Why Scripture and Tradition?
(with Jeff Cavins)


  • Between now and January 1, 2023 there will be SPECIAL BONUS PRE-LAUNCH EPISODES that will help us get ready for this journey of The Catechism in a Year!!

  • Today is the first major, significant PRE-LAUNCH EPISODE

  • Jeff Cavins is the special guest (Remember him? 😉)

  • This episode introduces not only the whole CATECHISM and the FAITH APPROACH but also the FIRST PILLAR of the Catechism, which we will learn later on when we officially begin our journey

  • As you probably know, the Catechism has FOUR PILLARS

  • Each one of those PILLARS will be a special conversation with a special guest to help us understand SCRIPTURE and TRADITION and how they are INEXTRICABLY CONNECTED

  • So say HELLO to Jeff Cavins!!

  • Here we go again!!

  • Back again!!

  • How good is this??

  • The best thing to start this new podcast is with the two original people from The Bible in a Year! www.thebibleinayearstudyguide.com

  • Fr. Mike and Jeff Cavins did introductory episodes for each new TIME PERIOD in Bible in a Year

  • Jeff Cavins also guided so many people in his weekly video Q&As on Facebook! (JJ, put link for those videos here please)

  • So it’s ESSENTIAL for Jeff Cavins to be with us!

  • We continue on with this relationship with all the hungry people THROUGHOUT THE WORLD who got a hold of the Word of God and made that a REGULAR DISCIPLINE in their daily life

  • So the NEXT STEP is The Catechism in a Year!!

  • People may not have thought they would go through the Catechism or maybe haven’t even HEARD of the Catechism

  • Something really powerful and beautiful for Fr. Mike in the second year of The Bible in a Year is that he has been listening to it HIMSELF

  • It’s one thing to READ Scripture out loud

  • That is POWERFUL!

  • That is REMARKABLE!

  • BUT…

  • There is also something about TAKING IT IN and allowing it to FORM HIS HEART AND MIND by just RECEIVING SCRIPTURE (Living liiiiiife through the lens of Scripture!! Whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh it’s so GOOD!! Bible in a Year (Thanks, Father Mike!) )

  • The NEXT STEP is the Catechism because in the New Testament we have the Letters of St. Paul and Acts of the Apostles in the AGE OF THE CHURCH

  • How important is it to have The Catechism in a Year AFTER The Bible in a Year?

  • IT IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!!

  • It is important for THE LIVES OF THE FAITHFUL

  • It is important for THOSE GROWING IN THE FAITH

  • The way Catechism in a Year is being presented MIRRORS THE LOGIC OF THE CHURCH

  • There is a PRIMACY to Scripture

  • IT IS GOD’S WORD

  • IT IS INSPIRED

  • IT IS INERRANT

  • Over the last year, many people have been going through the ENTIRE STORY in chronological order AS A COMPLETE STORY

  • GOD’S PLAN OF SHEER GOODNESS IS OUT THERE!!

  • Now comes The Catechism which REALLY COMPLETES THIS FULLNESS OF GOD’S REVELATION!!

  • THE WORD OF GOD

  • As Catholics, the Catechism actually says that “We are not people of THE BOOK. We are people of THE WORD.”

  • Specifically, the LIVING WORD JESUS CHRIST!!

  • So one of the first things we learn in the Catechism is that the REVELATION OF GOD aka DIVINE REVELATION comes to us through SACRED SCRIPTURE and SACRED TRADITION

  • The question always comes up

  • “I get the Sacred Scripture, but is there something I could read about this ‘Sacred Tradition’?”

  • Tradition with a Big “T”, not a little ‘t’

  • We open presents on Christmas Eve and that is a “tradition” (small “t”)

  • Sacred Tradition like how JESUS IS GOD or MARY IS THE MOTHER OF GOD

  • The answer is YUP!!

  • It is called THE CATECHISM!!

