In today’s episode I want to explore this profound quote from Paul Kingsnorth. IO truly believe that the way we change the world in some small way is to allow God to let us become, over time, all that he created us to become. This is the path of sainthood and it is not beyond us and it is not the role of some preordained souls who are so much holier than you think yourself to be. Don’t miss this encouraging episode.
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome aboard to the Catholic teacher daily podcast,
Speaker:going out around the world.
Speaker:To Catholic teachers just like you.
Speaker:So thanks for joining me.
Speaker:I saw a, I guess, a heat map on a podcast software the other
Speaker:day, which shows, uh, the sort of listening audience around the world.
Speaker:And it's really interesting, you know, so many great listeners of course, in a.
Speaker:In north America, shout out to all you guys across here in Australia, but then
Speaker:all these other places around the world.
Speaker:It's sort of interesting.
Speaker:It's sort of like, I'd love to just meet some of these people and
Speaker:find out more about their lives and what Catholic education is doing.
Speaker:In their part of the world.
Speaker:And, you know, just on that yesterday, I was able to do a lovely interview
Speaker:with Anne Rainey, who you're going to hear in the next couple of days.
Speaker:And it's just so interesting to just hear about the stories of
Speaker:Catholic educators around the world.
Speaker:So just remember.
Speaker:That as you go through your day as a Catholic teacher, you are surrounded by.
Speaker:I guess what the book of Hebrews would say is a great cloud of witnesses.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:There's the, a communion of the saints that are cheering us on, on the way home.
Speaker:The way home to heaven, but there's also the great cross cloud cloud
Speaker:of witnesses around the world.
Speaker:Other Catholic teachers who are.
Speaker:Listening to this who were getting up each day into the classroom.
Speaker:Ready to bring the person of Jesus Christ into the lives of young people.
Speaker:So listen, let's get into it.
Speaker:Today's quote is from, uh, my sort of favorite go-to guy at the moment, Paul
Speaker:Kingsnorth, uh, who I is just an, a great thinker, a great philosopher and writer.
Speaker:He's living on a farm in Ireland.
Speaker:I think at the moment.
Speaker:But his books are fantastic, but he's writing on sub stack, which I really like.
Speaker:And this is from his latest sub stack piece, which I thought
Speaker:was just quite excellent.
Speaker:Uh, he said this, he said, modernity.
Speaker:Is not at all short on ideas, arguments, insults ideologies, stratagems conflicts.
Speaker:World saving machines or clever Ted talks.
Speaker:But it is.
Speaker:Very short on saints.
Speaker:One more time.
Speaker:Maternity is not at all.
Speaker:Short on ideas, arguments, insults ideology, stratagems conflict,
Speaker:world saving machines or clever Ted talks, but it is very short.
Speaker:On saints.
Speaker:You know, one writer said that, uh, really that the, the history of the
Speaker:church of course, is the history of the saints of these amazing men and women
Speaker:who had such important key moments.
Speaker:Would just so transformative and long story short.
Speaker:I want to invite you into the same adventure, because if you've ever
Speaker:heard me on stage, you would know.
Speaker:There was barely a talk I've ever done.
Speaker:Or I haven't said to people that to Catholic teachers, that they
Speaker:are called to become saints.
Speaker:That they are called to become men and women truly transformed
Speaker:in relationship with God.
Speaker:And then his grace just works through you.
Speaker:And, you know, when I do these live seminars, it's, I'm often talking about
Speaker:the definition of a Saint is often really.
Speaker:Well is inaccurate the word.
Speaker:Many of us kind of think that science are made in a Saint factory in heaven.
Speaker:That God kind of has a quota each kind of century where he
Speaker:just, you know, Pre ordains.
Speaker:A bunch of science and they roll off and the rest of us.
Speaker:You know, Don't have a hope.
Speaker:What was that old quote from?
Speaker:Um, the great Jesuit poet who, uh, you know, famously.
Speaker:Who said that Mary of course, was our tainted nature's solitary, boast.
