The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Pairing Your Children with Saints

Episode Date: September 4, 2020

There are over 10,000 saints canonized by the Catholic Church. Today, Jeff shares a number of inspiring saints children will love and invites us to pair our children with saints so they always have role models in heaven they can relate to and imitate. Snippet from the Show While the saints are not divine, they are perfected Christians who have finished the race and can inspire us to keep running towards Christ. 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 Kaven Show, episode 182, pairing saints with your children. 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. And welcome to the show, once again, where We try to talk about everything discipleship, well, almost everything, discipleship when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. We talk about reading the Bible and prayer and going deep with the Lord, listening for his voice. We also like to talk about some very practical things like our children

and how to raise our children, our grandchildren, our best friends' children. This show today is for everybody. You don't have to have children and grandchildren. You might even be able to pass this on to people who do, but you are involved with everybody around you, and chances are your friends, relatives, your immediate family, they all have children, and you have a relationship with them, and today we're going to talk about how to pair saints with children. There's a lot of saints, there's a lot of different types of children, and there's a lot of ways to pair the two. Now, in my own life, in my recent book, The Activated Disciple, I have a whole part of a chapter on developing your posse, and that is really determining what saints, and for me it's

five, what saints, four, five, six, seven of them are really going to have an impact on your life if you will emulate them, if you will learn about their secrets to being successful Christians, that can be a big aid in your life. And I have five, I have five saints that are really close to me, And I try to really, really go deep with them as my brother, as my sister in Christ. I have St. John Paul II. And in fact, you know what? I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I have a part of my library that is dedicated to my posse. And so I can look over there at that part of my shelf, bookshelf, and I can pick out the books

and the writings of the people who are in my posse who help me because I have, I'm a needy man. I need help. And these saints really come through for me in such a big way. So I have St. Joseph because I'm a husband and father. I've got St. Augustine because I'm a Bible teacher. I have Teresa of Calcutta because I need to remember the poor and the disenfranchised. St. Francis is a part of my posse. And that's because I need to remember to be simple. I'll talk about that a little bit later on the show here. And then my hero, St. John Paul, the second. Those are the saints that really helped me. And if you were to know, if you knew me really well, you would pair those saints to me. Well, back to our children now. What about our children? Well, let's talk about wine pairing for just a second. Because a lot of people, when they think about pairing, that's what they think about. They think about wine. And they have certain rules, you know, about wine pairing, like the wine should be more acidic than the food. The wine should be sweeter than the food, or the wine should have the same flavor intensity as the food, bold, you know. Red wines pair best with bold flavored meats.

White wines are best paired with things like fish or chicken. I really sound like I know a lot, don't I? Got it off the Internet. But nevertheless, it's really true. There's all kinds of ways to pair them based on the food you are preparing. You get a different wine. Now, when it comes to children, it's really the same in many ways. And in the Catholic Church, there are over 10,000 men and women.

Do you get that? Over 10,000 men and women who have been canonized as saints. And that means that there are over 10,000 different choices to pair with your children to help you raise them and to give them the best shot at trying, you know, being successful, I was going to say trying to be successful as modern day saints. And isn't that what you want your children, your grandchildren, your best friends' children, your neighbor's children to become is successful saints? Well, we should. Hey, by the way, before I go on, I'm going to give you a lot of information here about saints and so

forth. Do you want the show notes? Don't pull over every time you say, I've got to write that down. I'm going to pull over into that gas station up ahead. Don't do that. Just listen. And I'm going to give you all of the notes, all of the information, and all you have to do is write my name, Jeff Kavens. That's one word, Jeff Kavins. And you send it to a text to 33777. I'll say that again, 3377. I love that number. I don't know how he got that number, but kudos to whoever got it. 3-3777. Okay, over 10,000 men and women who have been canonized as saints, and one of the brilliant things that has happened over the years is that the Catholic Church has determined that certain saints are particularly good, particularly talented at certain things,

