The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Two Bible Verses & A Song Before Confession

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

How do you prepare for confession? Jeff shares a unique approach to get our hearts ready to encounter Jesus in this powerful sacrament. 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 451, two verses and a song before confession. Well, hello, my friend. Thank you again for joining me. And are you ready? Every week we delve into discipleship, scripture, every aspect of walking with Jesus, becoming like him.

I hope you did well last week. Last week, I actually gave an assignment out about humility. You might remember that. If you didn't listen last week, go ahead and listen to that after the show. today, or if you just want to stop right now and go ahead and listen, that's fine, but talked about, you know, really looking at the movement of our hearts by a couple of days of taking notice of how we think about others, how we think about ourselves, what we say, what we do, and then a couple of days to focus on one of our favorite saints by reading some of their writings and what history

says about them and then taking a look at the difference between us and then asking that saint, please pray for us to become more like them. I hope you did it. I hope you did it. And wasn't just a show to accompany you while you were jogging, although it was nice to be with you when you were jogging, but more importantly, we want to become like Jesus. Now, today, this week, I'm going to do something so different. I have never done a show like this, ever, and I'm up to 451 shows, and I've never done a show like this. And it came out of three different times where two scriptures and a song hit me combined with being in confession. It'll make sense when I'm done. Don't worry.

But I want to share with you, and this is not the definitive preparation for going to confession, but it's an idea that I think might be good for you. I'm going to give you two verses to think about, bring with you, meditate on, and the lyrics of a song. and I think that that could change your experience of going to confession. At least try it, right? It did with me. And so I thought, you know what? I'm going to share this with you because everything I do that seems to work in my life,

I think, oh, I'm going to share that with you. And I hope that it has the same impact on you that it had on me. So I'm going to have two verses in the Bible and a song. We're going to take a look at these. I'm not going to go through all of it, but I'm going to give you enough to give you a flavor for what hit me when I went to confession with these three. I like that title. Two verses and a song before confession.

Before I get going, if you want the scriptures, if you want the show notes, all you got to do, if you are new, is text my name, Jeff Kavins, one word Jeff Kavins, and text it to the number 3377. That's 3377. Oh, and by the way, before I get into this, I'm afraid I'm going to forget. get, so I'm going to say it now. Did you know that this podcast now comes from within the Ascension app, along with a bunch of others? Now it's easier than ever to introduce other people to the show. So I'd ask you to do it. I'd ask you to think about just one or 200 people that

you could share it with this week. That would be just perfect. So thank you so much. And please know I pray for you and I know that in getting email from you, I know you're praying for me and I appreciate that so much. Now, I'm going to share with you these two verses and a song, but I'm going to share with you what really hit me when I went to confession last time and what the priest said to me when I started my confession. It blew me away. I mean I have never ever felt like this in a confession before, in a confessional, but because of what the priest said to me. And he said it twice, once at the beginning, once at the end. Okay. You know how it is when you go to confession. You go in there. And by the way, if you haven't been to confession

for a long time, get on over there. So I don't know that much. I kind of forgot. Don't worry about you. You go in. You tell the priest, I forgot. Now, you can Google this and find out very easy. But if you just want to go on there and admit you don't know. That's fine. They love it when people come back to confession. And you have to remember, as I'm sharing this with you, that when you go to confession, it's in Personic Christi. The priest is in Personic Christi. The priest is there. It's Jesus listening through this priest and absolving you of your sins and giving you penance. That is to repair the damage that's done. And real quickly, if you are in venial sin, it weakens your relationship with the Lord.

Serious sin, mortal sin, it breaks the relationship. You definitely need to go to confession. So there I was with my rather small list of sins. I'm hiding the evidence. It's actually a little bit longer, but I want you to think that I'm holy. So I had this small list of sins, and I went to the confessional, and I'm standing in line waiting. And normally this church has praise music going on

in the congregation, they didn't on that day. So you hear this little muffling, you know, those voices coming in from the confessional. I thought, hmm, don't be afraid. I've been there. No one's listening. So I'm standing there and it comes my turn to go into the confessional. And when you go in, you, you, and this was not face to face, it was behind a veil.

And I said, Father, you know, forgive me for I've sinned my last confession. But before I said that, upon entering the confessional, I hear the words from, the priest as I knelt down. He said, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I am ready to hear your confession. I love you. I stopped. I'm like, what? I totally, it totally stopped me in my tracks. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I'm here to hear your confession. I love you. I've never heard that. No one's ever said that to me in the confessional. Now, I know it's in Persona Christi. This is Jesus. Jesus is telling me, I love you. You're here. You're about to confess sin. I want you to know, I love you. Hearing those words in the

confessional, if you're a priest, you know, and you're listening right now about this and you're interested in the topic and, you know, and I know most priests are, oh, you want to stop someone in their tracks. And they know that Jesus is the one they're talking to. And you say, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I'm ready for your confession. I love you. I literally stopped for about 15, 20 seconds. And the priest said, you're here? You're okay? And I said, yeah, yeah. I was choked up. I was choked up. I said, oh my gosh. To hear those words in a confessional when I'm about to confess sin. It made me want to open up even more, you know.

