In this special live recording, internationally acclaimed Catholic speaker, author, and educator Jonathan Doyle takes the stage at [Major Catholic Conference Name] to deliver a powerful and urgent message: the call to bring the Gospel to every corner of the world.
Drawing deeply on Scripture, Church teaching, and his own decades of experience in Catholic education and evangelization, Jonathan challenges and inspires us to embrace our baptismal mission with fresh zeal. This is not just a talk — it’s a rallying cry for every Catholic to become a living witness of Christ in their homes, workplaces, schools, and communities
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why evangelization is the Church’s deepest identity
How ordinary Catholics can share the Gospel with courage and joy
- The connection between personal holiness and effective mission
- Practical steps to make Christ present in the everyday moments of life
- Stories and insights from around the world that show the Gospel at work today
Whether you’re a teacher, leader, parish volunteer, parent, or student, Jonathan’s words will renew your sense of purpose and send you out with a greater awareness of the role God is calling you to play in His plan for the salvation of the world.
💬 “We are all missionaries. We are all sent. And the world is waiting for the hope we carry.” – Jonathan Doyle
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
Come and join Jonathan for his daily Youtube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@onecatholicteacher/videos
Find Jonathan on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jdoylespeaks/
Transcript
All right, let's begin.
Speaker:Um, I, I, I travel a great deal.
Speaker:I speak a great deal.
Speaker:I only agreed to come today if our two archbishops could promise that
Speaker:the room was radiant with holiness.
Speaker:So we've passed.
Speaker:I want to thank, uh, the guys for the introduction.
Speaker:It was excellent, but it was not, in fact, the single greatest
Speaker:introduction I've ever had.
Speaker:It was very good.
Speaker:The single greatest introduction I've ever had was walking on stage
Speaker:in the Philippines a few years ago, and my wife, Karen, and I were there
Speaker:because we had started a business 22 years ago that kind of did really
Speaker:well, and we were specializing in talking to young people on the topics
Speaker:of sex dating and relationships.
Speaker:So that's why we're at this conference in the Philippines,
Speaker:and we're about to come on.
Speaker:There's a few thousand people in the room.
Speaker:We're over on the side.
Speaker:The lady's standing here and she says, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker:We are very lucky to have Jonathan and Karen Doyle with us today.
Speaker:They're amongst our foremost educators, insects, and they make their own DVDs.
Speaker:So right at that moment, Karen's on the side of the stage and
Speaker:she's like, and you first.
Speaker:So any introduction that is not, that is a good introduction.
Speaker:Uh, I, you can tell I'm.
Speaker:Been a little bit unwell.
Speaker:I'm gonna try and see how far this voice will take me.
Speaker:Uh, my session only goes for three hours now, so I want to get started.
Speaker:Uh, so I have no idea.
Speaker:Often at conferences they've got that clock in front of you.
Speaker:It tells you how long you got to go.
Speaker:I don't have one of those now, so I can just keep going.
Speaker:Um, but let's see how the voice goes.
Speaker:I can go to a mic if I have to, but hopefully you can hear me.
Speaker:So friends, what was I gonna do?
Speaker:Uh, it is good to be here with you.
Speaker:I have been seriously looking forward to this, and there's a
Speaker:beautiful scripture, Romans one.
Speaker:Uh, chapter one verse 12.
Speaker:Let me share this with you.
Speaker:It says, I long to see you, that I may impart to you some
Speaker:spiritual gift to make you strong.
Speaker:That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, I have longed
Speaker:to see you to impart some spiritual gift to you, to make you strong.
Speaker:That's the Holy Spirit's job.
Speaker:I just have to turn up.
Speaker:And that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's Faith I'm gonna
Speaker:draw today, uh, really heavily on a document that was promulgated, not
Speaker:just published, but promulgated.
Speaker:Why wouldn't you be Catholic when we have words like that?
Speaker:So was a document promulgated at the end of the Bishop's Conference back in 1974.