or they have a proclivity towards certain sufferings or ailments that people have. And this is just incredible. You know, I went online and I was looking for all these patron saints and for vocations and illnesses and every circumstance you can find, I was blown away because, I mean, I don't know all these saints. I don't know over 10,000 saints. In fact, it kind of goes against the wisdom that a real wise priest gave to me one time when he said when it comes to the saints, don't go wide and shallow. He said, go. narrow and deep. In other words, you don't have to know all of these saints, over 10,000 of them, but, and you can't, by the way, some of them, there's just not that much written about them. It's going to be a very small little library on your shelf at home. But the idea here is to go narrow and deep, and that is to pick some saints that you can go deep on, you know, get to know them, and there's some kind of connection that you might have with them, or your children might have a connection with them. Well, anyway, the church has sort of categorized saints by, you know, occupation

and in all these special needs. And I think that's just plain cool, that we have bigger brothers and sisters, older brothers and sisters who can help us in certain situations. Okay, I need to say this right now. The saints are not divine. They're not God. Okay. And some people who aren't Catholic think that that's what we do as we talk to people who have died as though they're God and they're just going to do everything for us. Not true. They're not God. They're perfected Christians. They're like you and me, but they're with God now. And that means, yay, they won. They got the prize. They finished the race. Kudos. Earthly kudos to all the saints for what you've done here. Okay. So there are saints for different kinds of needs in every age bracket.

And they have saints for older people. They have saints for younger people, little infants, and they have saints for children. And some of the saints, this is really interesting, some of the saints will do different things. So let's talk about that for just a little bit because the end of this show is really going to be about a challenge for you to start pairing your children with certain saints. And there's things you can do to really build that in your children, that sense of, hey, these people that went before us are just plain cool. and they are very helpful, and they have great lives to emulate, and I want to introduce them to you, son, daughter, granddaughter, grandson, niece, nephew. I want to introduce them to you. And now, once you introduce a saint to a child, you better stay on top of it because you don't

want this, you know, one-and-out type of thing. You want to stay in the game as long as they are growing up. I'll give you an example in my life here in just a little bit. But some of the things that children need. Let's look on that side of it for a moment. Some of the things that children need in life are things like correction. I needed to be corrected probably daily, and if you know your children really well, you know very well what areas they need to be corrected in, or what areas they keep going back to. And so there are certain saints that can intercede for them and pray for them and kind of team up with you regarding your children who need to be correct. sometimes our children, they love to be inspired. And wow, there are so many saints that are

inspiring, you know, St. Joan of Arc, come on. Are you serious? Outside of that first century, she's one of the most. Michael, St. Michael the Archangel, top that one. These are inspiring characters and inspiring people and angels who we can set before our children and give them some inspiration in their life. Whether they are taking a test or whether they're playing in the neighborhood or whether they're entering sports for the first time or they're dealing with peer pressure or somebody's teasing them at school, they just might need some inspiration. They also might need to have someone or some group of saints direct them in their life or a future career. Maybe you want your child to be more like a particular saint.

will dangle and hang saints around your house. They are not like warding, you know, like superstitious, you know, if you put something a picture up or something like that in your home, we're not talking about some kind of amulet that wards off evil spirits or somehow attracts the spiritual activity to your child's room so they truly will grow up and be a doctor, you know. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about when I say, when I say hang the pictures of the saints, in your home, it means that they are members of the family that we are emulating and we want

our children to grow up and to see them regularly, just like Uncle Joe and Aunt Marie, we want them to know about St. Michael the Archangel, or we want them to know about St. John Paul the 2nd, or we want them to know about St. Therese of Lesoth. Wow, very powerful. So some of our kids need to be corrected, some need to be inspired, some need to be directed in life. it might even be that your child is called to the priesthood, in which case, St. John Viani is, wow, I mean, there's one for you. If you sense that calling or the religious life, there's hundreds that you could pick from for the religious life, you know, St. Therese, the little flower. Wow. So when it comes to popular Catholic saints for kids, some of these stories really, really inspire children.

more so than adults. So let's take a look here for a second. I'll give you some popular ones for children, because there are some real popular ones that are just sort of, you know, like everybody knows, they're really popular in children's lives. But then I want to get into a little bit about ailments

or careers and things like that. So I would ask you this, before we get into that, what are you observing about your children? what have you taken note of when it comes to your grandchildren or your niece or your nephew? What about their talents? The way that they are going in life right now. What do they want to be when they grow up? You can actually pair them with a patron saint of that discipline. Whether they end up doing that for their career, for what they want to do when they grow up and get a job, that's yet to be seen. but you certainly can pair them with a saint that can help them if that's something that they really like. And if it's sports, there's a certain set of saints, and if there's, I want to be a doctor, an engineer, or I want to be a pilot, or they want to be a nurse, or whatever it might be teacher, there's saints for all of them.