It's so good. I'll make stuff up. No, I'm kidding. But you know what I mean? I just opened up my heart. I love you. And I could have stopped right there and said, you know what? That's all I needed to hear. That's all I needed to hear today is you love me, Jesus. It stopped me cold. I didn't even know what to say. I was so touched by those words. And sometimes we're afraid to go to confession, but every time we do, those words are true. I love you. Even before you begin to confess your sins, you are loved. There's a word for this that theologians call.

They call it prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is a drawing. Jesus is drawing you to himself. And the church teaches us that even before you made your mind up to go to confession one morning or afternoon, Jesus was drawing you. Jesus was drawing you. And now there I am and I kneeled down and I hear, I love you. Wow.

All right. So I also heard it at the end. After he said, I absolve you of all of your sins. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I love you. I almost went and just wanted to give him a great big hug. You know, I thought this is amazing. just to hear those words. You know, I think about when we talk about the charygma

and sharing the gospel with people, what does it mean for someone to hear, I love you from Jesus? Someone who's addicted, someone who's an alcoholic, someone who's losing their marriage, someone who is losing their job, someone who's lonely, I love you. I just want you to know Jesus loves you so much.

Very powerful. It's the beginning of the charygma. God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Okay, wow, that could have been the whole show right there. Now, the two verses that I'd ask you to think about when you go into confession and read before you go in and meditate on them. The first one is Psalm 51. Psalm 51, give you the context here, it's a Psalm of David. You know that David wasn't always an upright man, and you know the story of David and Bashiba, Eurya's wife and how he committed adultery and had Eurya killed.

But he was so convicted. Now, Saul, he messed up a couple times, but he didn't have a repentant heart. And so the kingdom was yanked from Saul given to David a man after God's own heart. And part of having that heart after God is what you read in Psalm 51. Because Psalm 51 is the Psalm that David wrote after he got nailed by name. faith in the prophet for what he did with Bathsheba. This is the Psalm. This is his heart. This is his confession. And so when you read this slowly before you go to confession, make it your prayer, say, Lord, I want a heart after you too. I don't want to run. I don't want to hide. I don't

want to deny. I'm just going to be straightforward about this. I have sinned. Now listen to the words here for a moment. Okay. Psalm 51. This is a David, after he got nailed by Nathan the prophet, nailed is being called out, you know. And he says, have mercy on me, oh God, according to thy steadfast love, according to thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. In other words, he's saying, I can't stop thinking about this. Consumes me at night.

I weep. I think about it during the day of what I have done. My sin is ever before me. Verse four, against thee, the only have I sinned. And done that which is evil in thy sight so that thou are justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. So what's David's saying there? Well, David's saying, I've sinned against you, you alone. Well, we know he's sin against Eurya. We know that that sin, you know, according to the teachings of John Paul II, had reverberating effects that touches everybody, but he's saying, at the heart

of this, this, what I did with Beshiba, was against you. And I've done that, which is evil in thy sight. And so I'm justified in my sentence. You see, when you are in sin, you are not begging for justice. We always want justice for everybody else. But we, what do we want? We want mercy. Mercy. And behold, he says in verse five, I was brought forth iniquity and in sinned and my mother conceive me. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward being. Therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. So there he is confessing his sins. And he's not just getting there, getting a confession done. So he's got, you know, it can feel good for a few days until he wants to go back in. He's saying, I need wisdom.

Teach me. Teach me in this confession. Verse seven, purge me with hyssop. And I shall be clean, wash me. And I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

And then verse 10, he says this. And I just love it. He says, create in me a clean heart, oh God. and put a new and right spirit within me. Isn't that the words for confession? You might do a little addendum to your act of contrition and just kind of lay that down. Creating me a clean heart, oh God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

That's what it's about. Created me a clean heart, God. I'm so sorry. I know I've sinned against you. And then he says in verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy, spirit from me. Isn't that beautiful? Cast me not away from my presence. He must have felt like he was away from the Lord's presence in his sin. I know I feel that way. Restore to me the joy of

thy salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. So this is the correction that's taking place. He's saying, restore that joy to me and give me a willing spirit to do what is right. He says, And then in verses 13 through 16, he kind of talks about what he's going to do with this. He says, then I'll teach transgressors thy ways. I'm going to teach people. And sinners will return to thee. As a result of me being here in confession, sinners will return. Deliver me from blood guiltness.

O God, thou God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. I'm going to rejoice in what you are doing in my life. Oh, Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth. show forth thy praise. For thou hast no delight and sacrifice were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldest not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God,

thou wilt not despise. That's the heart of David, a broken spirit, a contrite heart. Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then will thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on thy own.

