Catholic speaker and Bible teacher Jeff Cavins, founder of the Great Adventure Bible Study Series, recently joined “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley to discuss the Catechetical Institute’s new School of Discipleship course.
Cavins said more than 3,000 people in the Twin Cities have graduated from The Seminaries of St. Paul Catechetical Institute’s two-year Pillars program. The new offering is about making “activated disciples,” he said.
Jeff Cavins
It’s one thing to know theology and what the Church teaches, Cavins said, “but the truth is that we don’t have a personal relationship with theology. We have a personal relationship with a person, the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.
“So, we are all about forming disciples; we’re about teaching them the roots of discipleship. What does the life of a disciple look like?”
One of the most exciting parts of the course, he said, is introducing students how to witness to others. Participants may never before have shared Christ with anyone, “so we’re introducing them to a new way of life, to be an activated disciple, and to put their faith into practice,” he said. “It’s kind of like walking with Jesus the way the early disciples did.”
The course is important both for people who have recently entered the Church, Cavins said, as well as experienced Catholics who are “pretty deep in knowing their faith.”
“We have found there’s a big difference between knowing your faith and living your faith,” he said.
The seven-week course runs from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday evenings, followed by eucharistic adoration until 8:30 p.m. The next session will run from June 22 to Aug. 3, with a virtual option and in-person classes at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. Parish and other groups can apply for a discount to the $150 cost for in-person and $125 for virtual participation.
At the end of seven weeks, participants enter a 40-day discipleship challenge, which Cavins described as a chance to practice becoming a disciple. Mary Healy from the Pontifical Biblical Commission will give three talks on the Holy Spirit in discipleship. And at a final seminar, students will share how their lives have changed, experiences they’ve had in sharing Christ with other people and “the pure delight” of what it has meant to walk with Jesus for 40 days, Cavins said.
To learn more about the School of Discipleship course that begins June 22, visit semssp.org/ci and search for “School of Discipleship.” To hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. June 11, 1 p.m. June 12 and 2 p.m. June 13 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Tim Murray, who discusses how Trinity Sober Homes helps men get back on their feet during their recovery from addiction, and therapist Kate Soucheray, who describes an upcoming multicultural sensitivity training day.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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