The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Who's in Your Spiritual Posse?

Episode Date: February 24, 2017

Something has made a big difference in Jeff’s prayer life over the past month, and he wants to share it with you. Find out how the Communion of Saints can transform your spiritual life and learn tips for developing your own "spiritual posse."

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. Welcome to The Jeff Kaven Show. I'm Jeff Kavins.

Glad you could join me today. Spend a little bit of time together. You know, on each of the shows, I'm going to be sharing stuff with you that is happening in my everyday life, things that I'm discovering, things that I'm celebrating all of that. And this show is no different. I was driving down the road just a couple days ago and thinking, you know what, I need to share with all my friends around the world, which I'm so blessed to have so many really good friends like you and others. But to share it with my friends, something that's been happening in my life over the last, oh, I guess five months, maybe, five or six months. There's been kind of a transformation that has taken place in terms of my prayer life. And I thought that I would share that with you today. Because I know that sometimes in our life, our prayer life gets a little dull, or we get into a routine that it starts to feel like it's just rote.

It's not really coming from our heart. it's not based in reality, and we're starting to wonder even if our prayers are being heard or they're effective. And so I guess I stumbled upon this in some way, and it has really made a difference in my life. And so I hope you'll stay with me, because I'm going to be sharing with you not only what I'm doing on a daily basis right now, which has ignited my prayer life, but I'm also going to share with you a few friends that are joining me that have made a huge difference in my prayer life. And I would say have brought me to a new depth in my relationship with Jesus, my relationship with the Blessed Mother, and my relationship with the body of Christ at large.

So stay with me. This is The Jeff Kaven Show, and I'll be back in a moment. It's hard to live out your Catholic faith on your own. In fact, the Bible reveals that we need a community of people to help us on our journey of faith. If you're interested in finding that community by joining or starting a small group study, visit ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free Ascension account. With your account, you'll get all the tools you need to start walking with others towards Christ. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven Show. As I mentioned in my introduction today, I want to share with you something that has really

made a difference in my life over the last five or six months in the area of prayer, and I want to share it with you. I want to start off, though, by just asking you a question. And the question is this, if you could have anyone pray for you, who would it be? I mean, seriously, if you, right now, sky is the limit. I know you're going to say Mary and Jesus, and I know that, but we're going to take that off the table right now and just ask who is. would it be, the people that you might have heard of or known that is not the mother of God or the second person of the Trinity? Who would you have pray for you if it could be anyone? Would it be a cardinal? Maybe you are a big fan of Cardinal Dolan. You say, oh, I'll be great to talk to

Cardinal Dolan and have him pray for me. Maybe your bishop. Wouldn't it be nice if you'd just go into your bishop's office and say, Bishop, can I just, can I spend a few minutes with you and talk to you about, you know, something that's happening in my life and I just would ask for your prayers. Maybe someone that you would consider famous, you know, maybe that's who you would want to pray for you. I don't know who it is, but I'm sure that if you think about it long enough, you're going to come up with some kind of list of people you would like to pray for you. Or let me put it this way. When Mother Teresa was on earth, would you have appreciated her prayers? if you were over in Calcutta, and all of a sudden Mother Teresa came out and saw you,

and then she said, come on in, come on in, and sat you down with a cup of tea and a biscuit or something, and she said, you know, how can I pray for you? Would that have been a treat? I guess so. In fact, you probably would be telling everybody in your life about it, you know, that day that you met Mother Teresa, and she prayed for you. I remember the year before Pope John Paul II passed away. I had been covering him on EWTN. I covered him in Paris, in Rome, in Toronto, in St. Louis, and so on. And I was always pretty close to him, but I never got to actually sit down and talk to him

until a year before he died. And it was a year before he died that we were invited into his private library, myself, my wife and our children. And I remember it so well. We went in there, and we all knelt down in front of him, and he looked us in the eye, and he said, I want to bless your family. And I thought, wow, this is amazing. Pope John Paul II is saying, I want to bless your family.

