The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Slow Faith

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

Growing in faith is difficult in our fast-paced, distraction-heavy lives. Jeff Cavins slows things down to help us focus on prayer and Jesus. Snippet from the Show “The pace of a disciple is not hurried. As we look at the saints, we see people who spent a lot of time with Jesus.” Ways We Can Slow Down Our Lives * Prayer * Read the Bible and learn about the Story of Salvation * Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church * Take some time to relax and sit in the presence of the Lord Resources * Jeff’s Email: [e-mail] * The Great Adventure Bible Timeline study (https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-bible-timeline-the-story-of-salvation)

You're listening to the Jeff Kavana show, episode 135, Slow Faith. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. 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 this week.

fresh off of the airplane. We went on out to Orange County, California, to Christ Cathedral and had a Bible timeline for just a wonderful group of people back home now and in the process of getting refreshed. And traveling is always, it's always great to meet people around the country, but it also can take a little bit of a toll on you. You know those airplanes and the air pressure and all that. and sleeping in foreign hotels instead of your home and different cooking. But it was good to be out there. And I want to say hi to all of you who took the time to come out and dedicate a day of your life to study the Bible. We had, I think, just under 700 people went through the entire Bible out in Orange County.

And it was a pleasure to be with you. And it always exhilarates me to go through the entire Bible in a day. And yes, it's time-consuming in a day. so many ways, but boy, is it worth it to be able to pass on the keys to how to read the Bible and how to enter into the Bible in a devotional way. And for the last 20 years, that's what I've been dedicated to is going around the world and sharing with people the entire story of salvation history with the hopes that they will enter a relationship with God that will be meaningful and paste correctly. I said paste correctly. And that's kind of what I

I'm going to be talking about today is something I would call slow faith, in contrast to such a hurried faith and such a fast-paced life that robs us from the nurturing that we really need in our hearts. And I know that if you're listening to this show today, I appreciate that. And I know that taking a little bit of time out of your day to listen to what I might be sharing with you, that's appreciated. It's a sacrifice. And I hope that all the shows that I do will not take you away from that relationship with the Lord, but will help you to build your relationship with Christ, to be an activated disciple, a modern disciple of the Lord. That's really what this is all about.

And if you ever find that this show is taking you away from that core relationship with Jesus Christ and getting into all kinds of other goofy social things and stuff, just unsubscribe, please. You don't need to be listening, but I sure hope that we stay on track here and that the show is a benefit to you. I do want to talk about slow faith today, and that's in opposition to what you would guess is a fast-paced life when it comes to the Catholic faith. And some of the things that I see out there, I just personally think, are just robbing people of the time that they could use to develop their relationship with the Lord. our faith is not made up of just simply running around on social media and subscribing to this and that and listening to this and that and I include my own show in that, that if it ever veers from that target of Jesus Christ and walking with Jesus, there's probably some better things to do,

at least certainly some more entertaining things to do. Now, before we get into that, today I've got a couple of emails that were particularly encouraging to listen to, and we get email from all over the country, and I do invite your email, your comments and your suggestions on show ideas. My email is simply the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. That's the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. Cindy writes me and says, Dear Jeff, I just wanted to let you know that I heard your show about writing in my Bible. I have a daughter who I am going to start doing this for, just moved out on her own, and I plan on doing this and giving it to her in the future.

Thank you so much for the great idea. I may also incorporate some artwork in the Bible by use of colored pencils and drawings. And what Cindy's referring there to as a former podcast that I did about writing in your Bible and encouraging people to buy a Bible and start underlining specific verses that you want your kids to know in the future. So if you've got two or three kids, you can get two or three Bibles and start underline. lining and writing little messages in there. And maybe when they go off to college, you can give them the Bible, and they'll hear your heart and what you've been praying for them all this time. That was Show 119. Parents write in your Bible. And Cindy, thank you for your response. I