  • Scripture and The Catechism complement each other REALLY REALLY WELL

  • Then we add in THE MAGISTERIUM, which is The Holy Father (The Pope) in union with the Bishops

  • And now, we have a TRIPOD!!

  • You can SIT on a tripod

  • You can REST on a tripod

  • You can DEPEND on a tripod

  • It is NOT a one-legged stool

  • It is a THREE-LEGGED STOOL

  • So we are completing that sense of REVELATION for people with REAL CERTITUDE

  • It gives us a FOUNDATION TO LIVE ON!!

  • IT IS SO EXCITING TO BRING IT ALL TOGETHER!!

  • We have the DEPOSIT OF FAITH aka DIVINE REVELATION which consists of:

  1. SACRED SCRIPTURE

  2. SACRED TRADITION

  3. THE MAGISTERIUM

  • This might be a BIG SURPRISE for some people to hear it talked about in this way

  • So of course Divine Revelation is Sacred Scripture

  • BUT…

  • IT IS ALSO SACRED TRADITION AND THE MAGISTERIUM!!

  • So if you’re hearing this for the first time, and you went through The Bible in a Year and say, “Wait a second. Um, I’m comfortable with Sacred Scripture being Divine Revelation. Why do we need SACRED TRADITION and THE MAGISTERIUM too?”

  • WELL…

  • When we read the New Testament and we realize that nobody was told to WRITE even though people WROTE

  • It is the Word of God

  • It is the INSPIRED WORD OF GOD

  • BUT…

  • St. Paul even said to “...follow the TRADITIONS that he has handed on to you…”

  • SO…

  • From the VERY EARLY POINTS OF THE CHURCH there has been this sense of THE FAITH

  • The Faith

  • The Deposit of Faith

  • Those are REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT

  • Not only do we now have the STORY OF SALVATION HISTORY

  • BUT…

  • We want to turn our attention to HOW DO WE LIVE IN THIS STORY?

  • WHAT DOES THE CHURCH REALLY LOOK LIKE?

  • WHAT DO THE PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH DO?

  • WHAT IS PERMITTED?

  • WHAT IS NOT PERMITTED?

  • WHAT IS HOLY?

  • WHAT IS NOT HOLY?

  • HOW DO WE ACTUALLY WORSHIP GOD?

  • EVERYTHING that happened in that Early Church, if they DID NOT PASS IT ON to the next generation, THEN IT WOULD BE GONE!!

  • IT WOULD BE ANYBODY’S GUESS!

  • 100 years on from those days, people would wonder “What do we do?”

  • “I don’t know, what SHOULD we do?”

  • “Well, we have iPhones now. What should we do?”

  • So the beautiful thing about Tradition is that Apostolic Tradition, which is in THE FIRST PILLAR, talks to us about HOW THIS DEPOSIT OF FAITH IS PASSED ON TO MODERN MAN and even to all of our friends watching now

  • FROM JESUS TO YOU

  • THAT IS SACRED TRADITION!!

  • The Catechism literally becomes a GOLDMINE of the minds and the hearts of ALL OF THESE SAINTS IN THE PAST!!

  • MAN!!

  • We can HEAR this Deposit of Faith as ALL THE GENERATIONS BEFORE ME HEARD IT!

  • THAT IS GOLDEN!!

  • The way Jeff Cavins describes it MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!

  • We have the STORY in Sacred Scripture

  • Now it’s like…

  • Who did we just hear about?

  • What did God reveal about Himself?

  • What did he reveal about the relationship He wants with us?

  • What did he reveal about how we are called to live with each other?

  • ALL OF THESE THINGS

  • IT WAS SYNTHESIZED AND COMMUNICATED TO US THROUGH SACRED TRADITION!! (among other things)

  • The two work with each other

  • Scripture works with Sacred Tradition

  • Sacred Tradition is MIXED IN with the Word of God in the Story

  • The best way to explain it is that in Japan, they make these knives called DAMASCUS STEEL KNIVES, interestingly enough

  • They take many kinds of different steels and they mix them together

  • They press them

  • They twist them

  • They bend them

  • They come out with these AMAZING KITCHEN KNIVES (The new and improved Turbo Ginsu!!! TMNT 1 - Turbo Ginsu 😁)

  • It is ONE KNIFE made out of TWO STEELS that have been brought together IN SUCH A WAY that you really CANNOT SEPARATE THEM!!

