The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Five Topics I'd Love To Share With Your Parish

Episode Date: April 30, 2021

What kind of things does your parish need right now? Today, Jeff seeks to help by sharing five topics he wants to share with your parish. Snippet from the Show 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!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavan Show, episode 217, five topics I'd love to share with your parish. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. 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. Again, thank you for joining me this week. This is show. 217, we've been going down a long road over the last few years just talking about topics that relate to the Catholic faith, for sure, topics that relate to discipleship, Bible reading, Bible study, and how to deal with some of the problems that we face in the modern era. And I got to tell you, it's been a joy for me to meet with you every single week to talk

about these topics and to try to offer some practical advice, advice that, you know, I think we all need, but advice I need, and oftentimes I put together these shows based on what I am actually dealing with myself and reading scripture and praying about and trying to get the mind of God as we face so many changing things in our lives. And this week I want to talk to you about five things that I would love to share with your parish. And I'll give you just a few samples of what I'm talking about here and then a little bit later on in the show, maybe a practical suggestion on how you and I can meet, how maybe I can meet with your parish and share some of these things in just a little bit more detail. I live in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis

and St. Paul. And as you know, if you've been watching the news, Minneapolis has been at the center of the world's conversation and alarm. It was just a couple of weeks ago that we heard the verdict on Derek Chauvin, and he was convicted of charges against him relating to George Floyd, which is literally about 10 miles from where I'm at right now. And then during that trial, a young man was shot in Brooklyn Center, which is literally about two and a half miles from my house. And so we have been in the thick of this for a while, and I know that it has affected us, and I know that it has affected you. But there's so many things going on in the world today. And I have been talking to a lot of friends. We take walks and we talk on the phone or we meet and have people over to the

house. And it's amazing to me how many people are literally saying things like, this isn't the world that I knew growing up. Or this is not the America that I knew growing up. And people are experiencing some anxiety and some stress and some discouragement in their lives. And if they have children, they're wondering what kind of a world we're walking into with our children and what are, what are our children going to be facing? And in my case, my grandchildren, I've got three grandkids, and maybe you have grandchildren as well. You're wondering, where do we go from here? What do we do as Catholics? A number of years ago, there was a book written by Francis Schaefer, an evangelical, kind of a popular philosopher.

And he wrote a book about how do we then live? How do we now live in this world that we are facing? And I think that there's a number of topics that we really need to focus on that are going to assist us in getting the mind of Christ and navigating these rough waters that we're living in today. While I do think that they are rough waters, to be sure, I also think that it's an opportunity for us. It's an opportunity for you as parents. It's an opportunity for you as someone who is thinking about getting married in the next year or two.

It's an opportunity for grandparents. It's an opportunity for the church to respond to what is happening in the world today. We have a lot of discussions going on in the family, and we typically will look into what's going on. And then it always seems to get around to what would Jesus do? I mean, what would Paul do? What would Peter do? What would the saints do if they were living in the times that we're living in today? I would be curious to know what your discussions have been like. And perhaps you can put some of those in an email and send them to me, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Or you can go to Apple and put some of your comments in this show. Give it a like. That always helps with the algorithms on Google Play and

and other places. But I would be curious as to what are the topics that your family is discussing right now? Please send that to me. And I'm going to try to craft a few shows in the future based on what the response is. So I'd really appreciate that a lot. And we'll put in the show notes the links to some of these places where you can give me your ideas and what you are going through. One of the things that has changed an awful lot is life in the parish. And I know it has for me because for the last year and a quarter, something like that, our life has radically changed. I have spent the last 40 years of my life sharing the gospel. I really came to the Lord in a powerful way when I was 18 years old. And I really got into scripture, went to Bible college. I ended up leaving

the Catholic Church, as many of you know. And I ended up coming back to the church. the Catholic Church. And from that time till now, which was about 1995, I have spent my time in radio and television and writing and speaking around the country, going to Israel on pilgrimages every single year, sometimes two, sometimes three times a year. Well, all of that is stopped. And so our lives have been affected. As many Catholic speakers and teachers and writers, their life has changed as well. And so these are not topics. are times that we're not trying to adapt to. We are. And that's some of the things I want to share with you. And a number of shows coming up are going to be addressing that. But I do,

I do appreciate your friendship. I appreciate the comments that you have made. This last week, one of our producers was sharing with me some of the comments on, I believe it was Apple, on the comments on the Jeff Kaven show. And I so appreciate it. One person said, Jeff had a great way to communicate the message and tie it to everyday life. Thank you. That particular episode, they said, hit home. Another person, Marilyn, said, I really appreciate the insight. Jeff proposes and how he challenges you to live the faith. Thank you. And one other comment, Jeff brings Christianity to everyday life. His topics are so unique yet simple and life-changing. His sign-offs on each episode feels so genuine and and make me feel like I'm not just listening to a podcast, but enjoying the company of a friend.

