that, your children, your marriage?

Well, the way that that comes to fruition is taking the time to consciously put it into practice. See, you have agency. You have this ability to make decisions and to say, you know what, I'm going to take this point and this point from that book I read. And I'm going to make a point out of putting it into practice. I want it to be a building block in my life. I want it to become a habit, a virtuous habit. Well, that can only happen by repeating the good over and over and over and over. In Luke 821, Jesus said,

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. So even this relationship with the Lord in terms of a fraternal relationship, a family relationship, is dependent upon not just sitting around listening to him, but doing what he said. Then you are my mother. You are my brothers. If you don't do it, then you're an enthusiast. You might be a hobbyist.

In John 316, he said, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. If you do them. Again, driving home that point. You know, the catechism says in paragraph 1816, the disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it. So faith is ordered toward a life of witness, not merely accumulation, but it's a witness.

The catechism is filled with wisdom on this particular topic. In paragraph 2558, I'll stick it in the notes. prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God. The catechism presents prayer not as an intellectual exercise, but as a living encounter that must flow from and back into daily life. Very, very powerful. Paul had the same idea, by the way, as Jesus and James. He said in chapter 2 and verse 13 of Romans, he said,

for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers. of the law who will be justified. The catechism talks a lot about virtue. Paragraph 1803, a virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. So what we could say, my friend, is that virtue is habitual action, not merely habitual study.

Knowledge must be trained into the body and the will. knowledge must be trained into the body and the will. So much to think about. So many good things we have yet to talk about. We'll do that right after this. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. So often during mass, we can go on autopilot. We are physically there, but mentally we're somewhere else.

We're distracted, we're bored, or we're just going through the motions. A lot of Catholics think that the problem's them. They might say, oh, I'm bad at prayer. I'm just not spiritual enough. What we want to realize is that at every mass, something extraordinary is taking place in our souls. That's why Dr. Edd Sree and I co-wrote a book on the Mass called Pocket Guide to the Mass.

And in the book, we walk through the Mass, step by step explaining what the Mass is, what's happening, why we say what we say, do what we do, and how we can more deeply enter into the sacrifice of the Mass and more fully received the gift of the Eucharist. It's a simple, faithful, and small enough guide to bring with you at every mass. And if you want to understand the Mass,

more deeply and pray it more intentionally, I'd like you to check out pocketguides on the mass at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. Oh, we're talking about eating and exercising in the spiritual life. And we've got James on board, Matthew, John, Paul. John even says in his first epistle, chapter 3 and verse 18, he says, little children, let us not love in word or talk. but indeed and in truth.

Very, very powerful. And when you look at the saints, I mean, the saints were filled with advice on this very topic. And I would propose to you that that's one of the ingredients that went into their sainthood is they weren't just taker inners. They lived it out. They were lived it outers.

Okay. we invent a lot of terms on this show, as you probably know, over the last 10 years. So St. James of the Marches said, what good is it to know much about God if we love Him little? St. Francis DeSales said, it is not enough to know virtue. We must love it and practice it. That really says it right there, doesn't it? It's not enough to know virtue or even love virtue.

But we must love it in the sense that we practice it. And you'll see this in a saints of all kinds. You'll see theologians. You'll see religious. You'll see lay people. And they all have this in common. St. Teresa of Avala said, what matters is not to think much, but to love much.

Do therefore whatever most arouses you to love, to love. So in other words, responding. She's big into responding to what you are taking in. Very, very powerful. Speaking of religious, you know, the catechism says in paragraph 2687, many religious and lay communities, they dedicate themselves to the practice of prayer. The spiritual experience of certain witnesses like the saints helps in applying their teaching to our own lives.

And that's one of the reasons that we have saints. We need them more than ever today because we need to put the Word of God into practice more than ever. And the goal of learning from others is application, not mere information. Very important thing to remember there. St. John of the Cross said, at the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love alone. Not how much you accumulated, not the size of your library, not how many podcasts you, you've been listening to or how many conferences you went to, you're going to be judged on love alone, what you did in the body. And that is very, very important. So I would submit to you that

it's a good practice to take some time every day to think about how am I putting this into practice in my life today or am I even thinking in those terms. That's an important thing. You know, prayer is both a gift of grace the church teaches us and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort, always. In fact, that's mentioned in the Catechism, 2725. So the Catechism even insists that the interior life demands efforts and practice, not passive consumption.

Very, very powerful. wouldn't you say? St. Bernard of Claervaux. Let's go back to the Saints for a moment. There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge. And he says, that's curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others. That is vanity. And there are those who seek knowledge in order to serve. That is charity. See the difference between that? The difference between curiosity and vanity and charity. It's those who seek knowledge in order to serve. That's the demarcation right there.

And that's what it is. And, you know, we've often quoted St. Gregory the Great on this show over the years. And he was a brainstorm. He was a theological genius. And yet he says this, learning that does not give birth to love is barren. It is barren. And it is, isn't it?

It really is. So I want to encourage you this week to go deeper. And whatever study you're on now, whatever you're consuming right now, I'm not saying stop by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm saying pause. And even pause during the book. Pause during the talk. pause during that conference, you know, when you get back home perhaps, and ask yourself what pillars have been presented here that I can not only consume and be enthusiastically excited about,

but more than anything, according to all that we've talked about in scripture and the catechism and the saints is, I need to put it into practice. And you know what? If you've been confirmed, the Holy Spirit will assist you. the Holy Spirit will draw you to the very thing I'm talking about today and the saints we're talking about in the Bible and the Catechism. It's true. In fact, it says in paragraph 94 of the catechism, thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities and the words of the heritage of faith is able to grow. Not only through theological research, but through the full interior life which the church experience.

experiences. And that is doing the word at home, at work, on vacation, at the ballgame, walking into Walmart, all of it. So growth in faith requires the fullness of lived interior life, not theology alone. Very, very important. And one of our favorite saints, that's John Henry Newman, another academic. He's at the desk. I sat at his desk. In fact, John Harden from Ascension, we did a British tour, two of them, speaking tour, speaking of consumption, and we went to the library of St. John Henry Newman. And he said this, we can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe. but to act upon the faith we profess this is the whole difference between a living faith and a dead one. Amazing, huh? So let me wrap it up by saying this and then we'll pray. The volume of content available today dwarfs anything previous generations had yet.

As your scriptures will tell you, as the saints will tell you, as the catechism will remind you, access to truth is not the same as transformation by the truth. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you, Lord, you are the word incarnate. You are the source of all wisdom and knowledge. But, Lord, you have not called us to have a relationship with the concept of you. You have called us to real intimate relationship. And you require of us to learn, but to put it into practice. Lord, speak to our hearts today. What area of our life do we need to work on right now? What area of our life do we need to apply that which we have recently been studying? Help us, Lord, too, carve that out and focus on it and perfect this

as a virtue. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Love you. Talk to you later.