Speaker:It's a document called Ivan Jelly Nun, which means.
Speaker:Evangelization in the modern world.
Speaker:And just to prove to you, I actually reread the entire document
Speaker:during the week and took notes.
Speaker:Karen says, I have very neat handwriting, so you can come
Speaker:and check that during the break.
Speaker:But it's a very important document and I just wanna share with you this,
Speaker:see, the way the Holy Spirit works for me is I read something because
Speaker:I want to give you something fresh.
Speaker:And as I'm reading it, certain things jump out at me.
Speaker:And this really jumped out at me and it was like, I wanna
Speaker:say this in the introduction.
Speaker:Listen to this.
Speaker:It's from paragraphs 15.
Speaker:Listen carefully, the church.
Speaker:Is an evangelizer, but she begins by being evangelized herself.
Speaker:She needs to listen unceasingly to what she must believe, and she
Speaker:always needs to hear the proclamation of the mighty works of God,
Speaker:which converted her to the Lord.
Speaker:She always needs to be what she always needs to be.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:Called together afresh by him and reunited.
Speaker:Call together afresh.
Speaker:Call together afresh and reunited by him.
Speaker:So if you think it's an accident that you're hear, I do not, there are no
Speaker:coincidences in the kingdom of God.
Speaker:You're meant to be here because he wants to do something afresh
Speaker:with you and reunite you.
Speaker:That's good news.
Speaker:Friends, just before we get into the the real heavy stuff, I always
Speaker:like to acknowledge the room.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because I never assume that everybody in the room is exactly the same, right?
Speaker:What do I mean?
Speaker:I mean that when we talk about taking the gospel to the world, there are
Speaker:some of you in this room who wake up every morning and the first thought
Speaker:that goes through your mind is yes.
Speaker:I get to take the gospel to the world and you run out of your bedroom pushing people
Speaker:out of the way down the hallway and go, I've gotta take the gospel to the world.
Speaker:There are some of you who do not necessarily have that same experience.
Speaker:What do I mean?
Speaker:What are the beautiful things about the daily readings of the church is that,
Speaker:um, as we're gonna see at the end of this short presentation, God speaks to us.
Speaker:A couple of weeks ago, there was one of the, the gospel of the day.
Speaker:You'll, you'll know this story really well.
Speaker:It's from Matthew.
Speaker:It's the beautiful story where Jesus does what feeds the 5,000.
Speaker:You'll know that one, right?
Speaker:But see, after that, what does he do?
Speaker:He dismisses the crowds.
Speaker:He sends the disciples out on the boat and says, I'm gonna
Speaker:meet you over the other side.
Speaker:You guys go, I'm gonna go pray for a while.
Speaker:And then of course you remember the rest of the story.
Speaker:What happens?
Speaker:The wind comes up, right?
Speaker:This storm comes up and they're rowing, and the waves are
Speaker:coming, and it's existential.
Speaker:It's serious.
Speaker:These guys could die.
Speaker:If you ever seen a picture of those first century Galilean boats, they're
Speaker:not exactly, you know, the Titanic bad example that sunk, but you get the point.
Speaker:Now, here's where it gets interesting.
Speaker:That particular gospel says in the fourth watch.
Speaker:Of the night, they're in serious trouble.
Speaker:What's the fourth watch?
Speaker:I didn't know.
Speaker:For the early, for the, for the first century Hebrews, you broke the night
Speaker:into a bunch of watches starting at sunset, and each watch went for
Speaker:about three hours, which means what if they're in the fourth watch?
Speaker:It's sometime between 3:00 AM and dawn.
Speaker:Which means what?
Speaker:Which means they have been battling a storm for how long?
Speaker:Nine hours.
Speaker:Nine hours.
Speaker:Nine hours rowing and pulling.
Speaker:And I think it's possible that some of you could relate.
Speaker:You may have been in the fourth watch for a long time.
Speaker:You want to take the gospel.
Speaker:You want to let people know about Jesus, but maybe you've been in
Speaker:the fourth watch for a long time.
