Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization putting it all together and living as activated disciples.

This is show 294 for Must Reads of St. John Paul II.

And a good day to you. Thanks for joining me again and thank you for all of your all of the feedback I have been getting lately on the shows.

And it's nice to know that we're working together and that some of the things that that we're talking about mean something, you know, in people's lives.

And typically I don't share anything that isn't, you know, impacting me or something that I'm dealing with in my own life where I know works in my own life.

And it's just good to have you as a friend and to work with you and to know that we can come here every week and share the good things of the Lord.

And we're going to talk today about four must reads of John Paul II.

He's written so much that when you reduce it to four must reads, I guess what I'm really saying is these are the ones on my desk right now that I'm reading and going over.

And they are well, I don't know if you can hear them or they are right there.

They are well worn out. They really are. I've got stickers in them and I just all marked up and I have some tape holding the covers on because I go back to them a lot.

I don't know about you, but during the times that I was coming back to the Catholic Church, John Paul II, Pope John Paul II played a very pivotal role in my life.

And he was a hero. And I had the privilege at EWTN of covering Pope John Paul II around the world on television and so many times we were only like four feet away from each other.

But he's in the Pope mobile or he's walking through the crowd and you can't just stop and say, hey, let's talk.

I got some questions for you, Holy Father. Oh, there he goes.

But when you pick up this man's readings, this saint's readings, it's kind of like grabbing him at World Youth Day and saying, can I spend an hour with you?

I want to know about sin. He says, okay, let's talk. Let's talk. I got to know what he would tell you. He'd tell you everything you wrote in his post sonotal apostolic

dissertation, reconciliation and penance. That's what he'd give you. And so I'm going to give you four of the books that are the writings that he has given us as a gift.

And I think that they are, they're timely to be honest with you because I'm studying these things. And as I was mentioning a moment ago, when he died, something happened inside of me.

It was a morning, a real morning. And I remember my wife and I were, we were sitting downstairs in the family room.

And they still still were doing stories on Pope John Paul II. I think it was two weeks afterwards. And I were watching it. And I looked over at her and tears just started running it on my face. And I said, I said, man, I miss him.

And I think for the times that we're going through right now, Pope John Paul II has a message, had a message and has a message that still reverberates in my heart.

And I hear people talking about him has a great champion. And you know, Pope Benedict was great. Pope Francis is our, is our Holy Father. Now he's written some, some wonderful things.

...