In today's episode I reference an extraordinary essay from Paul Kingsnorth which you can find here . It is truly worth printing out and reading in a quiet moment. I also discuss the deep truth of how we all take instruction from somewhere and it's worth being mindful about where that is.
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome back to the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker:I always get fascinated by who might be listening wherever you are in the world.
Speaker:Thank you so much for what you're doing each day.
Speaker:In Catholic education, uh, We've had another great day
Speaker:experience of Catholic education.
Speaker:The day I went and picked up my son from his camp.
Speaker:Just head is a four day.
Speaker:Camp with, uh, his, uh, his school, which was great.
Speaker:He's a very, very tired, but, um, you know, I was thinking as I picked
Speaker:him up, it's uh, so good to see the work that Catholic teachers do.
Speaker:You know, when you're going through teacher's college, you don't
Speaker:really sign up for these camps.
Speaker:Do you?
Speaker:Nobody mentions to you.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And by the way,
Speaker:In a few years, you might have your own family, but you're still going to, uh, go
Speaker:away and stay overnight in strange places.
Speaker:And, um, monitor huge numbers of young people who don't want to go to sleep.
Speaker:It's a.
Speaker:You know, often think, uh, I think the water culture thinks teachers
Speaker:have it easy, but they don't realize the amazing stuff that you
Speaker:do on a regular basis like that.
Speaker:All the extra mile stuff that you do every day.
Speaker:And, uh, as I said, many years ago in a keynote now, the good thing, and
Speaker:one of the good things about heaven is God's going to sit you down and
Speaker:there'll be a big flat screen TV.
Speaker:And he's going to show you all the little things that you did.
Speaker:All those tiny little things that nobody ever saw, all those camps
Speaker:and excursions and conversations.
Speaker:That, uh, you gave to the, you gave yourself to the, uh, had an
Speaker:impact that you may never have seen.
Speaker:So be encouraged what you're doing.
Speaker:Really matters.
Speaker:Now today's quote, of course we do the daily quotes.
Speaker:So if you're not getting that in your email, please come across
Speaker:to one Catholic teacher.com.
Speaker:And, uh, just pop your details in any of the boxes.
Speaker:I think we should have a box on most pages definite on the podcast page.
Speaker:Just drop your details in there and we'll get you this each day.
Speaker:Now today.
Speaker:I've got a great quote for you from Paul Kingsnorth.
Speaker:So I want to put this guy on your radar.
Speaker:He's a really interesting guy.
Speaker:He ended became a Christian quite recently, but quite an
Speaker:extraordinary thinker and writer and he's publishing on sub stack.
Speaker:I don't know if you're familiar with the sub stack.
Speaker:It's, it's a great platform.
Speaker:It's a, you know, there's a lot of great blog writers and people who do
Speaker:amazing work and cannot make ends meet.
Speaker:So sub stack has become this platform where great writers.
Speaker:Can, um, get paid.
Speaker:It's not even that doesn't cost much.
Speaker:It's like, you know, five euros or something.
Speaker:A month or less just to support these guys, but some
Speaker:really great stuff on there.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That sub stack, but Paul Kingsnorth is an accomplished
Speaker:author and a very deep thinker.
Speaker:And I just read his latest piece.
Speaker:So, if you want to find it, I'm going to put it in a link to the daily email,
Speaker:but basically it's on a sub stack.
Speaker:If you want to check out subsect that's S U B S T a C.
Speaker:And look for Paul Kingsnorth, but this particular piece.
Speaker:So there will be a link to it and I'll put it in the show notes here.
Speaker:So hopefully if you're listening on a podcast app,
Speaker:Like Spotify, Amazon.
Speaker:Or Google or apple.
Speaker:This should, this should be in the link, so we'll try and link to it,
Speaker:but it's called the dream of the Rood.
Speaker:Who sits on the empty throne?
Speaker:I sent those, that sounds a bit esoteric.
Speaker:Doesn't it?
Speaker:But, uh, look, I just finished it and it's extraordinary.
Speaker:It's an incredible synthesis of.
Speaker:Kind of where we're at.
Speaker:As a global culture or particularly in the west.
Speaker:And what happens when a culture.
Speaker:Becomes increasingly secular.
Speaker:And if you listen to me thinking, well, how's it relevant?
Speaker:Well it's because the kids that are in your classroom every day, those young
Speaker:people are profoundly impacted by the culture around them as are their parents,
Speaker:of course, and their friends and.
Speaker:And so this article that he writes is quite extraordinary.