Speaker:Some of you raced out the door every morning and it's easy,
Speaker:but some of you may be tired.
Speaker:You don't have to do a show of hands, but some of you, me, like Jonathan,
Speaker:this is, this is where you know, you know, dunno this state that.
Speaker:Well, it's really hard and it's not exactly as if we're inundated with
Speaker:people begging us to hear the gospel.
Speaker:Fourth watch, but you remember how the story ends in the fourth watch.
Speaker:They hear or voice say what?
Speaker:Take courage.
Speaker:It is, I.
Speaker:That's good news.
Speaker:So friends, wherever you are, I'd like you to pray for the
Speaker:grace of an expectant faith.
Speaker:I want you to have faith today that something important will
Speaker:happen for you or to you.
Speaker:And I don't care how young you are or how old you are, I don't
Speaker:care if you're eight 18 or 88.
Speaker:It doesn't matter why.
Speaker:Because as I've said to a lot of groups over the last few years, God
Speaker:is never finished writing your story.
Speaker:Never.
Speaker:So I don't care where you think you are.
Speaker:You do not know that you might have a conversation.
Speaker:You may do something that will radically change somebody's life before you draw
Speaker:your last breath, and you are not God and you do not know if that is possible.
Speaker:You just have to have faith.
Speaker:So at 5:00 AM this morning, I'm looking at the readings of the day
Speaker:and you see the reading this morning.
Speaker:It's when Jesus encounters the father with the son who is throwing himself into
Speaker:fire and throwing himself into water.
Speaker:And it's just such a poignant gospel because you can see the heart of
Speaker:his father just broken for this son, who most of his friends would've
Speaker:thought was demonically possessed.
Speaker:So they judged the family and this kid's trying to probably epilepsy.
Speaker:And the disciples can't heal him.
Speaker:And then Jesus, how much longer must I be with this perverse generation?
Speaker:But then finally he heals him instantly and the disciples say to
Speaker:him later, why couldn't we do it?
Speaker:And he said, because you didn't have the faith.
Speaker:He said, if you had the faith this big, that mountain would move.
Speaker:So all I'm saying is just the only piece you gotta bring is faith.
Speaker:That's all you gotta bring.
Speaker:Not brilliance, not intellect, not theological formation, not
Speaker:good looks, not popularity, not money, not influence, just faith.
Speaker:Just bring that just with me.
Speaker:Believe that God will do something today.
Speaker:So what are we gonna do?
Speaker:Uh, it's a big topic.
Speaker:It's a big topic and I reckon I could go for about three hours.
Speaker:And Karen, my wife's meant to be with me, but she's really sick
Speaker:and one of my kids' really sick.
Speaker:And normally she sit the back sits at the back and if I'm going too fast,
Speaker:she's like this, she's not here.
Speaker:So I'm just gonna try and give it all to you and see what happens.
Speaker:Um, I dunno what time it is, but I'll just trust, I'll try and.
Speaker:I'm just telling you 'cause there's a lot that I'd love to share with you.
Speaker:So I thought this week as I was reading the entirety of Evangel
Speaker:Nun, and it's a big topic, right?
Speaker:The gospel to the world.
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:So I've put it into five questions.
Speaker:I was looking for a framework, always trying to give people a framework.
Speaker:Five questions.
Speaker:Here they are.
Speaker:Um, please feel free to take notes if you want to.
Speaker:Thomas Aquinas famously said that the hand is the conjoined instrument of the mind.
Speaker:What we write, we remember better.
Speaker:But at the end of this, I'm gonna give you a QR code.
Speaker:I'm gonna give you all the quotes, and we're gonna give you a recording.
Speaker:Josh, we hope that I pressed record, right?
Speaker:And I'm gonna give you all that good stuff.
Speaker:So anyway, here we go.
Speaker:Five questions.
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:Why should it matter to the world?
Speaker:Why should it matter to the church?
Speaker:Why and how should you take it to the world?
