Today is the feast day of St. Scholastica who was the sister of St. Benedict in the 5th century. I share a simple insight from her remarkable life that can help us all realise the power of being witnesses in the vocation of Catholic educaiton.
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Transcript
Well, Hey everybody.
Speaker:Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, my friends for the Catholic teacher daily podcast,
Speaker:going out around the world.
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Speaker:Let's jump in.
Speaker:Regular listeners know I say this quite frequently, but, uh, one of
Speaker:the things I love about my Catholic faith is just the rhythms, the
Speaker:rhythms, the rhythms and routines.
Speaker:That keep me so grounded.
Speaker:Uh, you know, sometimes.
Speaker:Gosh, isn't it beautiful.
Speaker:It's just.
Speaker:The faith, my Catholic faith, it kind of grounds me.
Speaker:And one of those practices of course, is praying the divine office most days.
Speaker:And today my friends, wherever you are in the world, or I could be here in Australia
Speaker:where a day we're easily a day ahead.
Speaker:Of many listeners because of, uh, of time zones, but today's
Speaker:the feast of Saint Scholastica.
Speaker:Who is the sister of Saint Benedict.
Speaker:So we're talking fifth century.
Speaker:And, uh, one of the great, uh, Catholic saints.
Speaker:And as I was praying the office for her today.
Speaker:Something really jumped out at me.
Speaker:And often for me, this is how the holy spirit works.
Speaker:Like I sort of read something and it just resonates.
Speaker:And there's a sense to share it with you.
Speaker:And it's very simple.
Speaker:The first antifungal.
Speaker:And to fawn and Tiffin,
Speaker:please be accepting of my pronunciation.
Speaker:The first Anton is, um, beautiful.
Speaker:It's just so simple as this.
Speaker:I will be a witness to Christ.
Speaker:It is Christ that I seek with Christ.
Speaker:I desire to be United.
Speaker:Listen to that first part, I will bear witness to Christ.
Speaker:So the saints, particularly, you know, their example.
Speaker:Is ultimately an example of witnessing to the one whom they loved beyond all things.
Speaker:And you know, earlier this week in the podcast, we had the feast of St.
Speaker:Peter.
Speaker:Some poor Mickey.
Speaker:Uh, one of the Japanese martyrs of the 16th century.
Speaker:Who's who's martyrdom.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:You know, it does many, many different things that operates on many different
Speaker:levels, but ultimately it's a witness.
Speaker:It's saying to the world.
Speaker:I am so utterly convinced of the truth of what I believe that I am
Speaker:prepared to suffer and die for it.
Speaker:So I love this line here.
Speaker:I will bear witness to Christ.
Speaker:And as I prayed at this morning, there was a sense to just share
Speaker:with you all as Catholic educators.
Speaker:Isn't this in many ways, the essence of what we do.
Speaker:That our task is yes.
Speaker:It's to educate, to draw out.
Speaker:The intelligence and gifts of every single student, but ultimately
Speaker:it is to bear witness to Christ.
Speaker:So, what did the apostles do?
Speaker:Have you been watching the chosen.
Speaker:A series that I've been watching, um, you know, one of the apostles do
Speaker:they take the teaching of the master?
Speaker:And they communicate that teaching to new people.
Speaker:They witnessed to the, to their teacher.
Speaker:You know, that's what a disciple is and particularly the apostles, right.
Speaker:So in Catholic education, what we're ultimately trying to do is witness
Speaker:to Christ is to live in such a way to be in such a way to teach in such
Speaker:a way to interact with our students.
Speaker:And our colleagues and families in such a way that we witness.
Speaker:To our experience and our inquiry.
Speaker:Encounter with Christ.
Speaker:And that leads me to the, um, The responsory from this
Speaker:morning and the response.
Speaker:To the scripture reading here in the divine office was,
Speaker:uh, my heart has said of you.
Speaker:I have sought your presence.
Speaker:It is your face that I will continue to seek.
Speaker:So I want to look about.
Speaker:Let's briefly talk about this kind of circular relationship here.
Speaker:Between bearing witness to Christ and the constant seeking of Christ.
Speaker:And his presence.
Speaker:Do you see this kind of this relationship here, even in today's divine office,
Speaker:you see this, this sense of that it is seeking the presence of Christ,
Speaker:deepening a relationship with him that then allows us to witness to Christ.
Speaker:So if we're kind of not sort of seeking his presence, Then it's hard to witness.
Speaker:So for many years, I guess, you know, I often say that I get surprised
Speaker:when people keep booking me.
Speaker:Cause I don't have much to say except the basic few things.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I keep saying the same things ever since I've been a speaker,
Speaker:it's kind of like, look.
Speaker:We're crediting the image of God.
Speaker:We have this incredible potential and capacity.
