The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Prepare for an Amazing Year!

Episode Date: December 28, 2018

Jeff wishes you a Happy New Year and shares a bit about his upcoming travels.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show episode 96, prepare for an amazing year. 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. Hey, thanks for joining me this week. I know it's in the middle of Christmas.

and the New Year's. And so I am not going to take a lot of time because I know you're busy, things are going on, but I did want to touch base with you and just wish you a happy New Year from my wife or family from Ascension Press. And from Marissa and Christina, my producers, we really do want to wish you a happy New Year. Just a couple of thoughts to give you before I go is that, you know, every new year is an opportunity for a new beginning. And, like you, I like to take advantage of that. And I typically like to start a habit or work on some aspect of my life. Truth is, you could do it on March 10th or July 3rd or August 17th or any time of the year. But there is something about a new year that gives us a new opportunity. Even in the

liturgical calendar, you know, at the end of the year, we got Christ the King, the great feast, and then we start with Advent, and it's a new beginning. And we take advantage of that. We know we're cyclical people. We live according to the calendar, so why not take advantage of it? And so this year, I would encourage you to do two things, really. One is to, you know, pick some aspect of your life that you feel that you really need to work on. You know, it might be a vice that you're struggling with, some aspect of your life that you think, you know, wow, and you know what most people do. They do the whole I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to eat different and that type of thing. Fine. But we don't just make, you know, New Year's resolutions. We want some kind of habit, you know, some kind of virtue that's

going to combat that. And that virtue might be something as simple as a note to yourself every day when you come home from work that you're reminded of how you're going to treat your spouse and your kids. Or it might be a habit of going to a holy hour this year or reading, reading scripture, studying the great adventure, getting the new great adventure Bible and reading through it this year. That could be your New Year's resolution or to go to Mass or confession more often. But I like the idea of, yeah, I want to work on something. It's not tangible, but I want to do something tangible that will help me to see the fruit of what I really desire in my life. You know, coming up on the New Year's, my wife and I, we have a habit that we've done for years, you know, for New Year's Eve.

and that is that we typically will bring in the new year with adoration and we'll go to the chapel and pray and get on our knees and pray and welcome in the new year with the Lord and do a little Lexio-Devina reading scripture for a few minutes and just seeing what the Lord has for us. But I really do pray that this year will be an amazing year for you. I'm going to be working on some new things this year. Just recently, I have my new book out, The Activated Disciple and the 40-day challenge after that to act like a disciple. We can put that in the show notes for you. It's at ascensionpress.com.

But that's really, I think, at the heart of what I'm trying to do this next year is I want to be a more effective disciple of Jesus Christ. You know, not only believing him, but becoming like him and doing what he does. And that's really my goal. I have a goal for holiness this year. You know, we all struggle, don't we? Boy, I want to be holy. I want to be holy. That's the desire of my heart is to be a holy disciple for the Lord.

And this last year, our kids are now out of the house, and it's Emily and I in a townhome now. We downsized back, you know, this last year. And it's just the two of us, and we're learning kind of a new way of life, kind of like when we first got married, you know, for the first few years, it was just the two of us. So we're doing more together now than ever before. We're praying in the morning for an hour, having a cup of tea in the morning together, and growing, hopefully, together in holiness. And I appreciate your prayers. I have a couple things I'm going to be working on this year, some books I'm working on. We're going to be going to Israel in January, and then I'm going to be in the Baton Rouge area all of February,

down in Louisiana and Mississippi, go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and you look under teaching, travel, I think it is. And the whole schedule is down there. We're going to be in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mississippi. It's going to be a wonderful, wonderful month in the South, meeting our friends. And I'm going to be doing an amazing mission, I hope it is. I think it's going to be with Father Josh Johnson. And you've seen him on Ascension Press. I'm going to be at his parish in Baton Rouge, and we're just going to have a wonderful time. We love working together, and I think it's going to be a great time. I'll be at Sister Dulce's place over in Baton Rouge and meeting all the friends there.

And I'm going to be staying with a very good brother, John Fulse, the famous Cajun chef from Baton Rouge. We're going to be spending a lot of time with him. So we're looking forward to that. And then, after that, we're home for just a week or so, and then we're going off to Australia. And we're going to, in fact, I'm going to be bringing the show, this show to Australia. I have a five-city tour for teaching and the great adventure, the new Bible, activated disciple. We're looking forward to that. And then on the way home, we're stopping at Manila.

And then we're going to come home and have a dairy queen. So it'll be a lot of work, but it's going to be good. I look forward to seeing all of you in Australia. It's my first time there. And Manila, I really look forward to seeing you as well. So pray for me, and I'm going to pray for you this new year, that it's going to be a fruitful year for you, and it'll be as fruitful as much as we put into it. As much as we put into this year in our relationship with the Lord, that's what we're going to get out of it. We don't want to just expect results without doing our part. And the Lord is there to meet us, and he wants to change us, and he wants to utilize us. in his kingdom. It's going to be a great year. Well, God bless you. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I pray for my brother. I pray for my sister right now that this new year will be a fantastic year in the kingdom and that they will not only grow in intimacy with you, but they will also grow in themselves in terms of virtue, fighting vice, and hearing your voice and becoming activated disciples. I pray

Lord, that you will be honored and glorified, and your kingdom will expand as a result of the work that we're doing and the relationship that I have with my friend here, that in the course of this relationship, there will be fruitfulness. To you be all the glory, and thank you, Mother Mary, for praying for us and interceding for us this new year. We pray Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is a fruit, thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. God bless you. Happy New Year.