Speaker:Because I don't assume necess, you kinda get, yeah, we should.
Speaker:We're Christians, we should, why and how?
Speaker:And finally, how do you stop from burning out in the process?
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:Why does it matter to the world?
Speaker:Why does it matter to the church?
Speaker:How and why can you take it to the world?
Speaker:And how can you stop burning out in the process?
Speaker:Is that all right?
Speaker:No one said anything, so we're gonna assume that is All right, friends.
Speaker:You ready?
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:I ain't here today to talk about Aking French cooking to the world, and
Speaker:even I was talking about that I would define French cooking, but I ain't.
Speaker:So we're gonna talk about defining the gospel.
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:I'm gonna offer you a couple of simple ways into this.
Speaker:Recently I've been teaching people based on reading a lot of
Speaker:interesting, important theologians.
Speaker:I dunno what you think about this, but try it.
Speaker:I would like to suggest to you that God is only up to one thing.
Speaker:In the entire sweep of cosmic and salvation history.
Speaker:One thing he's doing, one thing, not four, not seven, not 16,
Speaker:one, he's doing one thing.
Speaker:What is the one thing that God is doing when I've read this and understood,
Speaker:I was like, oh, how I miss that?
Speaker:I'd like to offer you today that the one thing that God is doing is
Speaker:redemption.
Speaker:That sounds a bit abstract, right?
Speaker:Redemption.
Speaker:What does it mean?
Speaker:Well, the, the good thing about my opinion is I don't have to just have an opinion.
Speaker:I'm gonna make it Jesus's problem because he specifically
Speaker:himself tells us why he came.
Speaker:Why did you come, Jesus?
Speaker:What does he tell us?
Speaker:The son of man has come to seek out and to save what was lost.
Speaker:It's redemption.
Speaker:So what I say to people make it even easier is this, do
Speaker:you know what God wants?
Speaker:God just wants his kids back.
Speaker:That's all.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:All of it.
Speaker:The church, everything.
Speaker:It's all it's about.
Speaker:He just wants his kids back, but the liturgy and this and all this other
Speaker:stuff and he wants his kids back.
Speaker:It's all directed to that.
Speaker:Now, any parents in the room he ever lost one of your kids?
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:You, you must be better parents than me.
Speaker:I keep trying to lose it.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Um, so when my, when one of my son, my son was little, he went missing.
Speaker:And you know, if you've ever been there as a parent, you start off like this.
Speaker:My son's name's Aiden.
Speaker:I was like, Aiden, Aiden.
Speaker:You call out their name and they don't hear anything and then you call a bit
Speaker:louder and then you start walking around the house going, you know, you're calling
Speaker:out their name and there's nothing.
Speaker:And then you get to this moment where you're like, this is weird.
Speaker:And you start to yell louder.
Speaker:And there's nothing.
Speaker:And then you think of every Liam Neeson movie like Taken, that's ever been
Speaker:created, and you're just like, someone has, and it got worse and worse and worse.
Speaker:And then you shift into existential panic and then terror.
Speaker:And that can happen real quick, right?
Speaker:And eventually he's hiding under a piece of tin metal at the back of the
Speaker:house and thought it was hilarious.
Speaker:And I'm literally dialing triple zero.
Speaker:But I, I tell you that because there was that moment as a father
Speaker:of the powerlessness and the terror and the thought, and I just would
Speaker:suggest to you that is a tiny, tiny insight into the heart of the father.
Speaker:You ever read the Prodigal son?
Speaker:You know, some of you know this, right?
Speaker:But, but you know, uh, you remember how he sees the sun a long way off.
Speaker:Anybody remember the next thing he did?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And some of you would know, of course.
Speaker:What's the one thing venerable Hebrew men never did in first century Palestine?
Speaker:Ran.
Speaker:Do you know that?
Speaker:Who?
Speaker:Who knows that first century Palestine old men never ran?
Speaker:If you saw an old man run through the street, it'd be like scandals.