Well, my friend, you are, and that's what I'm doing. I'm sharing with you as your friend, as your brother in Christ on this journey through life. And I appreciate those comments so much. Well, what are the topics that I would like to share with you? What are the topics that I would like to go deeper into and perhaps with your parish. And I got some ideas a little bit later on the show on how we might do that. If we're going to hit head on the issues of the day and the changes in our culture, I think that there are five things that we really, really need to address. Number one would be the Bible, the Bible, reading the Bible, Bible reading strategy for your parish. Something happened this last year, was somewhat spontaneous, and it took us by surprise, and that was the Bible in a year.

Father Mike Schmitz and I have been putting on this podcast that quickly, at the beginning of the year, rose to number one in the world for podcasts. Get that, two guys from Minnesota reading the Bible and talking about it, rose to number one. Well, I would be lying if I said, well, that didn't surprise us. That surprised everybody, but it opened our eyes to the need. in people's lives to know God and to know His Word. There's a couple of things that people are really looking for in this life that we're now in the middle of, and that is they're looking for a brighter future, number one, and number two,

they're looking for someone to trust. And in reading the Bible and encountering God in the Bible, you come to know his amazing plan for your life, which is, by the way, no matter what we're going through, a bright future. It is a bright future. And in reading scripture and coming face to face with Jesus Christ, we come face to face with the one that we can trust. And so the Bible for us is a tremendous source to get to know the mind of God, the heart of God, the plan of God, which really creates a platform on which we can trust God. And to be honest with you, I don't know how people are doing this without scripture reading. I don't know how people are doing this without trusting

God with all of their heart. And now I know that many people around the world are reading the Bible in a year, and that is an amazing thing. And we don't want to lose sight of that. We'd like to build on that. We really, really would. Go deeper. And if you're going through the Bible in a year, I would highly suggest that you go to ascensionpress.com and start studying the Bible in depth with the Great Adventure Bible study, which is a 24-hour, 24-week study through the entire Bible in tremendous depth. If you say, well, we don't have time for that right now, well, there's a quicker way to go through the Bible, and that's called unlocking the mystery of the Bible, and that's eight half-hour sessions, complete with, both of them are complete with workbook, and we'll help

you get started and establish that in your parish, even if you have to do it by Zoom, which many groups are doing that right now. We've got some tremendous people in Florida and around the country that are getting together on Zoom and they're studying the Bible. But I think that the parish needs to have a concerted effort at reading and studying scripture, which is the heart of catechesis. It is the heart of transformation. It is the very heart of relationship with God. It's a love letter from God to you. So, Number one, a topic I'd like to bring to your parish, and we'll mention this at the end, one topic I'd love to bring to your parish, whether it's the leadership, whether it is the men, the women, the parish as a whole, Bible reading, Bible study, a plan to encounter God.

That's number one. Number two is once we start reading the Bible and we come to know the heart of God and the plan of God, then we suddenly realize that we have been invited into this amazing plan and we've been invited to become disciples of the Lord. So while the first thing is Bible reading and study, the second is a deep understanding of what it means to be a disciple, or as I would say, an activated disciple, to walk with Jesus from morning to night, with situational awareness. throughout the day of opportunities not only to grow in virtue and to grow in our own relationship with the Lord, but opportunities to share Christ with other people who are going through the same

things that you're going through, but perhaps without answers. And they're lost. And they are spiraling out of controllable. They're losing their children. They're losing their families. Some would say they're losing their sanity. And God has placed you and I as a disciple in the midst of this with a plan and a trust in God and something that we can share with other people. We can walk with Jesus the way the disciples did. That's the life of a disciple. You know, there is a big, big difference. In fact, I was talking to a group of men in the Boston area just last night about living as a disciple. There is a huge difference between just going to church, which is good, just going to church and saying, I believe what the church teaches.

For both of those things, I would say, yay, that's good. But we are called to go deeper than just going to church in believing what the church teaches. We're called to put it into practice. We're called to walk as disciples of the Lord. There is a huge difference between someone who just says I'm Catholic and goes to church Sunday and the rest of the week just tries to figure it out with pop culture and television and podcasts and everything else and conferences. There's a big difference between that person and the disciple of Jesus because the disciple of Jesus knows that they are chosen and they are chosen

for a relationship and they are chosen in a relationship to become like Jesus. And Jesus knows that you can become like him because he chose you. And he said, take my yoke upon you, which means take on my worldview. And so if we're going to be successful in these very difficult times that we are in right now, we must make a concerted effort to change our relationship with our faith by becoming activated disciples. I would like to share that with your parish. I would like an opportunity to talk to your leadership about becoming a disciple of Jesus. I could ever go through what we are going through right now by simply believing the right things. We must take action. We must be a part of our culture. We must be part of the conversation,