Amazing. Well, what if you had a chance to have him pray for you when he was on earth? Would you have taken it? would you have valued his prayer more than just somebody in your church maybe in your parish more than me more than you know a bishop more than anybody else probably you'd probably say yeah i would value his prayer quite a bit quite a bit well that's what i want to talk to you about it's related to this i want to talk to you about something that i have kind of coined recently that is meaning an awful lot to me and that is that I am tapping in, in the last five or six months,

I'm tapping in to the communion of saints like never before in prayer. And I want to walk you through this in what I'm doing on a daily basis, and then I want to introduce you to some of my friends who are joining me on this walk of prayer. I want to start off by saying this. Christianity from the very beginning was never meant to be a solo sport. It's not just you and Jesus. You do have that relationship. I know, and I have that relationship, too. But it's not intended to be

solely, just you and Jesus. This is a family. The church is a family. You know, we come into Christ through the church, through the sacraments, and we read the Bible and interpret the Bible in the context of the church. Peter said that no interpretation is as private, but this is something that involves the whole family of God. So I want to start off by just encouraging you, whatever you're going through in your life today. Maybe you're driving down the road right now and you're listening to this show, and you're facing some difficult situations in your life.

You know, you might be facing a really tough family situation, whether it's marriage or your children. Maybe it's your health. Maybe you're waiting on lab tests right now, and frankly, you're nervous. and you're wondering just what the future holds for you. It might be your job. It might be your job. Maybe there's some unforgiveness in your heart due to something that happened at work.

I don't know. I don't know. Unemployment, maybe. I'm not sure. But you're going through something in your life right now that you could probably use some help in prayer. And isn't it interesting how when we run into tough times, we automatically ask people, hey, pray for me. Pray for me.

And the reason we do that is because every aspect of Jesus' messianic mission, healing, intercessory prayer, judging even, suffering, dying for us, every aspect of his messianic mission, if you read the scriptures closely, you'll see that he shares every aspect of his mission with his body, the body of Christ. And so in the area of intercession, yes, he is the one intercessor between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, but he shares that intercessory role with us and asks us to pray for each other. Suffering is the same thing. In Colossians 124, Paul wrote, I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and I fill up in my body, that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. And so we see that Jesus, yes, he suffered for the sins of the world, but he shares that suffering. with his body, and it has redemptive value.

Well, the area of intercession is what we want to talk about here today. Yes, Jesus is the one intercessor, but he asks us to pray for each other, and we're a body, and we can ask each other to pray for us. We don't want to do it alone, especially when you have access to incredible friends, incredible family members. What am I talking about when I mention friends and family members? I'm talking about the saints. This is the communion of saints. We have everything in common with them. I've heard some of my

Protestant friends say, well, you're praying to dead people when you pray and ask saints to pray for you. And that's simply not true. If you are in Christ and you die here on earth, you're still in Christ. And if I'm in Christ and St. Augustine's in Christ, then guess what? We're still joined. We're still family. And this is one of the most powerful aspects of being Catholic is that you're not alone. In whatever you're going through right now, you're not alone. And that is a beautiful thing. You're not alone. You have family members who can pray for you.

I love it. I absolutely love it. You know, John Paul II, properly called St. John Paul II now, do you know that he canonized more saints than any other pope? We need, you know why he did that? And I believe he said this at one point, is that we need role models now and bigger brothers and sisters more than ever. With what we're going through in life right now,

the change is taking place and social media and, you know, all of the networking that we're doing, man, we need help. We really need help. And so what I'm doing now in the last five or six months, I've always believed in the communion of saints. Don't get me wrong. But for some reason, in the last five or six months, God has me focusing on this like never before.

And you know what I've been doing? I have put together over the last five or six months what I call my posse. That's right. It's my posse. Now that's an older word. I understand that. And if you're my age, if you're over 50,

you understand what a posse is, a posse, or those are the guys you ride with, you know, back in the Western days. Maybe a more trendy phrase today would be my squad, you know, my squad of friends or my A team. So we'll use those a little interchangeably here on this broadcast today, but we'll call it my A team, my posse, my squad, but I've put together a group of five saints that I am particularly interested in, and I'm going to tell you in just in a few minutes, how I ended up getting so interested in these particular saints and how they relate to my, into my life. But I have put together this group of saints, I call them my posse, my squad, my A-team, and every day, I got a relationship

with them. Oh yeah, I have a relationship with Jesus. Don't get me wrong. That is the most important relationship in my life. And the Blessed Virgin Mary, you bet, as they say in Minnesota, you bet. I have that relationship with my mother. But guess what? There are some big, brothers and sisters that have gone before me, who also have a relationship with Jesus and the Blessed Mother, and I want to hang with them. I want to tap their wisdom. I want them to pray for me in the midst of what I'm doing, and particularly these certain saints that I have put together in my A-team, my posse, my squad, they are geared towards some of the areas I might be struggling within my life, and I think that they can help me. I think that they can help me. You know,