Speaker:But left to ourselves.
Speaker:I track record is not great.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, what we need is to be in the presence of Christ and how do we do that?
Speaker:Well, we do it primarily through the sacraments, through prayer.
Speaker:We can do it through creation.
Speaker:We can do through scripture, Scotty study, what we call the helps of the faith.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But if we're not doing any of those things, then we eventually ended
Speaker:up drawing on an empty well, and I think this epidemic of burnout.
Speaker:In education now it's it is complex because it's to do with a whole
Speaker:bunch of factors, the complexity of the vocation, all the demands
Speaker:and pressures that keep increasing.
Speaker:So I'm not just saying that if people are burning out, it's
Speaker:because they're not holy enough.
Speaker:It's definitely not that.
Speaker:But I wonder that if we draw more deeply, Into dependence on Christ that he'll
Speaker:carry us through these challenging times.
Speaker:So friends.
Speaker:Summary that what we're really about and Catholic education is witnessing.
Speaker:We don't want to get bogged in the weeds.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We don't want to get caught down those rabbit trails of, you know, That the
Speaker:whole purpose of what we're doing is to get kids into college and university,
Speaker:and we need to get them the best.
Speaker:That's the outgrowth.
Speaker:That's the result.
Speaker:Of a heart given over to Christ at six, the best for young people.
Speaker:But I think you might agree that often in education that's become the whole thing.
Speaker:It's become the purpose.
Speaker:So we need to keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:We need to remember why we're here in the first place in Catholic education.
Speaker:We're here to be witnesses to Christ.
Speaker:And we do that by seeking his presence.
Speaker:And since Scholastica is a great example of that, somebody who chose a
Speaker:radical form of life, because more than anything else in the law, in the world,
Speaker:more than her own success, more than, you know, public approval, what she
Speaker:wanted more than anything was to be.
Speaker:With Christ and here we are, you know what.
Speaker:How many years later is, is it 1600 years give or take 1600 years, 1500 years.
Speaker:He, we are all these centuries later.
Speaker:And we're remembering this woman because primarily she was a witness to Christ.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, maybe history is not going to remember each
Speaker:of us quite the same way.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I've often been struck that my father's been dead now for maybe.
Speaker:Ah, 10 years or so longer.
Speaker:And what really struck me is his whole life, like after
Speaker:the funeral and everything.
Speaker:I remember I had this plastic bag and in this bag was a shirt that he used to wear.
Speaker:And they'll often say that, you know, That when you lose somebody,
Speaker:it's often that the smell of their.
Speaker:Clothing and stuff is one of those things that stays with you, the long list and.
Speaker:I've eventually remember even that disappeared from the clothing and.
Speaker:Slowly, you know, His possessions were in storage or they were sold.
Speaker:And I suddenly realized one day I thought, wow, his entire life.
Speaker:Has.
Speaker:Has come down to these few little possessions and even, you
Speaker:know, when, when I pass on in.
Speaker:You know, To heaven, God willing that he, his memory will slowly
Speaker:disappear from the earth.
Speaker:And I didn't get depressed by that.
Speaker:I thought, well, okay.
Speaker:So history only seems to remember a few of us.
Speaker:So what are the rest of us doing?
Speaker:And I just deeply believe that we don't get to know the answer to that question.
Speaker:We don't it's mystery.
Speaker:But what gives me constellation is to know that what we do does matter.
Speaker:Yeah, maybe in 15, 1600 years from now, you and I won't be in the divine office,
Speaker:but what we do today still matters.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's that old line from gladiator with Russell Crowe, where he says
Speaker:what we do today, it goes in eternity.
Speaker:And I believe that I believe that it's each student you
Speaker:interact with today does matter.
Speaker:It is going to echo in eternity.
Speaker:Sure you might not.
Speaker:Uh, you might not get to be in stained glass in the future, but
Speaker:don't let that take away from the importance of every single interaction.
Speaker:That you undertake today in Catholic education because.
Speaker:You know, Jesus sees it.
Speaker:He sees everything and he remembers it all.
Speaker:And after, when I spoke at the NCA convention, I remember saying to
Speaker:people when you get to heaven, I think it's going to be like, you
Speaker:know, Because time will be irrelevant.
Speaker:You know, God's going to sit you down.
Speaker:There'll be this big flat screen TV.
Speaker:And he's going to show you all these interactions and say, Hey, remember that
Speaker:conversation you had with that student.
Speaker:You didn't think much of it, but guess what it did it did.
Speaker:It impacted them like this, and then it's caused them to do this.
Speaker:And then it took them on this direction.
Speaker:And how else is he acting in history?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Telus has got acting in history of not through his saints.
Speaker:It's not through people like you.
Speaker:All right, that's it.
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Speaker:My name is Jonathan Doyle.
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