In today’s episode I share a great insight from St. Bede The Venerable who reminds us all that God is the wind that drives the sails of every truly effective vocation. It’s easy to feel that we need to direct our careers and our daily plans but what if we could learn to relax into God’s provision for us?
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody.
Speaker:Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome aboard friends to the Catholic teacher daily podcast,
Speaker:greetings to you wherever you are.
Speaker:On this great big planet in this adventure and journey of Catholic education today.
Speaker:Good things are going to happen through you in your vocation things that may seem.
Speaker:In consequential at the time.
Speaker:Uh, can be very big things in God's slow, purposeful, and hidden mystery
Speaker:of salvation for each human person.
Speaker:So never underestimate.
Speaker:The little conversations, the small things that you're doing each day.
Speaker:That may have implications.
Speaker:You may never see them in this life.
Speaker:But you will get to see them eventually.
Speaker:So today,
Speaker:A little bit of encouragement for you from St.
Speaker:Bede, the venerable.
Speaker:It is feast day to day.
Speaker:This is one of the great things about, uh, you know, being committed to daily prayer.
Speaker:And I, as many of you know, I like to pray the divine office.
Speaker:It's always sort of given me a great sense of structure to my prayer life in the day.
Speaker:And, um, it's kind of beautiful to, you know, I get up very early.
Speaker:I'm not saying everybody has to, but I enjoy getting up early.
Speaker:And, uh, it's kind of cool over the years that the first thing
Speaker:that comes out of your mouth.
Speaker:Uh, with the divine office is, um, is, is the praise of God.
Speaker:Great way to start the day.
Speaker:And I think that's kind of what the monastic communities realized.
Speaker:It wasn't that, uh, that if we begin our days, that way.
Speaker:Then, uh, you know, we know that we've done everything we can to cooperate.
Speaker:With the grace that God wants to give us.
Speaker:I think it was Catherine of Sienna.
Speaker:I was saying this to Karen last week.
Speaker:Who, uh, you know, basically said that God gets the first era of the day.
Speaker:You know that that was her thing.
Speaker:He gets the first Aaron, if you give God that first hour,
Speaker:Or whatever time you can reasonably give.
Speaker:I know some people go an hour.
Speaker:Seriously, Jonathan, what do you think this is?
Speaker:But, uh, I do know that if we, if we give that time to God in the morning,
Speaker:then we set ourselves up to really have the greatest influence for him and
Speaker:for his purposes as we possibly can.
Speaker:So today,
Speaker:Today's quote from St.
Speaker:Bede the venerable, or has said before to somebody that, uh, you know, When
Speaker:you've had a good Christian life, when you get a really cool thing, tacked onto
Speaker:your name, like some Bede, the venerable.
Speaker:Uh, so what do we know about him?
Speaker:Well, you know, born in the north of England,
Speaker:Back in the seventh century and, you know, had a huge impact on,
Speaker:uh, sort of European Christianity.
Speaker:He was a prolific writer.
Speaker:He, uh, wrote Marta Realogy's histories of martyrs.
Speaker:He wrote commentaries on the scriptures and apparently he's
Speaker:the first person to have written prose in the English language.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, when I sort of read his biography and I'll share
Speaker:this quote with you in just a moment, but when I read his biography,
Speaker:You know, he, he kind of never left.
Speaker:He was only ever in two monasteries.
Speaker:He basically never left those two monasteries.
Speaker:So a little bit like Teresa Lusher who has this huge impact,
Speaker:but never left the convent.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So it's amazing.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:What God can do.
Speaker:With lives that sort of during their lifetime can seem quite hidden.
Speaker:But the ramifications is like a pot, like a rock being dropped into a pond.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Those ripples flow out.
Speaker:So some beads spends his life never leaving.
Speaker:These two monasteries didn't travel.
Speaker:Um, you know, didn't, wasn't an Instagram influencer, as I like to say.
Speaker:But, uh, had this incredible impact and his joy, and he writes this,
Speaker:this there's another quote of his, which, you know, he talks about that.
Speaker:His great joy.
Speaker:Was.
Speaker:You know, praying the office of the church, praying the
Speaker:daily prayer throughout the.
Speaker:The morning and the day in the evenings.
Speaker:And his great joy was to, was to pray that, to chant the liturgy.
Speaker:And to study and write.
Speaker:And it's interesting because when you read him talking about it,
Speaker:he got genuine joy from that.
Speaker:And I thought, isn't it interesting how God just gives all of us this
Speaker:unique talents and gifts, you know, for many of us, the idea of being.
Speaker:Stuck in a monastery.
Speaker:Reading, you know, ancient texts and, you know, scriptural
Speaker:translations for 10, 12 hours a day.
Speaker:And writing commentaries on for many of us, we'd be like, uh, Um, no pass.
Speaker:But then there were some of us that find this incredibly important and
Speaker:it brings a great sense of joy.
Speaker:So I guess in that is the realization that for all of us in our vocations, there
Speaker:will be key things that we love to do.
Speaker:And I often say on stage, they are not accidental.