And I'm going to give you at the end here some links to some sites that might help you out. Kind of like, what was it? It was in the past, a week or two ago. I was I was talking. I was talking. about names for children. There are websites that give you different names of saints as well. You have to ask not only what do they want to do when they grow up, but what are their special needs? What are they going through right now? Wow, you know, I'll give you a snapshot of this just for a second, and that is this, that when I was in junior high in seventh and eighth grade, I was really struggling with my self-image. I was struggling.

You know, that's the age where you start. You start getting pimples and you want girls to like you. And I was no different than anybody else when it comes to that. But I was also getting teased a lot. I was getting teased and I was being bullied after school. And it would have been so good if somebody had introduced, introduced me to St. Michael the Archangel who can kick other people. And I could have used that when I was growing up. Do you say St. Michael the Archangel defend me in battle? And I think back now

of four or five saints like St. Michael the Archangel that, St. Joan of Arc, for example, to have her walking before me on the way home across that bridge in Bloomington, Minnesota, where I got beat up so regularly, that would have been good. Maybe your child is going through that right now, and it's been really tough. Maybe they're being, maybe they are being bullied on social media, and they need help. Now, there's a scripture that I want to share with you before we take our break, and it's very powerful. The scripture says in Proverbs 226, this is it. I'll put this in the show notes, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he's old, he will not depart from it. That is powerful. You know what it means. In Hebrew, it means that you train up a child in the way that

they are going. In other words, are they going towards a particular career? Are they going towards a vocation when they grow old? They'll not depart from it. So you train them up that way. And my friends, part of training up our children is pairing them with saints. What attracts them? I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I'll share this with you. But St. Francis of Assisi, who big impact on me and my parents did one thing that made him a hero in my life. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. You know, I have dedicated my life to teaching the Bible and helping people understand the Bible as a narrative in chronological order. Well, this fall, starting Wednesday, mark it down, Wednesday, September 16th at 8 p.m. Eastern, I'll be hosting a live live

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a part of this exciting Bible study opportunity, and by the way, it's a great opportunity to invite others to Bible study. Even if they're not part of the Catholic Church, this is an amazing, amazing opportunity to understand the Bible as a whole. Now here's what you do. Text UMB Live. That's all one word. UMB Live to 3377. It's an easy number to text to 33777 and we'll send you an email update about the event as it gets closer. You'll also get a link to get your workbook. Listeners of the Jeff Kaven show get an exclusive. discount, use the code Jeff Kaven's podcast, all one word, Jeff Kaven's podcast at checkout, and you'll get $5 off your workbook. So it's very easy, step one, buy your workbook,

and you'll get the timeline chart, you'll get video access to unlocking the mystery of the Bible. Step two, watch the first video of the study at ascensionpress.thinkific.com. I'll put this in the show notes in step three. Tune into the first Facebook live on September 16th at 8 p.m. Eastern time to pray and to dive deeper and to ask your questions. This is going to be a great opportunity. I look forward to seeing you September 16th. Hey, thanks for coming back.