really appreciate it. Goa from India, India, a country I pray for a lot. I appreciate the people from India, and also the move of the Holy Spirit in India today is incredible. She writes, says, Jeff, this is, oh, she's from Goa. She's from Goa. Savio, Savio from Goa. Sorry about that. She is a Catholic, and she said a few months back, I was introduced to you regarding a Catholic Bible study course I was desperately looking for. As I checked online, the prices were way beyond my present means, but a couple of days later, a cousin of mine from Bombay dropped in, and for some reason the topic of Jeff Kavens came up, and he said he purchased your complete set in the U.S. That's the great adventure Bible study 24 weeks, and he was more than willing to give it

to me. She says, I admire the way you teach. Your talks are filled with wise cracks. Wait a minute now. Yes, they are filled with wise cracks, but all of them are meaningful. I dream one day I step out and go and share the good news. Well, I hope so too, Savio, that you will step out and share the good news. She also went on and said just yesterday morning, my heart was suddenly very heavy and really sad. I began to cry for a long time, calling out to Jesus, but somehow there was no answer. But I felt relieved and continued by day. This morning at 5 a.m. when I turned on to Spotify, I saw your talk was entitled, Is Your Heart Troubled? I thought it was dreaming, she said, but as you spoke, I realized this talk is for me. Out of the thousands of listeners you have, I am pretty sure

this talk was Savio-specific. I thank Jesus for doing that, and I specifically thank you for talking to me. May God bless you and your family. I pray you reach out to millions more. Thank you, Savio. I appreciate that, and it really is good to hear your feedback on what you're getting out of the podcast. Well, I want to talk today, I don't want to take a long time, but I want to talk to you today about slow faith, slow faith, and that's in contrast to fast pace, faith. One of the things that I have been caught up from time to time, and I'm sure you have as well, and I've made some observations about our culture today and observations about Catholic ministries and Christian ministries as well, there seems to be a real push for trying to get everybody

to be a part of what you're doing in the world, and that's okay. I mean, everybody has a calling, and everybody wants to do something special. The problem is, is that when we as in a part of, individuals start subscribing to everything and responding to everything, we never really get around to the basics of the faith, of prayer, and Bible study, Bible reading, and mass, and adoration, and so forth. It's interesting that a few years ago, there was a lady, and her name escapes me at the time. I'm sure you can Google it, you know, and you'll find it on YouTube or somewhere. it was a lady who had been listening to Oprah Winfrey for years, and after listening to Oprah Winfrey for years, and you know that almost every single show that Oprah ever put out was some kind of

angle on how to get your life together, you know, whether it's weight or whether it's diet or meditation or worldview or dealing with suffering or whatever, whatever it was, there's hundreds of topics. This lady decided that she was going to put all of Oprah's shows into practice in a year. In other words, she was going to take all these quote-unquote fantastic ideas, and she was going to implement them in her life in one year. So the first day, she started doing one thing, and the next day added another thing, the next day, another thing. And it was really interesting because her final conclusion was that there were a lot of suggestions out there and a lot of apps and websites and programs. And

programs and, you know, regiments and so forth. But as she started to accumulate all of these ideas, her life was nearly destroyed. That's right. Her life was nearly destroyed by all these good suggestions. Her health went downhill. Her emotions were frazzled and nearly had a nervous breakdown. A breakdown about what? About accumulating all these good ideas. Now, I think this can happen, to be honest with you, it can happen in Christian circles, where you are watching or listening to 20, 25 different podcasts or websites, Instagram accounts, Facebook, programs, subscribing to this, go into that, your church. And after a while, you're just plain burned out by chasing a dream and a hope and the miracle of maybe, you know? And our lives become so busy and eventually we just kind of

drop out. My recommendation is, and understand where I'm coming from, that I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing things out there, but ultimately, and I do mean this with all of my heart, Ultimately, that's not where the answer is. All of the programs, all of the apps, all of the different Instagram accounts, and so forth, may, may supplement your faith, and they may contribute to someone's conversion, may. But the central place for all of us to be as Christians is focused on Jesus Christ and the fundamental disciplines of our faith. And without that, we don't have a faith. We are fans and not followers. We are enthusiasts, but not disciples. And I think that today's podcast this week