Speaker:They're not random.
Speaker:So the things that bring you joy, maybe it's a particular thing that you teach,
Speaker:or it's a particular part of your teaching vocation that you most enjoy.
Speaker:That's not accidental.
Speaker:That's something given to you by God placed within you for
Speaker:his glory and for your Joyce.
Speaker:I think about that.
Speaker:Maybe just as we're talking, like, what is it that you really love
Speaker:in your vocation as a teacher?
Speaker:Double down on that, do more of it.
Speaker:Because that's where the fingerprints of God can be found.
Speaker:And also of course, as I'm going to talk about this in tomorrow's
Speaker:episode, You know, also in the trials.
Speaker:So it's not just that we look around and go, well, it's only
Speaker:a sign of God's presence in favor of everything's wonderful.
Speaker:And I'm having a great time.
Speaker:No, it's more complex than that.
Speaker:It's both, it's the hot times of trial.
Speaker:Also.
Speaker:We can find him, but let's not overlook just how special it is that
Speaker:he gives each of us, these unique interests and joys and our vocation.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So here it is.
Speaker:The quote from Saint Bede, the venerable is very simple.
Speaker:He just says this unfold, the sales.
Speaker:And let God steer us where he will.
Speaker:Unfold the sails and let God steer us where he will.
Speaker:Now, like a lot of great quotes from holy men and women.
Speaker:We find that there's a great there's layers in this there's so much.
Speaker:What does it mean to unfurl the sails?
Speaker:It means to open our lives to the wind, to the breath, to the
Speaker:inspiration of the holy spirit.
Speaker:It means to move the location, that the sort of locus of control of our life.
Speaker:From self to a realization that there is a force.
Speaker:There is a person, there is a great God of the cosmos.
Speaker:Who is so vastly above and beyond us, but so desperate to
Speaker:be involved with us individually.
Speaker:I always love that paradox between the immensity of God and the otherness of God.
Speaker:You know, John Paul.
Speaker:She used to say that.
Speaker:So there's a vast Gulf between creature and creator.
Speaker:So, you know, when, when we look at this idea of the Margot day of the
Speaker:image of God being within us, It doesn't mean we're the same as God, of course,
Speaker:you know, but here's this paradox, there's this, there's this huge Gulf
Speaker:between creature and creator yet.
Speaker:This great closeness.
Speaker:I just love that paradox.
Speaker:How.
Speaker:You know, because you know, that, that the awareness of that leads us to
Speaker:worship because we that's the appropriate response to who God is in his otherness.
Speaker:But also the incredible closeness.
Speaker:I prayed the rosary this morning.
Speaker:It's the joyful mysteries.
Speaker:And you know, when you pray the rosary every day for years, you just,
Speaker:these mysteries still blow your mind.
Speaker:It's like the incarnation.
Speaker:This great, vast God of the cosmos taking on human form.
Speaker:And, you know, also the humility and the smallness of that as well,
Speaker:how he basically entered into the most fragile dependent state.
Speaker:So unfair was sales open ourselves to the spirit, to the power of God.
Speaker:And let us steer us where he will.
Speaker:So when I first read that quote, I, um,
Speaker:You often hear me talk about this day?
Speaker:Like.
Speaker:This moment of history or in is a moment of the iPhone.
Speaker:It's the I, everything, it's the Instagram influencer generation.
Speaker:It's like so much of our lives can be built around.
Speaker:Um, self-promotion I mean, many of you would hear that
Speaker:and say, no, you don't do that.
Speaker:But I think as a culture, it's a big deal.
Speaker:It's look at our advertising, look at our media.
Speaker:It's all about, you know, placing self at the center of reality.
Speaker:But this quote from Sam bead is reminding us simply to.
Speaker:To open ourselves to his grace and allow him to write the script of our life.
Speaker:That's a big gamble for postmoderns.
Speaker:Isn't it it's a big gamble, but I can say that the many of the
Speaker:most wonderful, extraordinary moments of my own life have come.
Speaker:From experiences and invitations that really came despite my best
Speaker:efforts at manipulating life.
Speaker:So often talk about the great adventure of Catholic education.
Speaker:And I really think it is the great adventure of Catholic education.
Speaker:This great.
Speaker:Partnering with God that if we just trust the spirits, seek God in prayer,
Speaker:that he will guide our vocations.
Speaker:Yesterday.
Speaker:I talked about ambition in a Catholic school, go back
Speaker:and listen to that episode.
Speaker:Talk about the problem of ambition, where people are trying to climb over
Speaker:the top of others to get promoted.
Speaker:And, uh, they want a different perspective.
Speaker:It is to say, Lord, here are the gifts you've given me.
Speaker:Please help me to use them, empower me with your holy spirit.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I'm going to stop now because I'm going to go forever.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, let's remember to do the housekeeping Jonathan, which is
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Speaker:All right, friends, that's it from me.
Speaker:Hope you can share this with a few people my name's jonathan doyle this has been
Speaker:the catholic teacher podcast and i'm going to have another message for you tomorrow
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