I mentioned before the break about St. Francis of Assisi. When I was growing up, I just mentioned, to, you know, prior to the break that St. Francis is in my posse. And he's in my posse probably because my parents had a statue of him in front of every house we had when I was growing up. There was something about St. Francis of Assisi that really got a hold of me. And so when I grew up, I identified with him and particularly the simplicity of St. Francis. And from the time that I was, I suppose, third or fourth grade, I had a love for simplicity. And I attribute that to St. Francis and still to today, I love, absolutely love the topic of simplicity. And I attribute St. Francis

to it. St. Francis, you're the best. You're in my posse. Thank you. Thank you for helping me. And I pray and ask you to continue to lead me and guide me in a life of simplicity. My friends, that started when I was a boy. Pair your children with the saints. Okay, so let's take a look at these for a moment, shall we? I would mention St. Francis, number one, in another way, and that is a lot of your children really love animals. They love the little cute bunnies and the guinea pigs

and the deer and the dogs and everything else. Well, St. Francis was known for his love for animals, and that's why on his feast day we can bring our animals and Father will bless our pets, and that's a great thing. But what a beautiful thing for children to have as a friend and a guide as St. Francis of Assisi. If your child looks like, boy, if they look like sons, if they look like they are interested in the priesthood, may have a vocational calling there, St. John Vienni is the one. St. John Vieni, the great confessor, the good listener, he just might be the one that you would pair with your son.

A St. Thereseau is a very popular one for children. I don't know if it's because she's called the little flower, you know, the simple way. But St. Therese reported that she was cured by a vision of Mary, and she was only somewhere around five years old when that happened. And then at the age of 11, she was really, really going deep with her relationship with the Lord. And then she enters an order at 14, because she has a hunger for God. And get this, she became a saint, and she was only in that order for 10 years, the little flower. That might be a good one to pair with your daughters, particularly. When I was growing up, I had a creepy crawler set. If you don't know what that is, it just means you're not old enough. That's all that means. A creepy crawler set with little ovens that we had, which wouldn't pass many laws today. We would put gook in them, goop or whatever it is. Yeah, said goop. We had put goop in the little metal frames, and then we would bake plastic in our rooms like snakes and frogs and everything else, colorful. Some of you are thinking, oh, man, I haven't

thought about creepy crawlers for years. Well, St. Patrick was all about creepy crawlers, and, you know, the snakes all left Ireland, and this guy was an amazing man of God, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. If you're Irish, it might be a good one to pair. St. Joseph's another one. St. Joseph's in my posse. And St. Joseph, wow, he's such a hero for young people because he was the father of Jesus. He was the husband of Mary. He was a carpenter. He was a man's man. And he was a worker. In fact, there's a whole feast day called St. Joseph the worker. And he had really this heart that would just plain do anything. that God wanted him to do. And he has great values for children. It might be someone you want to pair up with. And then there's St. Anthony of Padua. This one's going to be really, really good if your child loses everything.

If their homework doesn't show up, if their phone is misplaced, if their clothes are gone, like the jacket that you just bought them, this one's for you. St. Anthony might save you some serious money. I love this one, St. Anthony, when we lose something. And I don't know why he's so good at it. I don't know if it was because he just practiced or what it is about him. I'm not making light of that. I'm really serious. I don't know why did he sign up for it when he got to heaven or was there an opening? I don't know what it was, but he's so good at finding things. I'm actually going to look into that, St. Anthony, a pot. I'm going to look into that a little bit more and figure that out. I might even do a show on it. If you, if you can help me, would you? Would you write me? The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. If you know more about St. Anthony, write me. St. Cecilia is big, and she's real big for musicians. Do you have a son or daughter who loves music? Well, there's one for you. St. Cecilia. St. Bernadette, she was 15. She had her first vision of the Blessed Virgin, and that was

one of 18. She didn't have a long life. But boy, she was a holy young girl, a holy young girl, St. Bernadette. Some of our children, unfortunately, have suffered through a violation in their life, a private violation that is painful, lonely, and is hell to go through. And I think you know what I'm talking about, and I would recommend pairing St. Maria Goretti. At the age of 11, 12, somewhere in there, had a very difficult experience of someone who was trying to violate her, and she's a saint today. Okay, we have, let's see, we have a few more here. We have Blessed Maria Mercedes Pratt.

Somehow the saints with three names sound even more important. But she was martyred for her vocation in 1963, and Blessed Maria, Mercedes Pratt was a Spanish nun who displayed talent in needlework and important. embroidery. I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here. I was going to talk about these topics, but if your child's into needlework and embroidery, there you go. Perfect match right there. St. Teresa of Calcutta in my posse again. Oh, for the poor, the unborn. She's really, really good. Okay. So now, with the time I have left, there are other saints that are matched by jobs, job descriptions, like butcher's, bakers, candlestick makers, and all that.

