In this episode, internationally renowned Catholic speaker and educator Jonathan Doyle shares a compelling reflection on the profound impact of spending intentional time each day with Holy Scripture.
Drawing from his years of experience in Catholic education and personal spiritual practice, Jonathan explores how Scripture is not merely a text to be studied but a living Word that speaks into the heart of our daily lives.
Whether you’re a teacher, parent, student, or seeker, this episode invites you to discover:
- Why Scripture is essential for spiritual renewal and clarity
- Practical ways to incorporate Scripture reading into a busy schedule
- How the Word of God strengthens identity, purpose, and peace in a chaotic world
- The Church’s call for lay people to be deeply rooted in the Bible
This is a powerful reminder that God is speaking—and we are invited to listen, every day.
Find out about booking Jonathan to come and speak at your school or event
Book a coaching call with me right now – For Principal’s and Leaders in Catholic Education
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https://www.youtube.com/@onecatholicteacher/videos
Find Jonathan on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jdoylespeaks/
Transcript
Well, hello there my friend, and welcome aboard to the
Speaker:Catholic Teacher Daily Podcast.
Speaker:You are in the right place.
Speaker:My name is Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:It is 4:49 AM here in this nice warm studio.
Speaker:It is well below zero outside all my American friends.
Speaker:I know you think that.
Speaker:We live under blazing Sun here in Australia all the time, and kangaroos
Speaker:bounce merrily down the streets.
Speaker:We that.
Speaker:The second part is actually true.
Speaker:I'm gonna go for a run soon after I get outta the studio, and there are so
Speaker:many kangaroos around at the moment.
Speaker:And yes, they are on my street very regularly.
Speaker:Uh, regular listeners now play a lot of golf and there are so many
Speaker:kangaroos on our golf course.
Speaker:But lemme take a stab at this.
Speaker:I don't think you listen in today to hear about my thoughts
Speaker:on marsupials and macropods.
Speaker:You're probably after something else, and what I'm hoping
Speaker:you're after is a moment or two.
Speaker:Of inspiration and encouragement on your crucial journey as a Catholic
Speaker:educator leader, administrator, janitor, maintenance person, office worker, admin,
Speaker:who knows what you do, but if you've made it this far, you are very welcome.
Speaker:Today, I just simply want to share with you something
Speaker:beautiful from the scriptures and.
Speaker:I just wanna remind you first, if you, of course, if you've ever heard me live,
Speaker:you'll remember this, that I really try to move from the abstract to the concrete.
Speaker:I, you know, have a great passion to share the deep, metaphysical,
Speaker:philosophical, theological riches of the Holy Roman Church, but I also like
Speaker:to make it really, uh, concrete and give people things to practically do.
Speaker:I think it's really important that, uh, we come away from listening to podcasts
Speaker:like this with practical things we can do.
Speaker:And one of those big things if we want to grow to become who Christ has called us to
Speaker:become is daily time with the scriptures.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I do a, a large section on this in live events, but really simply, there's a
Speaker:beautiful line from the second Vatican council, Dave Ver the document, Dave
Speaker:Verba, which concludes with the words, you know, that the father, he sort
Speaker:of comes to speak tenderly to the children through the sacred scriptures.
Speaker:It's a beautiful line that, uh, you know, and I say to people, God is speaking.
Speaker:He didn't stop speaking.
Speaker:You know, he, there was of course the incarnation, the passion of
Speaker:Christ, the, uh, the poor line doctrines of the New Testament.
Speaker:But you know what?
Speaker:He's still speaking.
Speaker:God's still speaking to us in so many ways.
Speaker:Of course, through the book of creation itself, through the beauty that you
Speaker:encounter every single day, the.
Speaker:You know, St. Paul I think talks about in Romans two that the, that
Speaker:the nature of God has always been visible to people in the created order.
Speaker:So we've got the Book of Creation in which God is speaking to but very much he's
Speaker:speaking to us through sacred scripture.
Speaker:I just wanna encourage you that if you don't have a daily discipline
Speaker:of scripture, I just, it's not something that I want to add to
Speaker:your life as an extra burden, because firstly, you don't have to.
Speaker:You can go, Jonathan, you can try and add anything you want to my life,
Speaker:but I'm not necessarily gonna do it.