Speaker:Go.
Speaker:Whoa.
Speaker:So what do you point do you think Jesus was trying to make when the Father runs?
Speaker:Father wants his kids back.
Speaker:Gospel's about redemption.
Speaker:I'm supposed to be going so much faster.
Speaker:What's the gospel?
Speaker:I'm gonna give you three things.
Speaker:Jesus, what is the gospel?
Speaker:Jesus does three declarations.
Speaker:He declares three things.
Speaker:I believe the gospel is wrapped up in these three declarations declaration.
Speaker:One, he declares a kingdom.
Speaker:He declares a kingdom.
Speaker:One of the first things of the gospel.
Speaker:There's good news.
Speaker:There's evangelian is a kingdom.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because the people listening to him at the time were very familiar with kingdoms.
Speaker:They understood kingdoms.
Speaker:They understood brutal kingdoms and power and brutality, but he declares a kingdom.
Speaker:Then he declares liberation, declares a kingdom.
Speaker:Then he declares liberation.
Speaker:He declares a liberation from what to where.
Speaker:He declares a liberation from darkness and sin and death into
Speaker:a totally different reality.
Speaker:He declares it.
Speaker:There is a kingdom coming and it has come upon you, and it is
Speaker:radically different to any kingdom.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:It is a kingdom of justice and peace and compassion and hear this healing.
Speaker:It's a place where people get healed.
Speaker:It's a radically different kingdom, but he declares it, and
Speaker:finally he declares metanoia.
Speaker:He declares a turning around.
Speaker:He says, the only thing that you have to do to come into this kingdom is to turn
Speaker:around, turn around, turn from the things.
Speaker:The whole testament is nothing but a story of idolatry.
Speaker:Turn from it.
Speaker:Turn from it.
Speaker:Turn from it.
Speaker:Come home.
Speaker:Come home.
Speaker:Come home.
Speaker:Come home.
Speaker:So what is the gospel?
Speaker:It is the, it is the father seeking his children.
Speaker:It is the Declaration of Kingdom.
Speaker:It's the Declaration of Liberation.
Speaker:It is the declaration of turning.
Speaker:And I just would suggest to you that this is a very ancient human impulse.
Speaker:I won't go down this rabbit hole, but if you go way back to the, to the
Speaker:earliest religion, Zoroastrianism, you find this written in the
Speaker:human heart before Christianity.
Speaker:You find this concept of a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light.
Speaker:It's in the human psyche from prehistory this, this preternatural
Speaker:awareness that something's not right, that something's not right.
Speaker:For, he's declaring his lordship.
Speaker:He's declaring liberation.
Speaker:He's declaring metanoia.
Speaker:There's a beautiful line from CS Lewis for my note takers.
Speaker:I love this.
Speaker:It's a very beautiful line.
Speaker:He says, the incarnation
Speaker:is nothing more than a daring raid on enemy held territory.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:That the incarnation is nothing more than a daring raid on enemy held
Speaker:territory in the fullness of time.
Speaker:God, in his wisdom, decides now, now, and friends, oh man, I have rabbit holes.
Speaker:I could chase them all day.
Speaker:Do you understand the irony of when it happened?
Speaker:Do you understand the power of Augustus?
Speaker:I just finished a 700 page biography of Julius Caesar.
Speaker:And Caesar was really not even remotely as influential or as powerful
Speaker:as Augustus his adopted son became.
Speaker:Oh, what a coincidence.
Speaker:That at the absolute peak of the greatest empire that the
Speaker:human world had ever known,
Speaker:a tiny child enters enemy held territory.
Speaker:It's good news.
Speaker:So the good news, friends, the gospel is simply, or some of that.
Speaker:Just pick the part you liked.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I'm gonna suggest that it's very good news.
Speaker:Why does it matter to the world?
Speaker:Part two, why does it matter to the world?
Speaker:I make this really simple.
Speaker:I don't know if you've noticed there is a great deal of suffering, sadness,
Speaker:grief, loneliness, depravity, addiction.