Speaker:I want to give you this one quote today.
Speaker:He said this, there is a throne at the heart of every culture.
Speaker:And whoever sits on it.
Speaker:Will be the force.
Speaker:You take your instruction from.
Speaker:There was a throne at the heart of every culture and whoever
Speaker:sits on it will be the force.
Speaker:You take your instruction from.
Speaker:So when you read this piece and I hope you will it's um, you just makes that
Speaker:simple anthropological observation that in every culture throughout history,
Speaker:something has been at the center.
Speaker:Of the culture.
Speaker:It might've been an emperor.
Speaker:It might've been a king.
Speaker:It might've been.
Speaker:Pantheistic gods.
Speaker:It might've been, you know, the Greeks had their Mount Olympus.
Speaker:And so there's always something sitting on the throne and he makes
Speaker:the point that for a culture.
Speaker:Whatever's on that throne, that culture definitely at its high points
Speaker:will take its instruction from that.
Speaker:So you can see the logic here that if Christ is not.
Speaker:On the throne of our culture, then something else will be, and of course
Speaker:you're intelligent people, you know, that we're really in that sort of moment.
Speaker:Aren't we were all sorts of different ideologies and ideas and values.
Speaker:Are being enthroned in different ways.
Speaker:So a few years ago, I got to speak in Washington, DC, and I went to
Speaker:the national Catholic shrine there, which is utterly extraordinary.
Speaker:God-willing travel opens back up again, and we get a chance to.
Speaker:To get back out into the world because the, uh, the national shrine.
Speaker:Uh, the Catholic university of America is there on the John Paul to
Speaker:Memorial and a bunch of other stuff.
Speaker:And I had a day free.
Speaker:So I spent the day there and it's extraordinary.
Speaker:And there was, um, There was some contention when it was built because
Speaker:on the high altar and you got to see this place and there's some of
Speaker:you, my listeners will have seen it.
Speaker:Because.
Speaker:Uh, on the high altar, in the main part of sort of the Basilica is this
Speaker:mosaic of, I guess what we would, if.
Speaker:It was the Christos Panta Krato.
Speaker:Which is the Christ Lord of the universe.
Speaker:Uh, iconic mosaic icon, mosaic, mosaic icon.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You get my point.
Speaker:It's vast and.
Speaker:When you see it.
Speaker:It is so striking.
Speaker:And this is where I think it was contentious because the Christos
Speaker:Pantokrator is the, you know, the Christ Lord of the universe.
Speaker:He's the cosmic God.
Speaker:The cosmic Christ, the Lord of the cosmos.
Speaker:And he looks very Regal and intimidating, and I know him.
Speaker:You know, in a Catholic faith, we've got, you know, pious images
Speaker:of Jesus holding lambs and.
Speaker:And that's all good.
Speaker:And of course, You know, Jesus' incredible compassion and gentleness
Speaker:with, uh, with children and with the vulnerable in the wake.
Speaker:We, we know that's an integral part of the reality of Christ.
Speaker:But there is a case that we've lost a bit of the sense of this Christus Pantokrator
Speaker:or this striking God of the universe.
Speaker:And so in light of this, a quote today, We're reminded that, uh, Christ
Speaker:sits on the throne of the universe.
Speaker:Now you can't run back in your classroom tomorrow and say, Hey students.
Speaker:I listened to a podcast.
Speaker:Sit down.
Speaker:I need to talk to you your better.
Speaker:Sharpen up flies, fly straight and get your act in order because
Speaker:Christ is sitting on the throne of the universe and he's not happy.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's not going to sell.
Speaker:But what you can do, as I said, yesterday, is.
Speaker:Begin to help young people think about the great questions
Speaker:of what it means to be human.
Speaker:And my values exist.
Speaker:So this article from Kings north argues that in the absence of whoever's on
Speaker:the throne, then all of the virtues and values and behaviors and morality
Speaker:that underpinned the culture.
Speaker:We'll basically unravel.
Speaker:And that's why I'm so convinced the people ask me, you know,
Speaker:after all these years, why do you still do this podcast and stuff?
Speaker:I said, because I just think that these Catholic teachers have an incredible,
Speaker:incredible role and impact in the lives of young people and in reshaping our culture.
Speaker:So for those of you that are interested, the kind of meta thesis at the moment
Speaker:around where this is all heading.
Speaker:If you follow somebody like rod Dreher who wrote the bendy, the Benedict
Speaker:option, it's really worth reading it.
Speaker:It's an it's a George Vogel said it's amongst the most important.