one of the things I'm going to talk to you about in just a few minutes is this idea of patron saints. And if you had been confirmed, if you've been baptized, most likely you took on the name of a saint, or your parents gave it to you, you know, and you have that name. Like, for example, for me, I'm Jeffrey Scott Joseph Kavens. Joseph was my confirmation. name. And so I have this extra name in my life. It's after a particular saint. And I'm going to talk to you about patron saints in just a moment because there are patron saints of everything you can imagine. We're going to take a look at that. But I put together this posse. And I actually, of these five saints that I'm walking with right now on a daily basis, I actually have a necklace. Now, I've never

historically been one to wear necklaces or jewelry of any kind. I don't know. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable. I don't like stuff hanging around my neck. But I did it in the last six months. And I've got it. You can hear it right here. You hear that? Those are my medals. Those are the medals. This is my posse. This is my squad, my A team. And I've got these and I'm wearing them. And I've been wearing them now for about six months. And I'm used to it. I'm used to it now. Now I don't wear these metals of the members that I'm with, these saints, because of it's a good luck charm or anything like that, because it's not, it's superstition. I'm wearing them because it's a daily reminder to me of who I'm with and who I'm trying to become more like, and I'm asking for their prayers. Now, I mentioned a moment

to go patron saints. There are patron saints of any need that you can think of. And I'm not going to go through all of them right now, but I mean, we know of St. Jude for hopeless causes, St. Anthony, if you've lost something. You can go online and Google patron saints, and there's a lot of sites that have lists all the way from patron saints of cancer, patron saint of dentistry, patron saint of communications like St. Clair and St. Maximilian Colby. There, there seems to be a patron saint of every sport, everything that you can think of, you know. So that's kind of a good starting point. But what I'm going to do before this broadcast is over is I'm going to challenge you to take some time and pray and come up with your own squad, your own A team, your own posse that you

can walk with for a while and pray and ask for their intercession. Now just a little bit, I'm going to tell you who mine are, but let me just, let me give you also a little bit more encouragement. During the day, you're going to need these saints, and you're going to want to ask them to pray for you. So one of the things that I'm suggesting is that you get real. You get real with the saints. And what I mean by that is that you start reading, if they are a saint that has anything written about them, first of all, get to know them, get to know their background. get to know their strengths, get to know their history. If they have any writing, start reading it. Start reading it and getting to know their heart. You know, one of the problems that we face in

today's age of information is that we have access to so much. And as a result, people, they just kind of grab it everything and they're trying to read everything. And as a result, they feel like they've read nothing. They don't remember a lot. But if you were to take, let's say, in my age, team, I've got five saints that I'm with constantly right now and asking for intercession. I'm looking into their lives to see, do they have any writings? And I'm trying to read smart, not just read everything, but read smart. And what I mean by that is, well, I'll tell you one of mine, St. John Paul II. I was in his library with him. I'm not going to forget about him, and I'm hoping he's not forgetting about me, and I don't think he is. But I want to learn as much

as I can about his thought, his philosophy, his theology, his life, is example. And so I'm going deep. Instead of going wide and reading a lot of everything, I'm going deep with a few that I can really get to know. Now, for you, it might be St. Torres of Lizzou. It might be, it might mean St. Jerome. It might mean St. Athanasius. It might mean Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whoever. But you get to know them and go deep into these relationships. I would contend that it's better to have a few that you really get to know and rely on in prayer than to have a whole, you know, five, six dozen that you know very little about. This is a real relationship.

It's not magic. It isn't waving a wand or anything like that. It's a real relationship with real living people who are in heaven. Okay. So that's what I would encourage you to do. but I also, when I say get real in the relationship, I mean start talking to them. Now, I have a routine every morning when I get up in the morning. And the first thing I say is, you know, good morning, Lord.

I mean, Jesus is the center of my life, the center of my life and the blessed mother. And then right after that, I just rattle off the names of those saints that are walking with me and say, thank you for praying for me today. Thank you for your example. Let's go now. Let's walk this great adventure. in life. And I'm getting, this is, this is kind of interesting. I am getting more use to talking out loud in prayer than ever before in my life. Oh yeah, I've prayed out loud before,

especially in groups, you know, well, Jeff, will you lead in prayer? Or I'm praying with the kids or my wife. Yeah, we pray out loud. But when you're alone, not many people pray out loud when they're alone. But I think that that is the measure oftentimes of just how real is this relationship. So for me to say, as I'm getting in the car, St. John Paul II, pray for me today. Will you please intercede for me today? And I need help in this area or whatever it might be. That's real. Oh, yeah, it's stop signs. People look over and, you know, maybe I think I'm singing a song or something. But I'm talking to a saint at that time. I'm talking to a saint.