Speaker:For the last year that we have records in this country, 3,214 people
Speaker:took their lives, 100 of them not too far from where we meet today.
Speaker:3,214 people.
Speaker:In 2007, the number of young people reporting serious mental health
Speaker:depression anxiety was running at 26%.
Speaker:It's currently running at over 40%.
Speaker:It's close to double.
Speaker:The data we have on human happiness from every OECD
Speaker:country has flatlined since 2005.
Speaker:Now, careful, this isn't everybody.
Speaker:There is so much goodness and joy and light in the world, but
Speaker:have you been paying attention?
Speaker:Have you noticed the suffering?
Speaker:It is all around you.
Speaker:It is everywhere all the time.
Speaker:You may not see it all the time, you're not hear it all the time, but
Speaker:the level of loneliness, of pain, of suffering, that is all around us.
Speaker:I just would suggest to you that why would you be remotely interested
Speaker:in taking the gospel to the world?
Speaker:Because I would like to offer you the radical idea that the world
Speaker:desperately needs it, particularly things like healing and forgiveness.
Speaker:So technically there's, there's two main forces that we're dealing with.
Speaker:Henry De Lubeck, a quote from him after the Second Vatican Council says,
Speaker:from the spiritual point of view, the modern world seems to be forever
Speaker:immersed in what a modern author has termed the drama of atheistic humanism.
Speaker:Atheistic humanism.
Speaker:There is no God.
Speaker:God is dead.
Speaker:Blah, blah, blah, secularism.
Speaker:You understand that?
Speaker:You hear that word?
Speaker:Well, it's why is it hard to take the gospel?
Speaker:Oh, secular is.
Speaker:Them.
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:Well, according to Evangel Nun, here's your definition, a concept
Speaker:of the world according to which, the latter the world, a concept of the
Speaker:world in which the world is what?
Speaker:Self-explanatory the world explains itself.
Speaker:Yeah, without any need for recourse to God, who thus becomes
Speaker:superfluous and an encumbrance.
Speaker:Think, think, think, think about the great number of people that surround us.
Speaker:Good people, sons and daughters of God, who probably see the church
Speaker:effectively superfluous, meh.
Speaker:At best and at worst.
Speaker:We don't want those Christians telling us what to do.
Speaker:It's an encumbrance.
Speaker:So you're pushing against those two great forces.
Speaker:But I would like you to think about this.
Speaker:I would like you to not forget that the vast numbers of people around
Speaker:you, even if they're not fully aware of it, desperately, need to be
Speaker:evangelized and perhaps want to be.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:How do I, why do I think that's possibly true?
Speaker:Because in Latin is a beautiful term, CapEx day.
Speaker:CapEx Day translates roughly as that which has the capacity for
Speaker:God, that which has a, a, a thing that has the capacity for God.
Speaker:It the human person.
Speaker:Every human person is CapEx day, which means what every human person is innately
Speaker:created and vectored towards the divine.
Speaker:So what do you think happens for hundreds, thousands, millions, billions
Speaker:of people who are not living or not able to live or have never heard about
Speaker:stepping into fully what they are?
Speaker:One of my favorite modern authors, Paul King's North, has a very
Speaker:powerful quote where he says this.
Speaker:There is a throne at the center of the cosmos, and whatever you
Speaker:put on that throne, you will worship it and call it God.
Speaker:So what I'm trying to say to people is all I want to do is make sure I just
Speaker:got the right thing on the throne.
Speaker:What do I mean?
Speaker:It means the people that surround us are often placing pleasure, shopping,
Speaker:distraction, doom, scrolling, blame, rage, alcohol, revenge, or despair
Speaker:on the throne of their lives.
Speaker:Often, not even remotely aware of it.
Speaker:No judgment.
Speaker:I know nobody's story, but if it isn't Christ on that throne,
Speaker:something is going there.
Speaker:So as we think about the taking the gospel to the world, think about
Speaker:it in terms of I wanna help people.