  • THAT IS THE BIBLE AND THAT IS THE SACRED TRADITION that we read about in The Catechism

  • THAT IS AWESOME!!

  • And it is stronger TOGETHER than either would be on its own

  • It’s also PRACTICAL

  • This is how we live

  • ALL THE WAYS that Christians had lived from the VERY BEGINNING, how they WORSHIPED FROM THE VERY BEGINNING would ALL BE LOST because it is NOT all detailed in Sacred Scripture

  • So what can we all expect from this journey in The Catechism in a Year?

  • First of all, we have to look at the way we approach The Catechism

  • Think of it as a kind of PRE-FLIGHT CHECK

  • Before we get into The Catechism we need to ask ourselves, “What is The Catechism and how do we approach it?”

  • A lot of people will look at this big book and say to themselves, “Man, that looks like an encyclopedia! Now I have a source and I can just look up topics and read a little bit about Transubstantiation or Theotokos-Mary is the Mother of God and I can look these up! That’s going to be a great help on my desk!”

  • THAT IS NOT HOW WE APPROACH THE CATECHISM!

  • The way we approach The Catechism is NOT as an encyclopedia

  • We approach The Catechism AS AN INVITATION TO A JOURNEY INTO INTIMACY WITH GOD!!

  • It is carefully laid out that way

  • IN FACT…

  • Pope Benedict XVI, before he was Pope and was known as Cardinal Ratzinger, spoke about this

  • Just the way it is organized is a TEACHING TOOL in itself

  • God has this AMAZING STORY in THE FIRST PILLAR which is The Creed

  • And then in THE SECOND PILLAR which is The Sacraments and the Liturgy, which Bishop Cousins will help us with, is really an INVITATION to get deeper

  • THE THIRD PILLAR is the LIFE OF JESUS, the MORAL LAW

  • It is our SCRIPT for HOW TO LIVE THE FAITH

  • THE FOURTH PILLAR is PRAYER

  • It’s MORE than an encyclopedia or dictionary

  • It is a ROADMAP TO INTIMACY WITH GOD!!

  • That is the way we have to approach The Catechism

  • We are going to meet someone

  • We are going to meet all of his family

  • We are going to have dinner with them

  • We are going to hear what he wants us to do and how we are empowered

  • So it’s like taking the STORY of The Bible and making it v. 2.0

  • WHOA!!

  • This is REALLY coming into focus now!!

  • IT IS REALLY REALLY EXCITING!!

  • How we see this next step is really going to DICTATE A LOT

  • It is VERY DIFFERENT from The Bible in a Year

  • One of the things that Fr. Mike learned for himself when going through The Bible is that there is THE STORY and Jeff Cavins has been SO CRITICAL in helping us understand THE STORY

  • When we pressed play on any given day, we might have missed some details and some nuances BUT WE KNEW WE WERE PART OF THE STORY

  • The Catechism is slightly different

  • There is not a narrative

  • BUT…

  • THERE IS A PERSON!!!

  • So we’re not invited into a NARRATIVE

  • We aren’t necessarily invited into listening to someone else’s STORY

  • BUT IT IS AN INVITATION!!

  • HERE IS WHO GOD IS!!

  • HERE IS WHAT FAITH IS!!

  • HERE IS THE RELATIONSHIP GOD WANTS TO HAVE WITH YOU!!

  • HERE IS HOW GOD IS CALLING US TO LIVE!!

  • Maybe we can say the invitation is to LIVING THE STORY or TO BE PART OF THE STORY in these FOUR PILLARS

  • Just like how we can read Scripture “from the stands in the stadium”

  • Have some popcorn and something to drink!