And so if your child is showing an interest in a certain area or you have kids going off to college in certain areas, you can match them there. And so you've got, for example, Elizabeth of Hungary, she's for bakers. Your child wants to grow up and be a baker and own a bakery. Match them right there. It's a pair. Elizabeth of Hungary, Adrian of Nicomedia. He's a butcher. Butcher, I mean, he likes the men who are butchers and women who are butchers love.

this saint, Adrian of Nicomedia. St. Damien for doctors and pharmacists and surgeons, your child want to be a teacher? I got a pair for you. Gregory the Great. Christian teachers and educators again, St. John Baptiste, D. LaSalle. Pray for us. That's another one right there. Claire of Assisi. If your child likes theater, performing, broadcasting, podcasts. It's Claire of Assisi. Mother Angelica used to talk about her all the time. In fact, named the mountain that their radio stations on after that. Well, I think, no, I think the mountain was actually called that, and I think that's why she was so attracted to it. Is your child want to be in the soldier, a soldier, special services, Michael the Archangel, aviators, loves airplanes,

Our Lady of Loretto, medical record librarian. Oh, that's getting specific. And that's Raymond of Penafort, Penefort, Penefort. Thomas the Apostle is for architects and politicians, but what if your children are sick? What if they're struggling with things? You have St. Apollonia for toothaches. I know that some people are thinking, oh my word. Are you kidding, Jeff? Well, have you ever had a toothache? You'd like some help if you've ever had a serious toothache. I wouldn't laugh at that until, you know, unless you have one, you know, then you're going to know, this is serious stuff, actually. St. Apollonia, pray for me. I've got a toothache. St. Agathias, headaches, St. Augustine, sore eyes, ailments of the throat. I think you know

that one, right? You know that one, the two candles, St. Blaze. St. Erosia, invoked against storms, hailstorms, lightning. Is your child? Absolutely. terrified of the night in storms? St. Erosia. Maria Greta, I mentioned that. St. Pellegrine Laziosi, cancer. Diabetes, St. Paulina. St. Valentine for fainting, epilepsy. The list goes on. Now, I'm going to provide some links in the notes that will get you started. So don't worry about that. But I do encourage you very serious about this. Pair your children with some saints. Now, here's what you do to really bring this home, is I would really encourage you to, yes, get some medals. If they have a medal of that saint, give that to your children.

Holy cards, a beautiful statue. I mean, a nice one, a really beautiful statue. Maybe a small one for their room. Maybe a statue in the home out in front. Let your children see these saints. May you tell the stories to them about the saints. Now, I've been in some homes where I would. walk in and it's like, can't you just choose a few? But choose, you know, the ones that are

nice. Put that artwork out, the pictures in the home and let them grow up with a certain number of saints, and particularly in their room, the saints that they are interested in, those areas of their life. That will be amazing. And I know that this will work. I really know that this will have an impact on their lives. Let's pray, shall we? Before we pray, hey, by the way, I've been getting email from people asking about the PDF I have on how much time it takes to read each book of the Bible. And by the way, this will be good with your children, your grandchildren. If you want to read the Bible and exchange nighttime news and other programs for reading scripture, I've got the whole recipe, how much time it takes for each book.

go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and you'll get it. I think all you've got to do is sign in when you get them on the page and you'll get that right away, that PDF. Okay, let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my wonderful friends who are listening and growing together with me in you. And I thank you, Lord, for their children and their grandchildren, their nieces and nephews, their students in school. I pray, Lord, that you will give all of us wisdom on how to pair the saints with these little ones so that they'll have the best chance of being really good disciples of yours. We thank you for giving us wisdom. We thank you for giving us creativity and thank you for giving us boldness in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the

Father's Son and the Holy Spirit, my friend, I love you. Pray for me. I'll pray for you. And I hope you have just an absolutely wonderful week. Thank you.