Speaker:I want to help them to become and understand fully what they are.
Speaker:Beautiful quote here from Pope Paul six and Evangel ndi.
Speaker:Listen to this carefully.
Speaker:Why should only falsehood and error.
Speaker:Debasement and pornography have the right to be put before people and often
Speaker:unfortunately imposed on them by the destructive propaganda of the mass
Speaker:media, by the tolerance of legislation.
Speaker:The timidity.
Speaker:Listen to that, the timidity, the timid behavior of the good
Speaker:and the impedance of the wicked.
Speaker:Think about that.
Speaker:He's saying, why should only de degeneracy and darkness and evil and wickedness and
Speaker:depravity be displayed before everybody Who, who decided that that was okay?
Speaker:Who decided that people can't hear about truth and beauty and goodness and
Speaker:compassion and forgiveness and glory?
Speaker:When did that happen?
Speaker:So when you think about taking the gospel to the world, it's kind of like.
Speaker:Yeah, maybe.
Speaker:Maybe we do have something to say here, maybe and, and this is where it gets good.
Speaker:Gonna get all Baptist on you now, and you're thinking, what
Speaker:have you been doing so far?
Speaker:Try this.
Speaker:I would like to suggest to you that without being
Speaker:triumphalistic or condescend.
Speaker:We need to remind ourselves exactly of what it is that we have to offer.
Speaker:Listen to that.
Speaker:Again, without being triumphalistic or condescending, we need to
Speaker:remind ourselves of exactly what it is that we have to offer,
Speaker:because here's what I think, I'm getting old enough now and a lot of
Speaker:people in this room know what I mean.
Speaker:You get to a certain age and you're like, I don't really
Speaker:care what people think of me.
Speaker:It's the coolest thing about getting older.
Speaker:It's the best.
Speaker:Wait until I'm like 80.
Speaker:It's gonna be outta control, but I'm just like this.
Speaker:I'm like, I think.
Speaker:I've been working very closely with, well, more and more in the US these days, but
Speaker:with the Australian church for many years.
Speaker:And I've been trying to say to people, you know, where we've all
Speaker:been, we've all been in the crouch.
Speaker:I call it being in the crouch.
Speaker:You know what the crouch is?
Speaker:The crouch is this.
Speaker:It's like, ooh, don't put your head up above the, I'm short.
Speaker:This isn't working, is it?
Speaker:Um, it's like that.
Speaker:That's unkind.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:There's no need to make fun.
Speaker:We've all got our crosses.
Speaker:All right, so there's this thing, right where we're in the crouch, which like.
Speaker:Well, you're not gonna say anything at a barbecue.
Speaker:Well, you're not gonna say anything at work.
Speaker:I think you're weird.
Speaker:Stay in the crouch.
Speaker:Stay in the crouch.
Speaker:And I would like to suggest that it is way past time to get out of the
Speaker:crouch, not being triumphalistic, but let's get out of the crouch.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because sooner or later you have to decide whether you think we have something
Speaker:worth communicating to the world.
Speaker:In the 17th century, there's a preacher called Richard Baxter who said these words
Speaker:that have had a huge influence on me.
Speaker:And as I was standing at the back of the room when Stephen was singing,
Speaker:that's all I'm thinking is this one quote, and he just said this.
Speaker:He's talking about the need to be passionate and to finally stand
Speaker:up and preach and to say what you think needs to be said and to
Speaker:proclaim the gospel concentrate.
Speaker:I'm not saying you rush out to the street corner, but if the Holy Spirit
Speaker:compels you to do that, you obey.
Speaker:I am not saying you immediately just go nuts like me and do crazy things, but
Speaker:I'm basically saying, take it seriously.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:'cause listen to Richard Baxter, he said, I preached as never sure to preach
Speaker:again, and as a dying man to dying men.
Speaker:He said that when he preached, he preached as if he was never
Speaker:gonna get another chance.