but with the mind and the plan of Christ in every single topic that we face. So Bible reading is really important. Understanding that we are disciples is really important. You know, I was thinking this morning, my wife and I read the Bible together every single morning and we pray. And this morning I was thinking about the Apostle Paul and my wife and I were talking about how everything is changing. In the last 20 years, we didn't have to, we didn't, we would have to go to another country, you know, to experience radical change in culture. But that radical change has now come to us in our culture. And I was thinking about Paul. And Paul, he went through all kinds of circumstances that changed his life radically. He was a great, great theologian as a Jew. He was a Pharisee. He was from

the tribe of Benjamin. And he persecuted the early church. You just read about it recently in the daily reading. And yet he had an encounter with Jesus Christ, fell to the ground, and he was converted radically. And that conversion of Paul took him into Ephesus, where they tried to kill him. He was stoned, beaten. He went to Rome. He was imprisoned and he still adapted to his circumstances and he wrote the prison epistles. So Paul went through, and the early disciples went through radical circumstantial change and they went through it as disciples, not just as theologians, not just as people who were giving some good suggestions, not entertainers. They were disciples. And that is really, really important. Bible reading and learning to become a disciple.

We're going to take a break here when we come back. I've got three more topics that I think your parish would benefit from. And then I've got a plan on how we might be able to just do that. 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's 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 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. Thank you for coming back and spending more time with me today. Maybe you're taking a walk right now. We get a lot of people who listen to the show when they're walking, and we also get people who listen when they're driving to work or coming back from work or during breakfast. We got a lot of people who said, yeah, we listen to the show at breakfast or dinner time

and people appreciate that company. And it's good to have dinner with you and breakfast with you. I appreciate that. Before the break, we are talking about two different topics that we really need our parishes to become aware of. One is Bible reading and study. Number two is the concept of becoming an activated disciple. becoming a modern-day disciple in the midst of all of the changing circumstances of our culture.

What would Jesus do, right? Well, the third thing that I think is really important right now, right now, for your parish, for your men, for your women, for your leadership, for your teens, is what do we do in the midst of suffering? How do we deal with suffering? How do we deal with the circumstances where we would simply say, I am suffering right now? It could be physically. Maybe you have had some really difficult news. I just got a call yesterday, yesterday, that a good friend who was struggling with cancer for 10 years passed away at 4.30 yesterday. And that family is struggling.

They're suffering in the midst of it. Maybe you have had some news in the last year concerning your job or the lack thereof or your finances or your children. Do you know how many people today have written me and said our family is going crazy right now with all of the issues? Because our children now are coming and asking us questions and sort of putting us in the midst of this like we did something wrong, right? And they're saying, what do we do? What do we say? Well, how does the Christian deal with suffering? Now, here's the good news in a nutshell.

Suffering is an opportunity to join yourself with Christ in the Eucharist, in his cross, and to allow him to change that suffering in your life to become redemptive power that you can join with him and be a part of changing the world. You see, a lot of people are suffering right now, but it's wasted suffering because they're not doing anything with it. I want to talk to you about what to do in the midst of your soul. suffering. I wrote a whole book about this called When You Suffer. And it came out of suffering in my own life. And so right now, our parishes, our leadership, men's women, we need to address this

issue of suffering. What are you going to do with it? You're just going to bear with it and hope that good things come out of it. Are you going to self-medicate? Are you going to blame other people? Or are you going to embrace the suffering in your life? Bring it to the cross of Christ and experience the transformative power of the cross and walk in love as Jesus walked. I would like to share that with your parish. What do we do with suffering? Now the fourth topic that we are facing today and many people are asking about. In fact, I'm doing the Bible in a year with Father Mike and on Thursdays at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Ascension's Catholic Bible study Facebook page. We're getting questions every week that people are submitting about the Bible in a year, and we're getting all kinds of

questions about this next topic, and that is, how do I hear the voice of God in the midst of this? Juicy topic, huh? Interested? I hope so, because I'm getting all kinds of questions from people. They're reading the Bible in the Old Testament, and then they're reading the New Testament, and they are reading about people who were going about their everyday life like Philip in the Book of Acts when suddenly the Spirit of God spoke to them and told them to do something. And the question arises, how did they hear that? What was that like? Did they hear a sound?