  • OR…

  • You can read Scripture FROM DOWN ON THE FIELD

  • You can be part of this amazing plan of SHEER GOODNESS

  • And the same thing can be said of reading The Catechism

  • We can set up in the stand and observe

  • There will be people who do it that way because they are curious

  • Maybe they haven’t made a commitment…YET

  • BUT…

  • It is a GOOD THING that they are up in the stands and they are watching and listening

  • BUT…

  • There will be A LOT of people who say, “You know what? I want to GET IN THIS!!” (That would be me! What about you? Shrek Donkey Pick Me 😁)

  • They will want to get ON THE FIELD

  • They will want to GO ON THIS JOURNEY

  • They will understand MORE AND MORE about the FULL DEPOSIT OF FAITH

  • There is going to be hundreds of times over this next year that they will get DOWNRIGHT GIDDY

  • We would NEVER understand all of this had we JUST READ BOOKS and things

  • This is a TOOL

  • This is an INVITATION

  • It is going to be SO EXCITING

  • GOD THIRSTS THAT WE WOULD THIRST FOR HIM!!

  • As we press play and start to engage ourselves with The Catechism in a Year, God is saying, “This is what I WANTED. This is REALLY what I wanted FOR YOU. I wanted YOU to be IN THIS because I have SO MUCH TO SHOW YOU. You have already gone through the plan of SHEER GOODNESS in terms of The Bible. But now, I am going to bring you into ANOTHER CHAMBER and disclose Myself in a BEAUTIFUL WAY to you so that you not only will be CLOSER TO ME but you WILL BE LIKE ME. You will be MORE EQUIPPED to go out and do the WORK that I am doing.”

  • YEAH!!

  • Whenever Fr. Mike teaches RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults for those of you who don’t know 😁) they are going over A LOT OF INFORMATION

  • A LOT OF DATA

  • BUT…

  • The point isn’t to STOP at the information

  • The point is TRANSFORMATION

  • The point isn’t to STOP at knowing a lot of NEW THINGS

  • The point is that GOD IS INVITING US TO BECOME NEW KINDS OF THINGS AND NEW KINDS OF BEINGS AND NEW KINDS OF CREATURES with a NEW RELATIONSHIP!!

  • WE CANNOT LOVE WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW!!

  • The Bible is God REVEALING Himself

  • BUT…

  • Here in The Catechism of the Catholic Church is this REVELATION of WHO GOD IS

  • HOW GOD IS CALLING US TO FOLLOW HIM IN A COMPLICATED WORLD!!

  • The Catechism is NOT SMALL!!

  • IT IS A GOOD CHUNK OF CHANGE!!

  • This world is pretty complicated (or haven’t you noticed? 🤔)

  • This the most recent published version of The Catechism

  • So what is the history of The Catechism coming to us NOW?

  • St. Pope John Paul II, back in the late 1980s, had this idea that the people of God need to go DEEPER IN KNOWING GOD

  • He started to put together the plans for developing that fist modern Catechism that we have now

  • When he put it together, a lot of people thought this Catechism could be for the Bishops, priests, deacons, and other religious

  • BUT…

  • He made it VERY CLEAR that it ABSOLUTELY is for EVERYBODY

  • It became one of the GREATEST GIFTS IN MODERN HISTORY

  • If you look at the background of The Catechism, there is a backstory

  • Cardinal Karol Wojtyla aka Pope John Paul II was from Poland

  • When he was a Cardinal, he came up with this idea for THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

  • He didn’t launch it at that point

  • He waited until he was The Pope

  • He didn’t know he was going to become The Pope

  • While he was working on The Second Vatican Council aka Vatican II, He was working on a document called Gaudium Et Spes (Oh don’t worry, I’ve got you covered 😉 https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html)

  • Gaudium Et Spes is THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD

  • It was the first of its kind

  • He had a vision for The Church

  • TEACHING THE CHURCH

  • HOW THE CHURCH WILL LIVE

  • HOW THE CHURCH WILL SURVIVE IN THE MODERN WORLD

  • HOW THE CHURCH WILL PERMEATE SOCIETY

  • He wrote that WONDERFUL document and then found himself as The Pope

  • Then he gave us this INCREDIBLE GIFT of what is really a SYNOPSIS OF THE FAITH that is written in a way that is ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYBODY

  • NOT JUST PHD’s and THEOLOGIANS

  • BUT FOR ME!!