That is an incredible verse. When we come back, I'm going to share with you one more verse and a song to bring in a confession. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and I'm excited to announce that I'll be hosting season four of the Catholic Classics podcast from Ascension Press. This year, we'll read through the imitation of Christ by Thomas Acampus and unpack the timeless wisdom and profound spiritual lessons laid out in this book. You guys, the imitation of Christ is the second most widely read Catholic devotional ever written only behind the Bible. And so many saints have read this book, so many people have been inspired to imitate the life and teachings of Jesus

through this podcast. You will learn what it means to imitate Christ and how we can do that in a world that seems to only want to pull us away from him. Starting October 22nd in the Ascension app, we'll read a section of the book every single day and then unpack what it means and how it applies to our lives today. If you'd like to join me, you can download the reading plan for this series by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Catholic Classics. I'll see you on October 22nd in the Ascension app, and God bless. Welcome back.

Wasn't that beautiful before the break, Psalm 51? I'm going to put it in the show notes for you. Print it out if you want or just bring your Bible and read about it, soak in it, and marinate in it before you go to confession. Now, the second scripture I have for you is John 20, verses 21 through 23. Now, I put this in here because some people need to be reminded when they go into confession that Jesus gave the power and authority to forgive in his name. And he gave this to the leadership of the church in John chapter 20.

And so I wanted you to hear these words, and I think that it's worth listening to, before you go into confession, to remind you that Jesus, Jesus is the one who gave the authority. He's the author of this whole thing we call confession. You say, well, it'd be nice if I could go to confession with Jesus. Yeah, that's what Prasanna Christi is all about. That's why we as Catholics are so blessed. That's why we have this embarrassment of riches.

Because you get to go to confession with Jesus. He gives this gift to the priests. And now you get to do that. Who in the world would fight against that? anyway I digress John 20 listen to this Jesus said this is verse 21 through 23 Jesus said to them again peace be with you as the father has sent me even so I send you

and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven if you retain the sins of any they are retained. Now, that is for the priest. Now, can we forgive sins? Absolutely. I cannot forgive your mortal sin. You have to go to confession for that. But yes, of course, I can forgive people. I can forgive people. But at the ecclesial level, God has given us this sacrament. And the

sacrament is not a walk in the park with a human. The sacrament is an encounter with Jesus. That's why it's important to understand that the priest is in Personic Christi. This is an encounter with Jesus. And that verse, John 20 there, that's a good one to match with Psalm 51 when you think. Now, let me give you the song that I brought with me and I didn't play it, obviously. I suppose you could, but I read the word. words. And the words are so touching. We just got back from over a week ago, got back from Poland

and our canter, Addie Diaz. Oh man, is she good? What a singer. And we have brought her to so many different pilgrimages because she so blesses people. And she sang this song in the mass I don't know, four or five times. And every time I was like, oh, I just need to hear this. I need to hear these words. So let me share the words with you. I'm just going to, you just marinate in it for a minute here. And then I'll put them in the show notes for you. Okay. It's a song that was written in 2021 by C.C. Wynan's family is the praise and worship family. And she's, she sings at concerts all over the world. The song is called goodness of God. Goodness of God. and I read this before and after I went to confession

and I actually listened to it in the car on the way home. Nearly got a ticket. I was so excited. So listen to the words here. Now listen to these in light of confession and Jesus saying, I love you. I love you. Listen. This is from C.C. Weinand's. I love you, Lord.

For your mercy never fails me. All my days, I've been hell. in your hands. From the moment that I wake up, until I lay my head, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. Because all my life you have been faithful. And all my life, you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able,

oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire. In darkest night, you are close like no other. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God. All my life, you have been faithful.

Oh, yes, you have. And all my life, you have been so, so good. with every breath that I am able. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. With my life laid down, I surrender now.

I give you everything. Oh, Lord, your goodness is running after. It's running after. With my life laid down, I surrender now. I give you everything. your goodness is running after, it keeps running after me. And all my life you have been faithful, and all my life you have been so, so good.

With every breath that I am able, oh, I'm going to sing of the goodness of God. I'm going to sing. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so, so good. Isn't that beautiful? Amazing.

And when you put together knowing that the Lord loves you and Psalm 51 and John 20 and Cecey Wine and song, goodness of God, you are going to leave a new person. Give it a try. Really, I encourage you. Give it a try.

Do it. And I would love to hear from you and I'm curious, did it have the same impact as it had on me? I mean, I was reduced to tears. I was really reduced to tears. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire, the darkest night. You are close like no other. I've known you as a father.

I've known you as a friend and I have lived in the goodness of God. Because all my life you've been faithful. Let's pray. Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, thank you for the sacrament of reconciliation. I thank you, Lord, for calling us to yourself, wooing us to yourself to love us and hold us. And I thank you, Lord, that we hear the words, I love you, and in the forgiveness we experience that love. Convert our hearts, Lord, that we would not desire sin at all, but to be with you in righteousness, in a right relationship,

free of sin, free of the trappings of this world. May we be attracted to you. You have been so, so good. So good. Amen. God bless you, my friend. I love you, and I hope you have a wonderful week. Thank you.