Speaker:You know, this idea that, uh, and I get what he was saying, but you
Speaker:know, this idea that there's there's, the rest of us are just kind of
Speaker:gonna sneak in the backdoor heaven.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, we'll do a bit of good, but, uh, let's not get above ourselves.
Speaker:But the truth is, especially after the second Vatican council, that all
Speaker:of us are called to holiness of life.
Speaker:All of us call us call of his call to sanctity of life.
Speaker:All of us are called to become saints.
Speaker:And this is what this quotes reminding us of.
Speaker:If you've listened to recent episodes, you constantly hear me talking about
Speaker:our technocratic autocratic culture.
Speaker:Where we've, uh, you know, just we've, we've mastered the technological
Speaker:aspects of existence to some degree.
Speaker:And, you know, the, the media that we exist with now is
Speaker:just so fragmentary, isn't it?
Speaker:It's just so opposed.
Speaker:There's so much.
Speaker:Well, you know what Kings north says here, arguments, insults ideologies.
Speaker:I take a break each day at 11:00 AM.
Speaker:I sort of get up very early and work for a long time and then have a break.
Speaker:And I'm on cable TV here.
Speaker:You can switch between Fox news and CNN.
Speaker:And it's just, uh, it'd be funny if it wasn't just quite striking, you know, it's
Speaker:like, it's basically one network saying black and another network saying white,
Speaker:you know, metaphorically speaking, right.
Speaker:I'm not talking about race.
Speaker:I'm talking about whatever one network is saying.
Speaker:The exact opposites being said on the other channel.
Speaker:It's quite, it's almost comical when you switch between them.
Speaker:And you just, you know, see this tension in the world, this anger, this rage
Speaker:flowing back and forward around these arguments, ideologies and insults.
Speaker:And of course.
Speaker:What we think what culturally seems to be happening is this idea that
Speaker:these will be resolved, essentially, not through dialogue, but through
Speaker:power that we're going to eventually beat each other into submission.
Speaker:Whereas what King's north reminding us of here is that genuine cultural change.
Speaker:Genuine cultural change comes through sites.
Speaker:It actually comes through men and women.
Speaker:Living a life of heroic virtue and that changes things.
Speaker:And, you know, listeners would know.
Speaker:Just been finishing Jordan Peterson's new book and.
Speaker:He makes a compelling case at multiple points in the book that we all need to.
Speaker:You know, get out of ideology.
Speaker:And realize that what we need to do is, you know, I love this, this language.
Speaker:Amend our own lives.
Speaker:It's a very Catholic idea.
Speaker:Amend our own lives.
Speaker:That if we look deep into our own lives, we will see the good
Speaker:and evil in our own hearts.
Speaker:To greater or lesser degree, we'll see the virtue and we'll see the sin.
Speaker:And Peterson's reminding us that.
Speaker:Basically the job is to reform ourselves.
Speaker:And then if we reform ourselves, we'll probably love our families
Speaker:a little bit better and there'll be a little bit more of a kingdom.
Speaker:You know, place a piece and then we might reform our staff rooms a bit.
Speaker:Uh, uh, faculty lounges, my American friends, colon.
Speaker:Why because imagine you've got a faculty lounge or a staff room as we
Speaker:call it here in Australia, and you've got 20 staff or 30 staff or 50 staff.
Speaker:I always like to say that if you have one Saint in that room, You
Speaker:get one kind of school community.
Speaker:If you have five saints, you get a different kind of school community.
Speaker:If you have 50 saints in that room, you get a very different
Speaker:kind of school community.
Speaker:So rather than fancy programs or ideologies or arguments
Speaker:and stratagems and conflicts.
Speaker:What we need is saints.
Speaker:What we genuinely need in Catholic education is saints.
Speaker:That's what we need.
Speaker:That's what we need culturally.
Speaker:And you just look at history, you look at the reforms of, you know, Benedict
Speaker:of nurse here in the sixth century, you look at the saints of Lindisfarne and I
Speaker:own her in the 10th and 11th centuries.
Speaker:You look at our.
Speaker:You know, our St.
Speaker:Ignatius is we look at some Francis's.
Speaker:We look at centuries of.
