In today’s episode I share a very powerful quote from St. Peter Chanel. He realised that there are times when we realise that the mission is simply beyond us. What do we do when we realise that our limited human capacities are not enough to manage the complex challenges we face? Listen in and let me share what St. Peter Chanel can offer us.
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome aboard to the Catholic teacher daily podcast,
Speaker:wherever you're listening in the world.
Speaker:Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker:Hoping to bring you a little bit of encouragement for this
Speaker:wonderful vocation that you.
Speaker:Have made.
Speaker:An absolute pillar of your life.
Speaker:I often say that you may not jump up every morning.
Speaker:Some teachers do saying how incredibly excited you are
Speaker:to charge into the classroom.
Speaker:You definitely do have some days like that.
Speaker:But remember that what you're doing is incredibly important.
Speaker:It's making a huge difference in the world.
Speaker:Even if you don't always see the results, you know, we
Speaker:only have to look into nature.
Speaker:We see that the seed is planted and often it can seem dormant for a long time.
Speaker:In fact, I was listening yesterday.
Speaker:To a, a wonderful metaphor about Lotus flowers.
Speaker:You know, Lotus flowers when they blossom on the top of those ponds are
Speaker:pretty fancy things to look at there.
Speaker:Beautiful.
Speaker:They're a graceful, they're one of the most beautiful flowers that we get to see.
Speaker:But interestingly, the seed begins under a big bed of mud at the bottom of the pond.
Speaker:And eventually it sort of pushes its way through all that mud.
Speaker:And gets to the water surface and then on the other side, and then we get
Speaker:the load as flare on the metaphor.
Speaker:Was explained to me is that you don't get the, a, you don't get
Speaker:the Lotus flower without the mud.
Speaker:You don't get the beauty without the challenge and the difficulty and the, uh,
Speaker:they were talking about suffering really.
Speaker:And I think as a Catholic teacher, there's always going to be seasons where.
Speaker:It looks like there's a lot of mud, you're tired things.
Speaker:Aren't moving exactly the way you'd like them to go.
Speaker:You might be dealing with difficult, a difficult student or several.
Speaker:And it feels like a lot of mud, but with grace and prayer and
Speaker:perseverance and sanctity over time.
Speaker:The Lotus flower blooms.
Speaker:Well, listen to me, I'm starting to sound like someone from a.
Speaker:I don't know, from a martial arts movie.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So we moved from Lotus flowers to two more things that are
Speaker:far more important the first.
Speaker:And I just want to share something with you.
Speaker:Today is the 28th of April.
Speaker:It is my 20th or our 20th wedding anniversary.
Speaker:So Karen and I, 20 years today, and really excited about that.
Speaker:So if you are hearing this, could you do me a favor at some point today?
Speaker:Would you pray for us?
Speaker:Would you pray for our marriage?
Speaker:For our three kids?
Speaker:Uh, we're in a really beautiful season.
Speaker:You know, we've had, uh, like many couples, we've had, um,
Speaker:ups and downs over the years.
Speaker:And, uh, but it's just really beautiful to be celebrating this together and to
Speaker:be, I think both of us really aware of the incredible grace that, uh, God has poured
Speaker:into our marriage into this sacrament, is that the beautiful thing about
Speaker:sacraments that it's not up to us really.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's not up to us in our vocations, the vocation of teaching, the vocation of
Speaker:marriage, the vocation of religious love.
Speaker:It's not up to us just to muscle through, and then we have to cooperate with grace.
Speaker:But the beautiful thing about these sacraments and these callings on our
Speaker:lives is that God doesn't go, Hey.
Speaker:Why didn't you get married and then work it out on your own and,
Speaker:uh, have you run into problems?
Speaker:Good luck with that.
Speaker:You know, God doesn't say that.
Speaker:And he doesn't say, Hey, I want you to be a Catholic teacher.
Speaker:I believe you're gifted for it.
Speaker:And once you get in there, just want to let you know.
Speaker:Um, I'm going on a long universal cosmic holiday and I won't
Speaker:be available for anything.
Speaker:I mean, he didn't do that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So understand that if he calls us to these vocations, that he's always
Speaker:going to give us the grace to do that.
Speaker:And that's the beautiful thing about our church is the sacraments
Speaker:that strengthen us on this journey.
Speaker:And I can honestly say without any.
Speaker:Hyperbole, um, that Karen and I would both say that our marriage has been.
Speaker:Deeply carried by the Eucharist.
Speaker:Um, in all our imperfections, I think we, we would say that the sacraments
Speaker:of the church have really strengthened us and carried it as on the journey.
Speaker:And, uh, so I wanna encourage you that in your vocation.
Speaker:You're not meant to be doing this alone.
Speaker:You're meant to be.
Speaker:Relying on the helps of the faith.
Speaker:On the presence of Christ in the sacraments to carry you through.
Speaker:So make sure that they are the bedrock of your vocation.
Speaker:So if you get a chance, please pray for us today.
Speaker:We're really excited to say we've got a lovely day planned and
Speaker:really looking forward to it.
Speaker:You'd probably hear it in my voice.
Speaker:Huh?
Speaker:So, uh, Now the other thing.
Speaker:Was the, got up this morning to pray.
Speaker:And, uh, it is the 20th of April.
Speaker:So in the divine office, we are praying the feast day of St.
Speaker:Peter Chanel.
Speaker:St Peter Chanel was, uh, was martyred.
Speaker:So he was eventually, he was, um, you know, joined the Marist and
Speaker:he was sent to the south Pacific.