Was it a promenition? Was it a dream? Was it hearing God through the voice of somebody else? How did they hear God? And then the big question is, can we still? hear God today. Does God still speak today? Oh, I know he speaks in Scripture. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. But the question that people are asking is not does God speak in the Scripture, but does he overarchingly speak to me in my circumstances, in the dilemma that I face? And the answer

is absolutely. God speaks to us. We are created in such a way that we can talk to God and be aware of God. As the Catechism says, we can come to know God through just the cry of God. of the heart of the human person, but the bigger question is, can God speak to me? I mean, even beyond what I'm reading in the Bible, does he speak to me? The answer is yes. He does. He speaks to you. He leads you. He guides you. He corrects you. But how do we learn to hear his voice in daily life? Now, certainly, I believe that the men of your parish and the women of your parish, the children, the adults, all of them, we all can, could really stand to hear a lesson about hearing the voice of God. Now, there's a lot of things that I don't know. I get invitations all the time to,

well, before COVID, invitations to certain conferences and the theme of that conference was something that I really didn't feel that that was my wheelhouse. That wasn't one of the things that I feel like I can really speak to. And so I said, no, I didn't want to just go for the sake of going, but I'd rather go and speak in the areas that I feel God has prepared me for, the niche that he has put me in. I've been doing the Great Adventure Bible study since I was about 26 years old. And that's my lane. And that's what I continue to do. But hearing the voice of God is another thing that I'm very interested in. And I have learned so much over these years about, hearing his voice and I can tell you the different points I should say in my life where I was

facing a major, major decision. Like when I was leaving as a pastor coming into the Catholic Church, I had a major choice to make. I was offered a job in running a mutual fund in Florida at that point with a really good salary. And I had that choice and the other choice was to continue on in the Catholic Church, from my days as being a pastor, to continue on in the Catholic Church in teaching scripture. I had a choice to make. And one day Emily came in and she spoke to me and she gave me some wisdom that changed the trajectory of my entire life. I heard the voice of God, giving me direction in my life. And I'd love to talk to you about that topic. First topic, Bible reading and studies. Second,

becoming a modern day activated disciple. Number three, how do we deal with suffering in this life we're in right now? And number four, how do we hear the voice of God? Now, the fifth topic that people are asking about, they're praying about. They want answers concerning this. And that is this topic of faith. social justice issues today. The whole racial situation that we are facing today, many people, many, many people are asking questions about that, and I would love for the opportunity to talk to your parish about what is happening and what is the disciples' perspective on this. My wife and I have had a lot of discussions on this topic, and I feel like I have some experience in it in that I have three daughters, two of them are black. And so we have been in this whole issue.

And just because we haven't been facing this issue or discussing it for the last decade in our own lives doesn't mean that it wasn't there. Our reaction to this topic being brought up can sometimes be harsh because it's certainly, what does it do? It inconveniences my life, right? If you look at the history of the Jews, for example, the parts of history that are very painful to the Jews are not the parts of history that non-Jews were well taught in. The Holocaust brought to the forefront the issue of anti-Semitism. You might not have been dealing with it, but trust me, the Jews were and are.

And so we have to, we have to approach this topic. today with the wisdom of Christ and the love of a disciple. And I've got some ideas on that. And we're going to be talking about that more in upcoming shows. But I wanted an opportunity to share with you in your parish. So what am I talking about here? Well, these are major topics that I think we need to face right now. And while traveling is curtailed tremendously, that means that I may not be coming to your parish.

I would love to come to your parish if you're open to that. But even if your parish is not open to speakers coming in to address major issues, let me suggest this. Perhaps we have a Zoom meeting. Perhaps we have an evening during the week where I can address your parish or a group, a subset within your parish like men or women or seniors or whatever group it might be, the leadership perhaps. Or a parish is joining together to sponsor something like this.

and maybe we can tackle some of these events. If you would like me to speak to your parish, which is a whole new paradigm now, and I haven't talked about it in the last year, then I would encourage you to go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and you can submit a request for me to address your parish. And we will get back to you,

and maybe we can set something up. It shouldn't be too much of a burden for your parish, but I think it will be fruitful, particularly during these very, very disruptive times in our life. Disruption doesn't mean it's over and it doesn't mean it's not life. It means that there is a problem and there is an opportunity and there is a solution. So I hope I can come to your parish on Zoom or even come to your parish. That would be a wonderful thing to get out of Minnesota and enjoy the relationship with brothers and sisters around. the country. Well, I hope I do see you, and I'll be back next week to talk about something that

is going to be interesting. The show next week, you know what it's entitled? The show next week that I'm preparing for right now is entitled, What is the most quoted Bible verse in history? What's the most quoted Bible verse in history? I would be interested to hear if you know what that is. well my friend again i do love you and i do enjoy walking with you driving with you sitting around the table we are friends you're my brother you're my sister and i do pray for you let's let's close in prayer in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit lord jesus i lift up my friend to you right now and i ask you lord to to just envelop them in your love and peace envelop them in in lord in that truth that they are not alone and that there is a bright

future and that they can trust you. Oh God, help us to grow in you in the midst of these difficult times. And may we be lights that shine, may we be leaven in our culture. And may we have a reason for the hope that is in us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I love you, my friend. God bless you this week. Thank you.