Speaker:Leisure these men and women, you know, cause trouble.
Speaker:Therese of Avalara, um, Catherine of Sienna.
Speaker:You see these incredible men and women that just transform their moment
Speaker:in history simply by allowing God.
Speaker:To be.
Speaker:Fully all in all in their life.
Speaker:So how do we do it?
Speaker:Practically.
Speaker:As I've often taught the best thing I think I've ever heard on it is
Speaker:from Thomas Aquinas, who said.
Speaker:You know, Thomas Aquinas was asked, how do people become saints?
Speaker:Or how do you become a Saint?
Speaker:And remember that Aquinas had written a Summa he'd written this vast
Speaker:document about the essential nature of, you know, all theology, the Summa.
Speaker:Theologiae the sum of all theology.
Speaker:And when he was asked how you become a Saint, he famously said only two words.
Speaker:Two words.
Speaker:You want to know what they are.
Speaker:I'm going to tell you, you ready?
Speaker:He said this.
Speaker:We'll eat.
Speaker:He just said, will it want it desire?
Speaker:It.
Speaker:So I find in my own life, the longer you go in the spiritual life as a Catholic.
Speaker:This, this is a weird kind of paradox because you are simultaneously aware.
Speaker:Of the depth of.
Speaker:Weakness and brokenness in your own life and simultaneously aware, not so
Speaker:much of growth in virtue necessarily.
Speaker:I wouldn't be that.
Speaker:Uh, audacious, but I'd say.
Speaker:A deepening awareness of the need for grace.
Speaker:The need for God.
Speaker:Presence to be within.
Speaker:And as those two things.
Speaker:Resolve over the years.
Speaker:You slowly change.
Speaker:I hope.
Speaker:And we do that through that beautiful language, which we call the helps of the,
Speaker:of the faith that helps of the church.
Speaker:Which is our sacramental life.
Speaker:I life of prayer.
Speaker:Commitment to prayer.
Speaker:Not an option to prayer, but a genuine.
Speaker:Prayer life, a life of prayer.
Speaker:To be, you know, what do we know about the science?
Speaker:You know, none of them became saints, just, you know, flipping a coin.
Speaker:They became a science by pursuing God.
Speaker:And paradoxically allowing themselves to be caught.
Speaker:I always liked that they pursued God, but then they allowed themselves to be caught.
Speaker:So I want to encourage you today that what we need is saints.
Speaker:We need science.
Speaker:We need science and our marriages.
Speaker:We need saints in our parenting.
Speaker:We need saints in a.
Speaker:Classrooms.
Speaker:We need to form sanctity and sainthood in young people.
Speaker:And it's.
Speaker:It's a task that will always remain beyond us, but which again, we kind of
Speaker:paradoxically can never achieve, but must get up every day, striving to attain.
Speaker:So I pray for you today that you will.
Speaker:At least allow the holy spirit to put the idea in your mind of sanctity of life.
Speaker:Of becoming a Saint and why not?
Speaker:So you can walk around with your hands clasped in prayer, bowing to the
Speaker:students saying, go to be with you.
Speaker:My child.
Speaker:No, no, because what's going to happen is you pursue the path of sanctity is
Speaker:that you are simply going to become all that God envisaged, you could become.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:So you will love.
Speaker:With the power of God flowing through you, you will loving difficult situations.
Speaker:You will have strength and capacity in times of hardship and fatigue.
Speaker:You will be given grace to say the right things pastorally at the right time.
Speaker:And you may never know what they were.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:As Kingsnorth says we don't need too many more ideas.
Speaker:Arguments, insults, ideologies, strategies, conflicts, world saving
Speaker:machines, or clever Ted talks.
Speaker:We don't need them.
Speaker:They're useful.
Speaker:They have their place.
Speaker:We can thank God for the best parts of technology, but what
Speaker:we really need is science.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:My name is Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
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Speaker:All right, friends.
Speaker:That's it for me today.
Speaker:God, bless your ministry.
Speaker:May the Lord carry you through, uh, your week, your day of
Speaker:ministry to young people?
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:And i'll have another message for you tomorrow
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