Speaker:Of course you're not, but I want to invite you to consider it because
Speaker:he's desperate to speak to you.
Speaker:Do you have challenges in your life at the moment?
Speaker:Do you have challenges at work, challenges in your family, challenges in your health?
Speaker:He's desperate to speak to you, so very simply, I just wanted to share a couple
Speaker:of quick insights from today's readings.
Speaker:Uh, the moment we're going through the book of numbers in the church's
Speaker:daily readings, and it's that story, it's, there's been quite a few of
Speaker:these over the last few weeks of the, um, Israelites in the desert.
Speaker:Defaulting to their standard mode of grumbling, they're complaining.
Speaker:And the standard line of course is, you know, you took us out of Egypt, you know,
Speaker:we were slaves, but we had food and uh, you know, you brought us out here to die.
Speaker:And if you know anything about that sequence of scripture, you know
Speaker:that it's pretty perennial in the readings of this time in the church's
Speaker:liturgical calendar is this complaining.
Speaker:And I think what happens for most of us is we look at it and we think, oh
Speaker:gosh, they never stop complaining.
Speaker:Moses has led them out of Egypt and they just keep complaining.
Speaker:And I dunno if you're anything like me, but you're kinda like, well
Speaker:God, I wouldn't have done that.
Speaker:I would've been every morning.
Speaker:Hey Moses, do you need any help?
Speaker:Great desert.
Speaker:Really enjoying it.
Speaker:Uh, great leadership.
Speaker:No, but there's endless grumbling and complaining, and I just went
Speaker:offer you a couple of reflections.
Speaker:Today's particular reading is, well, you know, there's not enough water,
Speaker:and this is where Moses goes and hits the rock and, um, water flows from the
Speaker:rock that feeds everybody and waters the cattle and all the Israelites.
Speaker:But there's a couple of key lines in it.
Speaker:One of them is when the Israelites complain.
Speaker:Moses and Aaron, their default settings, the first thing they do is they go
Speaker:to the tent of meeting and they fall on their knees in sort of prayer.
Speaker:And it's an interesting movement because it's kind of like when
Speaker:I read it, I'm like, problem.
Speaker:And then the first instinct of their leadership is prayer.
Speaker:Now Moses, as we know, did not get everything right, but I read that and
Speaker:I thought of all the challenges we face in a day in Catholic education, so
Speaker:many different challenges and problems.
Speaker:You know, I think it's why Jesus said, you know, just, uh, don't worry about tomorrow
Speaker:'cause today's gonna have enough problems.
Speaker:But I wanna draw your attention to the default response, which
Speaker:is prayer and supplication.
Speaker:If you've got challenges and problems in your Catholic education journey and
Speaker:even in your private life, the first thing we wanna default to is prayer.
Speaker:And I think what can often happen for many people is we don't default to prayer.
Speaker:We default to one of several things, despair.
Speaker:Uh, my personal, uh, favorite, um, is blame.
Speaker:I think we default to blame very quickly and easily.
Speaker:But rarely do we immediately default to prayer.
Speaker:So I just wanna draw your attention that, to that general human response of problem,
Speaker:complaining, blaming, and, you know, because the Israelis go straight to Moses.
Speaker:They're like, well, you know, if you'd, you know, you brought us outta
Speaker:here to die and it's really terrible.
Speaker:And it's complaint, complaint, complaint.
Speaker:I wanna encourage us to avoid complaining.
Speaker:I don't know if you can tell from this recording.
Speaker:Uh, I've got a, I've actually got a chest infection at the
Speaker:moment, which is really rare.
Speaker:I, I literally kind of thank, thank the Lord.
Speaker:I, I almost never get sick.
Speaker:Uh, you know, kinda once a year I get this thing, it's almost
Speaker:the same thing every year.
Speaker:So you can probably hear it in the background.
Speaker:But, um, you know, Karen keeps saying to me, she goes, are you sick?
Speaker:And I'm like, no, no, I'm alright.
Speaker:I'm fine.
Speaker:I'm not trying to be stoic.
Speaker:I just kind of, I'm not, I've learned enough in life to kind of not go, just
Speaker:to complain, to complain, to complain.
Speaker:So the other beautiful thing about this particular scripture
Speaker:is that of course, Moses is instructed by God to hit the rock.