  • FOR YOU!!

  • I’m not brilliant

  • But I can read it and understand it

  • We are stranded on an island and what two books would you bring?

  • Jeff Cavins and his wife would bring The Bible and The Catechism!!

  • Jeff Cavins developed The Great Adventure Timeline that was used in The Bible in a Year

  • We had the handout for the timeline that was so helpful to be able to see here is when the Israelites are in the north

  • Here is when they are in the south

  • Here is what was happening in the world at the time outside of that Revelation

  • On the back of our new foldout is The Catechism Timeline

  • It talks about the different professions of faith

  • Ecumenical Councils

  • Papal/Pontifical Documents

  • Church Documents

  • We realize that this isn’t the first time The Church has given us a summary of what we believe

  • All these different Church Councils throughout the course of history are in this foldout

  • This whole Catechism is a result of THOUSANDS OF YEARS of people praying, reflecting on, and understanding The Lord

  • This foldout is going to be one of the greatest gifts for us that Ascension worked on for us

  • It’s a similar size to The Great Adventure Timeline

  • In the same way, there is a TIMELINE for The Catechism in a Year

  • It goes through the ENTIRE HISTORY of The Church

  • The Key on the left hand side is:

  1. WHAT WE BELIEVE

  2. HOW WE WORSHIP

  3. HOW WE LIVE

  4. HOW WE PRAY

  • It goes ALL THE WAY FROM JESUS TO TODAY

  • So we can see the ENTIRE HISTORY OF THEOLOGY

  • So we can see the ENTIRE HISTORY OF GOD’S FAMILY GROWING AND EVOLVING AND BECOMING WHAT IT IS TODAY

  • On the other side, we have color coded “baby brother of The Great Adventure Timeline”

  • It goes through ALL FOUR PILLARS at a glance

  • In the Early Church, a lot of people couldn’t read so there was art like FRESCOES and PICTURES that people looked at to get the story

  • So maybe the same thing is going to happen here with the handout for The Catechism in a Year

  • Over the course of these four sections there is this line from CCC 1721, “We are made to know, love, and serve God in this world and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.”

  • It’s over those FOUR PILLARS of The Catechism

  • Some people might know these FOUR PILLARS

  • There is the Foundations of Faith approach that Ascension has developed to be able to communicate what is at the HEART of these FOUR PILLARS

  • So what are they and how do we go through them?

  • The Catechism is divided up into FOUR PILLARS

  • When people approach Scripture, it looks like a big pile of names and places and valleys and mountains and sacrifices and law

  • As Frank Sheets, a great apologist from England, said “One of the problems we had is that it’s a big pile.”

  • We went through The Bible in a Year in order

  • So the same thing with The Catechism in a Year

  • Remember when you were 13 years old and you went into Church?

  • There’s an altar

  • There’s a nun

  • There’s candles

  • Whoa, there’s the priest!

  • What’s he doing up there?

  • Why are they ringing bells?

  • What do I do with all of this??

  • The Catechism takes ALL OF THAT and breaks it down into FOUR PILLARS

  • This is going to be a GREAT TOOL (Especially for all you parents to teach your children 😁)

  • The FIRST PILLAR, which is this beautiful MARINE BLUE, is WHAT WE BELIEVE

  • IT IS THE CREED

  • IT IS THE LARGEST SECTION

  • It’s the STORY IN MINIATURE

  • The SECOND PILLAR, which is a beautiful BURGUNDY,is HOW WE WORSHIP

  • It’s when we get into God’s AMAZING PLAN OF SHEER GOODNESS

  • The THIRD PILLAR is HOW WE LIVE, which is a beautiful GREEN

  • See the progression there?

