Today I respond to a great listener question where they ask:

One thing that I have been trying to find the balance on, is sharing the faith with students and non-Christian colleagues.

Most colleagues and students know I am a Christian/Catholic, yet is it enough for them to just know I am a Christian? Should I try to share the faith and witness and yet how should I? How much is too much? Will I just start sounding cheesy? How do you authentically share your faith with colleagues and students in the small things without it sounding forced? Especially when interacting with LGBTQ+ colleagues and students, as this can really be a tough one discussing anything faith wise.

Listen in as I share a few key ideas on how we can share the faith on a regular basis.

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Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.

Once again, welcome to the Catholic teacher soda daily podcast.

We do get to these as often as we can.

I am going to ask the holy spirit to help me be even more diligent

so I can get these done each day.

For all of you incredible Catholic teachers all over the world, people of

faith, men, and women of faith out there.

On the front lines of the church's mission, bringing the person of Jesus

Christ to young people on a daily basis.

Well, it's friends today is the feast day of St.

Francis of Assisi.

Be honest with you.

Some Francis of Assisi has always, I don't know, made me nervous.

He just kind of the whole radical poverty bit, the whole, just some of the stuff

that he got up to is just extraordinary.

I'm thought, oh gosh.

That I've I could He's one of the great saints, one of the absolute

giants of the faith and, uh, you know, a radical response, right?

A radical response to the action of God in his life.

Now.

It's important to understand.

One of the reasons that the church recognizes saints and

gives us these saints to emulate.

Uh, not to copy, but to emulate.

So that just as sin Francis, might I radical response

to the presence of Christ.

We are also called.

To make a radical response.

It may not require you to take off all your clothes and give them to the poor.

Um, you might give them a jacket, but you don't.

I mean, St.

Francis really took it all

But you get my point.

We're going to be cold to respond and be generous in different ways.

And one of the great things about some Frances.

Is the scope and scale of his radical response.

And also that the way that God just gives us saints in the church at these crucial

moments, doesn't No, it was such a.

Uh, pivotal time in the history of the world and the Western tradition

and the history of the church when St.

Francis.

Was doing his thing.

So we can always trust that no matter how dark the times may seem, God does

raise up the men and women that, uh, he wills to give us great example

and guidance, friends, housekeeping.

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out and let me know friends today.

We're going to jump into a great listener question.

Uh, I reached out a few weeks ago.

And asked you guys to let me know some of the big questions that you

have, uh, that you face in your daily work as Catholic educators.

And we've got some really good ones and I'm going to just jump straight in.

We want to be respectful of your time.

This is a great question.

Listen to this.

One of the things I've been trying to find the balance on.

He's sharing the faith with students and non-Christian colleagues, most

colleagues and students know that I am a Christian Catholic Catholic

Christian, yet it is enough.

It yet, is it enough for them to just know I am a Christian?

Should I try to share the faith and witness and if so,

how, how much is too much?

Well, I just start sounding cheesy.

How do you authentically share your faith with colleagues and

students in the small things?

Without it sounding forced?

Especially when interacting with, uh, LGBTQ colleagues and students.

As this can really be a tough one, discussing anything.

Faith wise, friends, there is so much in that.

Thank you.

For that great question.

I do usually keep people's identity anonymous unless they asked me to share.

Who they are.

So I think many of us can at least relate to this question.

We have a passion for the person of Jesus.

We have a passion for our Catholic faith.

How do we effectively share that with our students and with our colleagues?

How much is too much?

Should we have, uh, Jesus loves you tattooed on our foreheads.

What should we do?

Where would the line be?

Um, so I've written a few notes here.

Let me spin you through these.

Look.

The first thing I want to do is acknowledge the scope of this question.

This is a huge question.

It really covers on mission evangelization.

Our own faith formation.

Uh, pastoral sensitivities dealing with complex modern scenarios in our schools.

What do we do?

Ah, the first thing I should clarify is it's important to get, I guess, discuss

whether this question is relating to a Christian Catholic school or a.

You know, public government

So that's not specified.

So I know that the vast majority of your listening will usually be working in

a Catholic school or Christian school.

But, uh, some of you will definitely be working in government education.

So what do you do there?

Is it literally.

Completely off limits.

I my thoughts on that first, uh, at least if you're in a, if

you are in a faith based school, you should at least be allowed.

To speak on matters relating to that.

Now, sadly, there are schools where the faith has become so innovated, the school

has lost Either through poor leadership or other factors where it's a Catholic

or Christian school in name only.

And look there really are schools where, you know, it,

it can be hard to stand up and.