is for you. If you feel hectic, you feel like you're not going anywhere. If you feel like you're just, you're grasping for ideas out there, this podcast is for. you. You see, everything is so fast these days. I don't have to tell you about social media and how much social media takes up in our lives. I've just been doing some research this week on major companies out there and ex-employees of these major social media companies who, after quitting, came clean and said, I got to tell you, we're all about programming our apps to interrupt your day. We want to interrupt your day. We want to grab your eyes, grab your ears, grab your mind, and hopefully we're going to sell you something, and we're going to steer you

down a particular path. We've got to be careful of this, that our minds do not go down those paths, and we do not fall to addiction on social media. The one that you are searching for ultimately is Jesus Christ. I've got news for you. He doesn't have a website. He doesn't have an Instagram account, and he's not tweeting. Oh, the body of Christ is. Don't get me wrong. And a lot of times it's not that useful. I was talking to someone earlier this morning, and I said, you know, if I look over the last five years or so, there is very, very little that I've ever found on social media that I would say, man, I needed to hear that. but I have found what I've needed to hear in scripture, prayer, adoration, the holy sacrifice

of the Mass, the rosary, time spent with Jesus, slow down, slow down, and exercise slow faith. When we take a break here on the other side of it, I want to talk to you about some of the major disciplines in our life, and I think some suggestions on how you can slow down and experience slow faith. I think it might surprise you how much time it takes to actually become mature in Christ and how much time it takes to actually develop a relationship with Christ. It's not quick. It's not on the internet. It's in real time. And we'll talk about that right after this. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Do you find it difficult to enter into the mysteries of the rosary? What about personally applying them to your life?

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All right, we're back, and we're talking about slow faith today. And I hope that in your life right now, you're not burned out because of a fast faith and involved in everything out there that you can possibly imagine. The danger of it is that we're involved with so much and subscribe to so much, and that we get a very rarely get around actually doing the basics of what is required of us as disciples of the Lord. Before the break, I spoke a little bit about social media, but there are ways that we can slow down in our lives, the ways we can

slow down. And I think that our faith has suffered to agree by living in this fast-paced world of ours. If we just took a day and we just focused on the Lord, wouldn't that be refreshing? I thought about this this morning, and I thought, wouldn't it be great if you could just take a day, and rather than checking social media and watching YouTube videos and all that kind of stuff in Instagram, wouldn't it be great to just take a day and pray? Take some time to pray. Shut everything down and pray. Maybe take a walk and take your rosary with you and just take a long walk and slowly pray the rosary. Maybe when you come back, you take some time to do some reading about the faith and then go to Mass and maybe read a little bit more and take another walk and then go to adoration. Wouldn't it be something that if every once in a while in our life we just had slow faith and took a day totally dedicated to the Lord? You know people do this all the time.

They take days and they dedicate them to certain purposes all the way from taking a day dedicated to the state fair to a day dedicated to the Cub Scout troops or whatever it might be. Wouldn't it be nice just to put on your schedule and say, I'm going to slow down? I'm going to take a day. I'm going to take a day. maybe two, maybe three, a month where all it is is Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary and the communion of saints, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity. Don't get caught in the trap of spending all of your time listening to people talk about God and not talk to God. Don't get caught up in the trap of spending all of your time listening to other people,

talk about social issues. And you yourself have not. read the Word of God. I remember telling a few friends of mine, this was, I don't know, it was probably years ago. It was years ago we were talking about the condition of the church today, and we all kind of came to the same conclusion at once, and that was, isn't it odd that so many faithful Catholics today would be involved in so many different ventures, yet many of them, and I'm not saying you, I'm not saying you. If the shoe fits, you know what I mean, fit, wear it. But they would be involved in so many different things, television, radio, internet, and books, and CDs, and you name it. And yet they don't even know the Bible. They don't even know salvation history, the basic story of the Bible,