  • WHAT WE BELIEVE

  • HOW WE WORSHIP

  • HOW WE LIVE

  • That is THE LIFE OF CHRIST

  • The FOURTH PILLAR is HOW WE PRAY which is a beautiful PURPLE

  • HOW WE PRAY

  • It is worded in such a way that it is VERY PRACTICAL

  • It is VERY DOABLE

  • Even the titles that are used are a BEAUTIFUL INVITATION TO EVERYONE

  • Hey, this is WHAT WE BELIEVE

  • Hey, this is HOW WE WORSHIP GOD

  • Hey, this is HOW WE LIVE

  • Hey, this is HOW PRAYER IS BROUGHT INTO IT

  • When we take those FOUR PILLARS, that becomes a REAL FOUNDATION for us to LIVE OUR LIVES!!

  • Fr. Mike has been a priest for a long time, almost 20 years

  • Many people have come to him asking if there is anything they can do for their children

  • This will be a BEAUTIFUL TOOL for parents to talk to their kids

  • “Mom, why do they do that in Mass? What’s that all about”

  • “Glad you asked. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about that in the context of the whole Faith.”

  • Maybe someone asks why we do what we do as Catholics

  • Yeah, we can go and refer to The Catechism like an encyclopedia or a reference book

  • BUT…

  • The way in which The Catechism was given to us originally is THESE SMALL NUMBERS IN THE MARGINS

  • They are references to OTHER PARTS of The Catechism and OTHER PARTS of The Faith that deal with this particular topic which is being talked about in each individual paragraph

  • It highlights the fact that it’s NOT JUST A REFERENCE BOOK AND HERE IS ONE ANSWER

  • IT IS A UNITY

  • IT IS COMPREHENSIVE

  • It has this SYNTHESIS and HARMONY to it that is REMARKABLE!!

  • That is one of the reasons that the Ascension edition is color coded

  • Those numbers in the margins are also color coded

  • While there are FOUR PILLARS, they are NOT DISTINCT in the sense of just a reference book

  • There is a SYNTHESIS and HARMONY to it that is communicated to us SO BEAUTIFULLY

  • During Jeff Cavins’ time at the St. Paul Seminary, he was Director of the Catechetical Institute

  • During that time there were so many people who went through the ENTIRE CATECHISM

  • At the beginning of the course, they had to explain the parts of The Catechism, called The Apparatuses, so they could navigate more easily and see all the TREASURES in there

  • Every PILLAR has the color from the chart

  • In the back of The Catechism made by Ascension, which is a GOLD COLOR, there are all the different indexes, glossaries, and all the Church Fathers etc.

  • So we can look at any PILLAR really quickly just like we did with The Bible in a Year when we looked at the color coded TIMELINE

  • The Catechism also has a RIBBON for every PILLAR!!

  • OOOH RIBBONS!!! WE DON’T HAVE TO GET OUR OWN!!

  • CHA-CHING!!!

  • Jeff Cavins has been teaching The Catechism to ORDINARY PEOPLE

  • NOT JUST SEMINARIANS

  • NOT JUST ORDAINED PEOPLE

  • BUT TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN!!