And a witness to your faith, even in, uh, In a faith-based school.

So I do recognize that too.

So there's a big spectrum here because there'll be some schools.

You know, many schools I've visited around the world where it's a really

fantastic faith community and people can really live and speak about their faith.

So I'm saying that because as I answered this question,

Um, I recognize there's a big range here.

Okay.

A few thoughts.

First thing.

I want to suggest to all of us that are the enemies, the enemies

of our faith are not holding back.

And if so, uh, should we be holding back by this?

I mean, the militant.

Nietzschean nihilist Marxist.

Uh, you know, neo-Marxist materialism.

That characterizes so much of post-modernity the people advocating

the extreme ends of that on a whole bunch of topics are not holding back.

They are not being subtle.

They are not being respectful of persons or systems.

They are basically getting no going around like bulls in a China shop,

trying to burn the place down.

So.

I would just say to us that our response is not to be.

Um, I guess, you know, to, to fight fire with fire, I'm not

saying that I'm saying that.

Let's just realize that the, you know, the cultural hegemony that, that.

That Catholicism had, or the Christianity had in the Western

tradition at Has been severely impacted.

So it used to be that, uh, you know, most people were coming from a

broadly Judeo-Christian background, so we could all agree on some of the,

You know, the top shelf items, the big, the big ticket issues.

That's kind of gone.

And I've just want us to think carefully about the softly softly

approach, the, you know, I'll just be a nice person and people will

learn about Jesus because I'm nice.

It's probably not going to work when the people that hate the Catholic

church and hate Catholic education and hate Christian education.

They're not holding them back.

Right.

So let's realize that.

That, uh, we need to be witnesses here.

And if you look at that first century church, so much of its impact and

influence came through men and women who radically witnessed to their faith.

You know, the whole growth of Christianity in the first century

really came through witnesses.

Right?

He came through men and women who had witnessed the risen Christ.

And would not be silenced.

So we have to be aware that our enemies are not being silent and we need to be

careful that we don't become silent.

Um, that we need to speak up.

We need to witness and we need to be brave.

It's a great call for courage at this moment in history.

So, all right, so I want to put that on our right off first.

We need to be courageous, not insensitive, not.

You know, Unnecessarily dogmatic or judgemental because we

know that doesn't really work.

Right.

Very few people turn around because you pointed out the log that was,

you The splinter that was in there.

I, well, you're missing the log in

But we shouldn't let that also.

Move us towards a silence that is helping nobody.

Okay.

So you've got that.

Our enemies are speaking up.

We need to speak up to.

Next thing I'd say that was on my heart was the great quote

from Catherine of Sienna.

Who said that, uh, if you are who God has made you to be, you

will set the whole world on fire.

If you are who God has made you to

Then you will set the whole world on fire.

So this is a beautiful thesis that flows through much.

I guess.

Of Catholicism and the witness of the saints is the sense that if you become

the more, the more deeply you press into your relationship with Christ, the

deeper that Christ permeates your life.

Then people notice, right.

People notice.

Another pastor said years ago, I don't know who the quote should be attributed

to, but they said, if you set yourself on fire, people will come to watch you burn.

So if we spiritually set ourselves on fire, people will be curious.

There'll be interested.

There'll be, what is the difference here?

What is the, what do I notice about this person that is.

You know, strikingly different to other people around me.

Now, again, this is a complex question today, and there's a lot of nuance here.

The risk of course, is what we call Neo Pelagianism, which is when we

kind of think that it's our job to strive harder and harder and

to be more joyful and just to be

Happy all the time that, uh, everybody just thinks, wow,

they're so happy and joyful.

What is it about them?

There's definitely a truth to that, but I, as I've grown older, I've

also realized that God creates us with specific personalities.

Right.

We are definitely created with specific personalities.

Some of us are more introverted and quiet and serious.

And you know, one of my kids is, um, very much similar to me.

And one of my kids is just absolutely wild and crazy and out there.

And so these are characterological facts.

So I just want us to realize that the saints, one of the things about the

sciences have radically different.

They all

Today's Francis of Assisi, Francis of Assisi was not like Thomas of Aquinas.

You know, Thomas Aquinas was not like Tereza leisure.

So you see this huge diversity here, but what we do find is that they

were all individually deep into their relationship with Christ.

And that was transformative and people noticed that difference.

So.

Continuing that theme.

I think if we want to share our faith with students and colleagues, They

need to see something compelling in us.

They need to either trust our maturity and seriousness or be

attracted to our joy and spontaneity.

We need to.

Fully allow the holy spirit to transform us as best we can.

So that people are drawn towards us.