Speaker:Uh, Christian books of the last, uh, 20 years.
Speaker:So Roger, his thesis is that similar to Rome in the fifth century collapsing.
Speaker:That, uh, Western secular culture is bound for a similar fate.
Speaker:It's a happy thought.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Did you start your day?
Speaker:But he said that what's interesting is that, you know, some Benedict of
Speaker:nurse here kind of in the sixth century began the process of rebuilding.
Speaker:And the monastic communities of the sixth century.
Speaker:And again, in the 11th century had a profound impact on reshaping Europe.
Speaker:You know, the, the.
Speaker:The communities of my owner and Linda's farm in the 10th and 11th
Speaker:centuries, and some Benedict of nurses here in the sixth century.
Speaker:So this idea of the Benedict option is that.
Speaker:Um, I guess what you have to pray your way through as a, as a Christian,
Speaker:as a Catholic, as a teacher is.
Speaker:Are we called at the moment to turn this culture around.
Speaker:I'm just, this is a thought experiment.
Speaker:Uh, and you know, there's.
Speaker:People make that case.
Speaker:And then a lot of people would be very like, yes, we need to radically turn
Speaker:this culture around history seems to tell us that things tend to get worse.
Speaker:And then, you know, historically Christians have been there to
Speaker:rebuild the system and to rebuild it.
Speaker:You know, even better.
Speaker:Um, through the graces of the holy Spirit's, I'm not God, I don't know what's
Speaker:going to happen, but I do know that.
Speaker:Um, I think there's a lot of sense in the Benedict option thesis, where he
Speaker:suggests that what we do need to do is to really support each other and to
Speaker:build a really vibrant small communities.
Speaker:And if you've heard me again in a keynote, you know, that I
Speaker:always talk about this at the end.
Speaker:What we need to do is build really vibrant gospel communities in our schools.
Speaker:You know, none of us probably listening to this or me saying
Speaker:it, a call to save the world.
Speaker:We don't, we're not the Messiah.
Speaker:We're not going to single-handedly, you know, we're not going to Davos.
Speaker:We're not, we're not getting elected to the highest offices in the land.
Speaker:But we are called upon to play our part, which is to build
Speaker:these little communities.
Speaker:I'm called to build that in my, in my work, my business, my speaking.
Speaker:My writing my marriage, my parenting.
Speaker:And so are you in whatever area you've been called to do it?
Speaker:So in the classroom, you know, you're rebuilding this tiny little culture.
Speaker:Do you realize that your classroom.
Speaker:Is a little epicenter of culture.
Speaker:You know, the language that's used, the encouragement, the faith, the prayer.
Speaker:All of that stuff is building something very special.
Speaker:So one more time, Paul Kingsnorth reminds us, there is a throne at
Speaker:the heart of every culture and whoever sits on it will be the force.
Speaker:You take your instruction from.
Speaker:So I got a lot of interests.
Speaker:I got a lot of things.
Speaker:I read a lot of stuff I watch, but you know what?
Speaker:I ain't taken my instruction for many places.
Speaker:I take my instruction from Karen when necessary.
Speaker:I'll take it from a couple of good friends, some spiritual
Speaker:directors here and there.
Speaker:But the rest of the time I try and take it from.
Speaker:From the Lord.
Speaker:From the deposit of faith in the, uh, in the, in the church that he established
Speaker:and then he promised would prevail.
Speaker:So I'll take my instruction from him.
Speaker:I don't do it perfectly.
Speaker:And, uh, I hope to do a better as I get older, but, uh, That's
Speaker:where I'm taking mine from.
Speaker:So God bless everybody.
Speaker:I hope that's a bit of food for thought.
Speaker:As you go about your day as a Catholic educator in this great
Speaker:adventure of Catholic education, please make sure you've subscribed.
Speaker:It's a great blessing to me, wherever you listen to.
Speaker:I know a lot of you listened to it on the direct link that I sent.
Speaker:But, uh, if you subscribe on Spotify, apple podcast, anywhere
Speaker:you listen, you'll get the updates when it comes out each day.
Speaker:And now they're only short.
Speaker:So I hope that you get a chance to listen to them and.
Speaker:Please share them with people.
Speaker:Please leave a review.
Speaker:Everything else is on the website.
Speaker:One Catholic teacher.com.
Speaker:Check out the resources page.
Speaker:There's tons of good stuff there.
Speaker:My name is jonathan doyle this has been the catholic teacher daily
Speaker:podcast God bless everybody i'll have another message for you tomorrow