Speaker:And when he does that, the out of that rock flows this incredible water that
Speaker:sustains the entire people of Israel.
Speaker:And like so many incredible things in the Old Testament in, uh, the Old
Speaker:Testament's relationship to the new, we see a prefigurement of Christ, which
Speaker:is how well, of course, when Christ is pierced on the cross with a lance.
Speaker:Out of his side flows, blood and water, and it is the water that
Speaker:flows from his side that is great sustenance for the life of the church.
Speaker:There's very deep significance to that.
Speaker:So there is a prefigurement in Moses hitting the rock and the rock distributing
Speaker:water to the people of Israel.
Speaker:And the passion of Christ and the water flowing from his side, feeding the church.
Speaker:So I just find that incredible.
Speaker:You know, just these prefigurement in the Old Testament that we find
Speaker:pointing to crucial things in the new.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, my voice is on its last legs.
Speaker:Can you hear it?
Speaker:Hang in there.
Speaker:Hang in there, Jonathan.
Speaker:We're almost there.
Speaker:And the other thing I just wanna draw your attention to is the other reading
Speaker:Today is of course, where Jesus is, um, with the disciples at the, at
Speaker:Caesar of Philippi and asks that famous question, who do you say that I am?
Speaker:And I, I, you know, there's so much in that, but I just wanna draw your attention
Speaker:to one thing, which is I spoke to a large group of Catholic teachers recently.
Speaker:I really focused on that question that I believe it's the preeminent
Speaker:question of all human life itself, which is, who do you say that I am?
Speaker:Because I just said to the audience recently that if Jesus is not who he
Speaker:said he is, then nothing really matters.
Speaker:You really are free to construct your life in any way that seems good to you.
Speaker:And I shared with the staff that beautiful line from St. Paul where he
Speaker:goes, you know, if, if the hope that we have in Christ is only for this life.
Speaker:Then we are above all people the most to be pitied.
Speaker:I just, I've always loved that line since when I was a little kid.
Speaker:if what we teach about Christ is false, nothing else really matters.
Speaker:So I offer you that question again today.
Speaker:Who do you say Christ really is?
Speaker:Because I, as I said to the audience, if.
Speaker:Christ is not who he says he is.
Speaker:Then nothing matters, and we're all free to construct life as we wish.
Speaker:But if Christ is who he says he is, then everything matters and everything
Speaker:changes because the entire sort of focal point, the axis of your life
Speaker:has to fundamentally shift because you've got a whole new set of data
Speaker:about the structure of reality itself.
Speaker:So that's why conversion throughout history has been such a profound
Speaker:thing in the life of every believer because it reorients the entire
Speaker:basis of our life towards something else, towards someone else.
Speaker:And of course, the rest of that scripture, you know, is basically the
Speaker:installation, um, or the initiation of the whole petron ministry, right?
Speaker:Sort of Jesus hands to Peter, the keys of the kingdom.
Speaker:And there's so much in that too, about the establishment of
Speaker:this beautiful Catholic church.
Speaker:So friends, there's a lot in that today.
Speaker:Thank you for persevering this far with my, with my croaky voice.
Speaker:But summary, I just encourage you to spend time each day
Speaker:with Jesus in the scriptures.
Speaker:Use the app.
Speaker:You can get Universal and a whole bunch of other apps, but
Speaker:just develop that discipline.
Speaker:And remember when you start a new discipline, it's not easy.
Speaker:It'll be inconvenient.
Speaker:You'll be like, why am I doing this?
Speaker:But I've been doing this now for decades, and guess what?
Speaker:He's still speaking.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's it for me today.
Speaker:I hope it's been some blessing to you.
Speaker:Thank you for your perseverance.
Speaker:And, um, if you're not a regular listener, you can sign up at,
Speaker:uh, Jonathan doyle.co/catholic, Jonathan Doyle dot co.co/catholic.
Speaker:Uh, you can find me on Instagram at j doyle Speaks, and everything
Speaker:else you need to know about me is on the website@jonathandor.co.
Speaker:God bless you, my friend.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic Teacher Daily Podcast with.
Speaker:A croaky voice, but a heart that wants to see you flourish.
Speaker:Thank you for what you do every single day in Catholic education, and you
Speaker:and I are gonna talk again tomorrow.
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