  • So Jeff Cavins has some PRACTICAL TIPS and STUMBLING BLOCKS TO BE AWARE OF

  • Before we press play on January 1, 2023, we have to realize:

  1. This is a learning process. If we don’t understand something Fr. Mike says or we don’t understand a concept, that is ok. We are going to work through that

  2. Go into this WITH A HUNGRY HEART

  3. Go into this as a SON OR DAUGHTER OF GOD and your heart is set up TO LEARN

  4. Think of it as a JOURNEY and when we do run into a word or concept that is confusing, WRITE IT DOWN so we can come back and learn a little about it

  5. Get your own copy of The Catechism so you can write in them and mark them up with colored pencils or markers

  6. Come up with your own SUB-MARKING SYSTEM of paragraphs. For example, BLUE for something that is really comforting. GREEN for something you need to GROW IN. Or maybe YELLOW for parenting. Come up with anything you like. BE FREE to write and highlight

  7. DON’T BE DISCOURAGED when you run into words and things that seem kind of out there

  8. You are NOT going to get it ALL in one go-through, just like The Bible in a year (And now we have an anecdote from Jeff Cavins that I will not transcribe because I am very very tired 🤣)

  9. THINK JOURNEY NOT ENCYCLOPEDIA

  10. THINK INVITATION NOT “I HAVE TO”

  11. THINK OF INHERITANCE NOT JUST KNOWLEDGE

  • Jeff Cavins will be starting a NATIONAL SHOW on YouTube on The Bible in a Year where they will be talking with some of the best scholars in the world about some concepts in BIAY and The Catechism in a Year

  • You don’t have to unpack it all at once

  • Don’t be hard on yourself

  • JUST RECEIVE THIS!!

  • We sometimes get hung-up on things we don’t understand when we read

  • When we LISTEN, we can KEEP MOVING and we can let it WASH OVER US

  • Like rain, it is going to make its way through all our layers of earth

  • JUST BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF

  • Some days are going to be small, like 4 paragraphs

  • Other days are going to be longer and it will be more difficult to dive deeply into it

  • So it’s an awesome thing that Jeff Cavins and other experts are going to dive into it, which will be SUCH A BLESSING

  • IT WILL BE A VERY ROBUST YEAR TO WALK IN AND LET THE LORD LEAD US!!

  • If you are wondering if non-Catholics would be interested in this, the answer is YEAH!!!!

  • YES!!!

  • You know why?

  • Because Jeff Cavins was!!

  • He was a Protestant pastor in Dayton, Ohio

  • He was drawn to the writings of the Early Church Fathers

  • He snuck into a Catholic bookstore named St. Mark’s

  • SHOUTOUT TO OHIO!!

  • He was incognito in sunglasses and a hat

  • There was a great big pile of this big green book (maybe it was yellow back then)

  • He opened it up to Paragraph 133

  • “The Church, forcefully and specifically, exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the Divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is Ignorance of Christ.”

  • WHAT??

  • This is Catholic?

  • He bought the book and went home

  • That Catechism was the FUEL for his preaching for the next 6 months

  • Jeff Cavins also recommends an insight journal for writing down the GOLD, the INSIGHTS IN YOUR LIFE as you go through The Catechism in a Year

  • If there are insights that you receive from this podcast, WRITE IT DOWN!

  • KEEP IT!!

  • THOSE ARE IMPORTANT!!

  • YOU DON’T WANT TO LOSE THEM!!

  • MAYBE YOU CAN PASS IT DOWN TO THE NEXT GENERATION!!

  • You can get The Insight Journal at Ascension Press https://ascensionpress.com/products/insight-journal

  • It’s just a place where you can PUT SOME GOLD FOR YOUR FUTURE!!

  • STORE UP YOUR GOLD!!

  • If you would like to get The Catechism in a Year Reading Plan, go to www.ascensionpress.com/ciy and download the Reading Plan

  • OR…

  • You can text the letters “CIY” to 33777

  • Don’t forget to subscribe to The Catechism in a Year in whatever podcast platform you use (I use Hallow or Google Podcasts 😁)


Prayer by Fr. Mike:

Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we thank you for this time. Thank you for everyone who has been able to join us today and listen to this pre-launch episode, this first one as we kind of just begin to open our hearts and open our minds so that you can fill our hearts with your love, with the truth of who you are. To touch our minds and transform them so that we can live as your sons and daughters. Live as the people you have called us and redeemed us and created us to be. May God be glorified as we pray: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. Amen”