It's amazing. So get real. When you get up in the morning, go ahead and address them. You're A squad. Maybe you have three, four, five. I don't know how many. Let me tell you this. I met a lady.

She must have had 25 medals around her neck. Now, I'm not suggesting that. She might even be seeing a chiropractor. I'm not sure. But I'm saying come up with some reasonable number, you know, that you can handle. you can get to know, but start talking out loud in prayer. St. John Paul, pray for me today, pray for me, and then go deep into their life and into their readings. Now, I'm going to take a break right now. I'm going to come back, right, in just a moment. When I come back, I want to talk

to you about who my posse is, who my A-team is, and my squad. I want to talk to you about them, reveal the names, and I want to tell you just a little bit of why I'm looking to them in my life. right now. There might be more added later, and I might have a substitution here and there, but I am so filled with joy that I've got this squad, this A-Team, to walk with. I'm Jeff Kavens, and you're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. We'll be back in just a moment. There might be an upcoming ascension event happening near you, and we'd love for you to attend. Almost every week, our inspiring Catholic speakers travel to parishes, schools, and organizations around the country to ignite hearts with the love of Christ.

and register for upcoming ascension events at ascensionpress.com slash events. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven Show. It's good to be with you. Hey, today we're talking about really tapping into the communion of saints and not treating saints as some kind of magic, but a real relationship, a real relationship with real people who have real personalities, real history, real background, and then walking with them and taking advantage of the fact that they have been perfected,

and they're in heaven outside of time, outside of time. They're not limited like that, you know, like we are with time. And they love God, and God loves you. And so they want to be a part of our life on earth as well. Before the break, I mentioned to you that I have put together a team of five in my squad, in my A team of saints that I have on a necklace, chain, there it is. By the way, I'm going to take a picture of this and put it in the show notes, okay? So if you want to see a picture of the metals that I have here, those will be in the show

notes, just to give you an idea. I ended up having to go down to the local Catholic bookstore and I had to order one that I just couldn't seem to find anywhere and found out it was a little bit rare, but I did find one. And by the way, if necklaces, like this chain, really bothers you, then stick it on a key chain. Stick these little metals on a key chain. Or have a holy cards, something tangible, that you can carry with you in the car, wherever, that just reminds you. It's a sacramental, you know, a sacramental is not a direct, a direct encounter with Christ. That's a sacrament. A sacramental points. It points. It points you to a relationship, points you to Christ. So, but, but, but, but, but I'll put that, I'll put that, I'll put

that, in the, in the, in the show notes. Now, let me, let me, let me reveal to you who's in my A team right now. obviously we've got, you know, Jesus and Mary, and they're very, very, very, they're the most important people in my life right now and always will be. But the five saints that I have put together here are number one, St. John Paul II. I love that guy. Oh, what a friend. What a wise man. What a world changer. I love him. Now, I'm going to go back and explain real briefly why I chose these five. The second one is St. Joseph. The stepfather of Jesus. Jesus. He's on my A-team, St. Joseph. I got to be honest, he has not always been there, even though

that's my name, given it confirmation. But I'll tell you in just in a couple of minutes why he's on the A-team for me right now. Number three is St. Augustine. St. Augustine. Oh, that great saint. You might have read about St. Augustine and the confessions of St. Augustine. Oh, incredible, incredible work, real down-to-earth guy, and a guy who struggled with sin, but a guy who is so smart and such a biblical scholar, and his theology is amazing. Number four is St. Francis. Ever since I was a young boy, I've always been attracted to St. Francis. And I'll talk about him in just a moment. And finally, the fifth one is St. Teresa of Calcutta. St. Teresa of Calcutta rounds out the five that I'm walking with every day right now

and trying to learn as much as I can about them. I'm reading their writings, getting to know their life, and developing this relationship with them. It's so much fun. Now, why did I choose those five? Well, first of all, I'll start with St. John Paul II. Number one, my family got to meet him.

But even before we were able to meet him in his library, a year before he passed away, years ago, even back in the late 70s, early 80s, he was on my bucket list. Even as a Protestant pastor, before I came back to the church, he was on my bucket list. I always wanted to meet him. I was impressed with him. I was inspired by him. I wanted to walk in his courage.