salvation history. It's the very thing I've dedicated my life to. And I think sometimes the Lord just had me do that because he knew I would never get it any other way. But this is one of the problems. Or they don't know the catechism, but they know all the arguments today on Twitter about poor church leadership and everything else, but they don't even know the basics about the four pillars of the catechism. This isn't right. This is a fast-paced Christianity that is taking us off course. We need to have slow faith in our lives. So, for example, prayer. When was the last time that you took significant time to be with Jesus? Did you just spend a few minutes in the morning and then run off with your coffee? Or do you take significant time with Jesus' slow faith? Even as I say that,

doesn't that sound good? It does to me. Slow faith. Slow faith. Take time to pray. Maybe Lexio de Vina in the morning. You know, and here's how we describe it. And this silly, it only takes 20 minutes, you know. We're trying to encourage people by saying, it only takes 20 minutes. Give me a break. You get to be with Jesus. Take as much time as you want. Get up earlier if you want. Take an hour. Prayer. Spend time with the Lord. You see, the shape of your day reflects the love of your life. Prayer, Lexio Divina. The examined prayer late at night before you go to bed. Slow down. Slow down. And then number two, Bible reading, of course, is one of my favorites, Bible reading. Before you get involved in 10 online Catholic services, read the Bible.

read the Bible and read the Catechism, please. It takes time to read the Bible. It takes time to know his story. It takes time to know the four pillars of the catechism. It takes time to know the positive faith that has been given to us. Let me give you an example. And when I read these numbers, I know what you're going to think, because I've thought this at times myself too. Where in the world am I going to find all of that time? Well, okay, Genesis. the book of Genesis. It's three and a half hours of reading. Just that. Slow faith. Slow down. Get to know Genesis. Exodus is three hours. Leviticus, well, we'll skip that for now. You know. We'll get that later. But anyway, it's two hours. Numbers is three hours. We go on and you can see great books like the Psalms. Five hours. When are you going to do it? when are you going to find time you got to slow down you need slow faith five hours for just psalms what are you giving your time to what where can you get that five hours from the recent studies say that millennials spend three and a half hours on social media every single day that's genesis

just tomorrow just tomorrow give up social media you got genesis just tomorrow slow faith slow faith Isaiah, 3.75 hours. Daniel, one and a quarter. Let's go down to the New Testament, shall we? Matthew, two and a half hours. Mark, one and a half. Luke, two and a half. John, two.

Acts, 2.3. Romans one hour. First Corinthians, one hour. It's great, isn't it, Philippians? Fourteen minutes. I got a whole list of all these. Maybe I'll put them in the show notes. We'll see.

But anyway, that's what I'm getting at is Bible reading, the number of people I know that are so involved in social discourse and this and this and that, and they don't even know salvation history. Slow down. Slow down. How about adoration? Just take some time and go and sit with the Lord and think, yeah, what will I do? Can I bring my phone in there? Oh, give me a break. No, just slow down. and sit before the Lord. Yeah, but what will happen? Well, you don't have to see.

God can do amazing things in your heart if you just slow down and listen to them. But if you're at that fast pace, how in the world is he supposed to speak to you other than the cute little tweets and the little Instagram pictures and everything else that we're getting? Slow down.

How about a rosary? You can do it when you're walking. You can do it sitting on the back porch. You can do it over lunch break. you can pray the rosary. It's beautiful. Taking time to talk to someone else about the Lord, slow down. Give them your time.

Give them the best that you have. It might be someone at work. It might be your children who right now you're just so busy that you don't have the time to really sit down with them and talk to them about a lesson from the Bible, a lesson from one of the saints. Life is just too busy. You can't do that. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. You see, the pace of a disciple is not hurried. You don't see this in Jesus' life. He wanted to accomplish what the father had for him. And the pace of his life reflected the love of his life, which was the father. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not chastising you. I'm not talking at you. I'm talking with you, because I need to hear this too.