And earlier today, before I came in the studio, I was thinking about

this question and maybe this'll help.

Right.

Imagine that instead of talking about.

Uh, sharing the faith.

What let's imagine that what we were most passionate about was

CrossFit and going to the gym.

Right.

We were just oddly obsessed with CrossFit and going to the gym

and we were, we loved it so much.

That we wanted all the students at our school and all the colleagues

at our school to get fitter.

And to, um, and to be starting in the gym and to be lifting weights all the time.

The only problem is.

No matter how passionate we were.

We never went to the gym and we really let ourselves go.

And we were in terrible health and fitness.

And we looked as though we weren't taking care of ourselves.

Can you see the incongruity here?

Right?

So can you imagine trying to walk the corridors of your school,

saying everybody, Hey Crossy, can I talk to you about CrossFit?

Can I talk to you about bench press?

Can I talk to you about Palio diets?

Can I talk to you about increasing your cardio?

They're just going to look at you and go, uh, well, it's, doesn't

seem to be working for you.

Now I'm hoping I haven't lost anybody there with, uh, With that analogy.

I'm just using it to help us realize that if we were super fit and strong

and healthy, People would look at us and think, wow, you know,

I want some of what they've got.

Right.

So it's a weak analogy, but you can see that if we are not convinced

of our faith, you know, the, the church documents talk about Catholic

educators being convinced and coherent.

That they're convinced of the truth of the faith and coherent about it.

So I guess all I'm doing here is broadly saying in this question,

In answering this question, we need to be the message, right?

We need to embody, how do you evangelize by being a really amazing

human who may then eventually build quality relationships, who they.

Who may then.

Uh, B.

Available when people are at particular moments of life.

Now, some of you know what I'm saying, there's Uh, kind of theory and

evangelization that what we need to do is just be really good people and build

relationships and be there for when.

Uh, things go sideways in people's lives, and then we're going to be there

to support them and encourage them.

And then maybe lead them to Christ now.

That's true.

That's definitely true.

But I guess what I'm trying to say here is there are so many

ways to witness to the faith.

You might witness to the faith by being a brilliant teacher, by having

a great love for your students and their development that you just teach.

Really, really well.

And you get a reputation as somebody who teaches really, really It might

be that you're a great listener.

It might be that you've got a great sense of humor.

You see the holy Spirit's going to take these natural gifts that you were

created with and gonna elevate them.

And help you to reach people through those gifts.

So as much as, you know, direct preaching and homiletics and.

And, uh, you know, all sorts of deep discussion on theological

matters are important.

We can't rule out or limit the number of ways in which the holy

spirit can reach people through you just by being who you are.

Uh, and in terms of being who you are, I mean, You know, allowing yourself to be

drawn towards the sacraments and prayer.

So that the holy spirit has the best possible chance to work with you and

to help you to grow and flourish.

So look, summary, there's a lot in this.

I would say a couple of basics.

We need to get off the back foot.

We need to stop.

Being timid all the time.

And we need to worry about causing stop worrying about causing possible offense.

Or, you know, being misunderstood.

You're intelligent.

You can figure this out.

I'm not talking about being blunt and aggressive or dogmatic.

I'm just saying.

Let's move out of the crouching position and begin to press towards people.

Confident in our faith, because we have to believe at the end of

the day, it comes down to this.

You have to believe that you have something remarkably

worth sharing or you don't.

And if you don't really believe it, it's going to be very hard to

passionately share that with people over

Okay.

So that's it.

Summary.

Our enemies are not backing off neither should we, uh, we need to

set ourselves on fire and let the holy spirit set ourselves on fire.

We need to be courageous, tell people the truth, just say, look, you know,

build friendships and then be able to say to them, In a difficult time.

Hey, I want you to understand you're not alone in this God's with you.

Can I pray with, you asked to pray with people sometimes, you know,

And, um, You know, if you're in a fight by school, just start a pray group.

Start some way we can meet together once a week.

And students and staff can begin to pray together or do Have a Bible study

together, just, you know, it's, what's the old saying it's much easier to apologize

and it is to ask for permission to start, just start something and see how

it grows or what have I missed in that?

Um, I think that's pretty much everything I wanted to cover off on if I've missed

Um, please.

Let me know, send me an email, jonathan@onecatholicteacher.com.

Got you get the show notes, make sure you subscribe tomorrow.

I'm going to go a little bit deeper on the second part of this question.

I hope today has been a blessing for you, but you've got this all right.

You and the holy spirit together have got these things sorted.

Get back out there.

I Get into it you're going to be just fun.

my name's jonathan doyle this has been the catholic teacher daily podcast and