He seemed to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit. I thought, man, I want to be like that. I want to be like that so focused and his philosophy. Oh, man. Wow. What a great, what a great man. And so he's a world changer. He's a culture changer. He stood against the tide and he changed the world. And oftentimes I find myself, whether it's in my family with kids or community, parish, world, I find myself also wanting to change the world. but I know I can't do it by myself. That would be arrogant. But I know that with the help of the saints,

I can do my part, and I know that was his attitude, too. He was focused. So every day, St. John Paul, second, pray for me. Pray for me. He's on that chain around my neck. Number two is St. Joseph. A couple of reasons why I chose St. Joseph.

St. Joseph is obviously the stepfather of Jesus, but I chose him for a reason. I want to get particularly close to him. Two reasons. One, I want to be a better husband. I want to be a holier husband, and I can't see an example out there that is better than St. Joseph. I really can't. Part of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And so I need his help to be a more effective and holy husband, but I also need to be a gentler, kinder, warmer, holier, father to my three girls. And I got to be honest with you, my friend, I need help. I need help doing this. And he is a great role model. And I know he'll pray for me. I know he knows what I'm facing. And I need that. St. Joseph, pray for me.

St. Augustine, the great scholar, St. Augustine, he wrote the book, you know, the confessions of St. Augustine, where he's pretty transparent, I might add. He goes through everything in sin in his life, and he comes out on top. You know, he comes out a saint. And I look at that, and I say, well, I need your help. All the struggles you had, and you had a great mother who prayed for you, St. Monica, my mother prayed for me, come back to the church, and I did. And I just really respect St. Augustine's, is the interpretations of Scripture and his insights. So good. So in my Bible study, when I'm doing Bible studies for the great adventure, constantly now saying St. Augustine pray for me. St. Augustine pray for me. Number four is

St. Francis. He goes way back to my childhood. I was enamored by St. Francis as a boy growing up in the Catholic Church. And I'll tell you what attracted me to him was simplicity. And if you're like me, you need to simplify your life. We're going to do a whole whole show coming up, by the way, on how to simplify your life. We're probably going to do several. We'll start with one. We'll probably end up with two or three, but how do you simplify your life? St. Francis, what an example? And every day, St. Francis, pray for me. I need to simplify my life. I need to stay focused. I need to walk with a small footprint. Please pray for me, St. Francis. And then finally, the fifth one is St. Teresa of Calcutta. Oh, what a role model

she's been. I ask for her prayers every day. You know why I want her part of this A-team, this squad of mine? I want her on there because so often I find that I am bypassing the unlovable. And I walk by those who are in great need. And I don't want to do that. I want to give attention to the details of the unwanted, the disenfranchised, those who are not doing well. She became a saint because of what she did on a daily basis in the small details of life, a piece of bread, a blanket, clothing, or holding someone when they die. Man, I want to be like that. Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me. This is my A-team. This is my posse.

this is my squad, and I'm walking with them right now. And I want to encourage you now. I want to encourage you to take some time after this broadcast and pray and think about it. If you could walk with anyone and have their prayers, who would it be? And for the next year, make it intentional that you're going to walk with a group of saints and ask them to pray for you. And give us some response in this show, in the notes. Give us some response.

I'd like to hear about your team. I really would. I'd like to hear about your team and get some response from you on that. We'll put some information in the show notes on how you can respond to me and give me that information because I want to hear what God is doing in your life. I think this is a great opportunity for us to grow and to expand our base as we attempt to be holy and to walk in obedience to Jesus. So that's my posse.

That's my posse. and I'm sticking to it. And I'm having a great time with them, and I just encourage you to do it. Love to hear. Love to hear your results and what the Saints are doing in your life. Hey, if you want to get in touch with me,

you can get a hold of me on Twitter at Jeff Kavens, also Facebook. And if you want to know everything about the great adventure studies, go to ascensionpress.com. By the way, quick reminder, digital delivery on the Ascension Press, all 40 of the major

studies now are free. That's right. If you've got four people in a group that I want to do a study, we'll give you all the videos free. There's no sign-up fee. There's no monthly fee. You can't beat that. It's just pure, pure teaching. All you have to do is have four people to get workbooks at ascensionpress.com for any study, and you qualify. Not too bad. Go there, check it out, ascensionpress.com. Hey, it's been good to be with you. Look forward to hearing your response to who's in your posse, and I look forward to seeing you next time on the Jeff Gavon show.