Speaker:Where he did some really fantastic work, um, you know, bringing
Speaker:the message of the gospel.
Speaker:To people that had never heard it before.
Speaker:And then he was martyred.
Speaker:He was clubbed to death.
Speaker:On the beach, the island of, for tuna.
Speaker:In 1841.
Speaker:But I wanted to share with you a quote today.
Speaker:From the office of readings.
Speaker:So this is April 28.
Speaker:It's a beautiful line.
Speaker:I was praying, I said, holy spirit, please give me something today for all
Speaker:the educators or the Catholic teachers.
Speaker:It's a beautiful line.
Speaker:It's so simple, but it goes to the heart of everything that I've
Speaker:been teaching over the years.
Speaker:So here it is St.
Speaker:Peter Chanel said on one occasion to his companion.
Speaker:In so difficult, a mission.
Speaker:It is necessary.
Speaker:For us to be science.
Speaker:One more time in so difficult a mission.
Speaker:It is necessary for us.
Speaker:To be saints.
Speaker:Now.
Speaker:On the surface level is the obvious experience that he's going through.
Speaker:That he is, you know, on the other side of the world, back in the 1840s.
Speaker:So it was, you know, A really strong sense of distance back
Speaker:then there was no FaceTime.
Speaker:There was no zoom.
Speaker:Once you got on that boat, you realized how separated you were
Speaker:from everything that you'd known.
Speaker:And then of course there was this mission of making contact with an entire new
Speaker:culture and trying to share the gospel.
Speaker:So what he realized of course that the mission was just way beyond him.
Speaker:That in his limited humanity?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He might've had gifts and talents, but he knew.
Speaker:That this mission was so beyond him.
Speaker:And so he says here in a mission, as difficult as this, it is
Speaker:necessary for us to be saints.
Speaker:So he understood something that I've been trying to teach all over
Speaker:the world for years, that our St is to become fully what you are.
Speaker:A Saint is to become the conduit of grace that God always made you to be
Speaker:a Saint is to become fully what you are and to let all the other stuff
Speaker:slowly fall away so that your life is embedded in your relationship with Christ
Speaker:and enormous grace flows from that.
Speaker:So I thought about you guys and I thought, you know, in so difficult
Speaker:emission you have of who you've got a difficult mission, often feel so
Speaker:much for teachers, the complexity of modern education, the demands, the
Speaker:administration, the extra programs, the.
Speaker:Government mandates, all the stuff that keeps coming through.
Speaker:This is a difficult mission.
Speaker:Not only is it.
Speaker:Uh, administratively and structurally challenging, but you're dealing with.
Speaker:Young people facing, uh, historically unprecedented challenges in emotional,
Speaker:spiritual, and mental wellbeing.
Speaker:You've got, uh, all sorts of challenges and pressures on families.
Speaker:So friends.
Speaker:This is not news to you, but I am convinced that
Speaker:this is a difficult mission.
Speaker:So if we can follow the words of some Peter's Chanel, you've
Speaker:got a difficult mission.
Speaker:You need to become a Saint.
Speaker:And if you've ever heard me live on stage, or if you jump on YouTube and just Google
Speaker:NCA 2017, I think you'll find me there.
Speaker:Talking about this live.
Speaker:That, uh, anything shorter being a Saint ain't really going to do it.
Speaker:And so how do you become a Saint.
Speaker:Well, it's it.
Speaker:I, you know, again, if you've seen me on stage to share a
Speaker:great, a great quote from St.
Speaker:Thomas Aquinas, the angelic doctor, the great doctor of the faith.
Speaker:Who was asked, you know, this is the guy that wrote the swimmer.
Speaker:And he was asked, how do you become a Saint.
Speaker:How do you become a Saint.
Speaker:Now, this guy had written the 80 volumes of the Summa.
Speaker:So you'd think that there would be a pretty expansive answer.
Speaker:But St.
Speaker:Thomas Aquinas only gave us two words.
Speaker:When he was asked, how do you become a Saint?
Speaker:He said this.
Speaker:Will it.
Speaker:We'll eat.
Speaker:Desire.
Speaker:It that's it.
Speaker:He just said, how do you become a Saint just desire.
Speaker:It just want to be.
Speaker:In all your imperfections and brokenness and all of the problems that we all
Speaker:have and the things we get wrong in the scene and all of this stuff.
Speaker:But really what's necessary is that we simply desire that
Speaker:God would make us saints.
Speaker:In my marriage in this.
Speaker:Podcast ministry in my parenting.
Speaker:In your vocation as an educator today, just say, Lord.
Speaker:I'm not up to this, but please do whatever it is that you need to do
Speaker:to help me take one more step to becoming a Saint because this mission.
Speaker:Is so difficult that the only way it's going to work and fulfill your purposes
Speaker:in my life will be, if I become a Saint, all right, I'm going to stop there.
Speaker:God bless you.
Speaker:Say a prayer for Karen and I today.
Speaker:If you could, I'd love you to subscribe to the podcast, wherever you're hearing this.
Speaker:It's beautiful to see it grow and reach more people.
Speaker:If you could share it with a few people, that would be great.
Speaker:Everything else is on the website.
Speaker:One Catholic teacher.com O N E one Catholic teacher.com.
Speaker:My name is jonathan doyle get out there and be a saint in this
Speaker:difficult and challenging mission god is with you and he is so excited
Speaker:and proud of what you're doing.
Speaker:So being encouraged, be encouraged, be sustained for another day god bless
Speaker:you thank you for your work my name is jonathan doyle this has been the
Speaker:catholic teacher daily podcast and i'll have another message for you tomorrow
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