I need to hear this too. I need to hear about slowing down and breathing in the faith and the relationship with Jesus. You know, as you look back at a lot of the saints, Mother Teresa was one. You don't see someone that was involved in social media. and advertising and marketing their platform all day long. Didn't happen. She did what she was called to do. She spent time with Jesus.

And as a result of that, she lived a rich and full life. Oh yeah, she had her struggles, and she wrote about it in her book, but she had a rich and full life doing what God called her to do. And if you're a mother or you're a father, you're a husband or a wife, you have a vocation that you are called to. And to the degree that you give yourself to that, by slowing down your life and experiencing slow faith to grow in that vocation, you're going to be happier. You really are.

Unfortunately, our faith has really suffered in these modern times. And when devotions become fast, we are in trouble. We're in trouble. We are in trouble at that point. So I want to encourage you today to take a deep breath, and if you feel like, you know, things are out of control or you never really get what you need to follow the Lord, I would encourage you to make some priorities. One, really make time for Jesus in prayer. You've got 24 hours a day. Yeah, but you have my schedule is so busy.

Well, listen, you've got seven days. Each one has 24 hours. It's up to you how you're going to spend it. If God had given you an 11-day week, the problem would still be the same because of our decision-making. So I would encourage you, make it a priority to spend time with Jesus. Slow down. Enter into slow faith. Don't worry about what's not being done. Give yourself to the most important thing, the priority in your life, which is your relationship with Jesus. Number two, start reading God's word. I just shared with you that Genesis is three.

and a half hours, start dedicating a chunk of your time to reading his word. And at the risk of sounding like I'm trying to sell something, I'm not. The great adventure Bible study is perfect for you to learn the 14 narrative books and get the amazing story of salvation history. And all you got to do is go to ascensionpress.com and get signed up there with an account and get a workbook and start going through that. and commit yourself to knowing the story. And then read the catechism. At the same time, there's an index in the catechism that gives you all the

scripture verses, and you can kind of go back and forth with them and begin to understand this great deposit of faith that's laid out in the catechism. It's really a phenomenal gift. so prayer, a Bible study, but I'd also recommend that as part of your prayer that you would have with the rosary and, of course, Lexio de Vina, but just take some time to chill. Chill is the Greek word for relax, joke, okay? Do not tell that to your local theologian, but take some time to chill. Take some time just to relax and don't worry yourself about thinking about it.

everything. Just sit in the presence of the Lord, give your life to him, ask him to speak to you, and to lead you and guide you in the way that he wants to. I just felt really compelled today all day long to share this with you. There's so many things we can share, you know, so many things we can talk about. Certainly, certainly we could talk about politics and certainly we could talk about church problems, and certainly we could talk about, whatever, you know, with all the new things happening. Let's slow down, experience slow faith, and give yourself to the essentials. It's just a encouraging word today. You may say, wow, I've heard you say things like that before. That's good. It's good to hear it again. But I don't think I've ever shared these things on my podcast.

So let's do that, shall we? Slow faith. slow faith allow me to pray for you and pray that god will will bring you to that place of simplicity that place of meaningfulness that place of relationship that place of intimacy and purpose but you're going to have to slow down if you want it promise in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen lord we love you Oh, God, we love you. And here we are in the Garden of Eden and the place where everything's beautiful

and everything's tasty. And everything will make us wise and the best that we can be. But, Lord, there's more than this, and it's you. Help us to see through all of this and to come to you and to give our lives to you. Help us, Lord, to prioritize our lives with you

right there at the center in the head. help us, Lord, to give our time to prayer and Bible study and to intimacy with you, the Eucharist, confession, all the sacraments. We thank you, Lord, for giving us this wake-up call and calling us to slow down. You have said that there is a lot of trouble in the world, but be of good cheer. You have overcome the world. Lord, there's so much to be worried about, but we refuse to do it. We center our attention on you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I want you to know something, my friend, and I mean it with all my heart. I love you. And I genuinely care about our spiritual growth, you and me. Together, let's experience slow faith.

Thank you.