Speaker:So every time he did it, he was like, I may, I may drop dead in, in seconds.
Speaker:So every time I preach, I'll preach as I'll never have another chance.
Speaker:And I will preach as a dying man because I am.
Speaker:And I'm preaching to people who are dying as well.
Speaker:I got morbid.
Speaker:But it's powerful.
Speaker:We need to be outta the crouch.
Speaker:What is the gospel?
Speaker:It's a declaration of a kingdom.
Speaker:It's a declaration of liberation.
Speaker:Why does the world need it?
Speaker:Because it does.
Speaker:And you've gotta reorient your thinking to, well, I don't wanna be embarrassed.
Speaker:I don't.
Speaker:No, we're gonna take it.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because it's the right thing to do and because they need it.
Speaker:And it's a way to, and it's how you love people.
Speaker:Really a question of how we do it and how we get there.
Speaker:We'll get to that next part.
Speaker:Oh, as long as I don't look at Ruth, I've no idea what the time is.
Speaker:What does it, why does it matter for the church?
Speaker:This is really good.
Speaker:This is really good.
Speaker:I'll do it quick.
Speaker:Why does this gospel matter to the church?
Speaker:You ready to put it simply For reasons that I will make clear.
Speaker:This is my notes.
Speaker:If she does not evangelize the church, if she does not take the gospel to the world,
Speaker:my words, she withers to ineffectiveness at best and invisibility At worst, if
Speaker:the church will not take the gospel to the world, she withers to ineffectiveness
Speaker:at best or invisibility at worst.
Speaker:Council father Senator 1974 direct quote.
Speaker:We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes
Speaker:the essential mission of the church.
Speaker:Paragraph 15, again, she's linked to evangelization in her in most being.
Speaker:I'll do the short version 'cause I wanna be respectful of time.
Speaker:Please.
Speaker:I think you know this at some level, but I'm just here to tell you
Speaker:remember, 'cause I wrote the notes.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:It's official.
Speaker:If the church is not on a missionary footing for evangelization, she dies.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:I wish I had better news for you.
Speaker:I don't.
Speaker:It's the proof of history when she's persecuted and when she's missionary,
Speaker:she grows and she fulfills the mandate that the Lord gives her.
Speaker:If she doesn't do that, she shrinks to irrelevance, and I don't,
Speaker:I ain't going out like that.
Speaker:I can't speak for the rest of you, but I ain't doing that.
Speaker:That's not what I'm doing.
Speaker:The rest of this life will just be about in different forms.
Speaker:I, I'm just not, I'm not, no.
Speaker:So you're sitting there going, what does that mean?
Speaker:Like I, because what I'm trying to do is, I'm not telling you you gotta do this.
Speaker:I'm just telling you that if you love the church at any level and she ain't
Speaker:evangelizing and she's not gonna the world somehow, then I think you should speak up.
Speaker:I think you should speak up.
Speaker:I think you should ask for more
Speaker:because if you love her, I love her.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:She's, she's, as John John Csom said, she's the mother that keeps
Speaker:the children together on the journey.
Speaker:I love her.
Speaker:I can't speak for everyone else, but if she ain't on mission,
Speaker:four missions, four minutes, really,
Speaker:it's just the introduction.
Speaker:I want you to imagine a really great keynote that goes for another four.
Speaker:Um, there's a great paraphrasing of Paul Vi.
Speaker:I know if you've heard this, but he says the Catholic
Speaker:Church does not have a mission.
Speaker:It doesn't sound astounding.
Speaker:And then the second thing he says, the Catholic judge does not have a mission.
Speaker:She is a mission.
Speaker:So friends
Speaker:take that to the bank
Speaker:very quickly.
Speaker:How do you take it to the world?
Speaker:Just imagine a really great, extensive explanation of that.
Speaker:We'll condense it to 60 seconds.
Speaker:There's just two parts to it.
Speaker:One is our lived witness in front of people, and two is the proclamation,
Speaker:which simply means witness is crucial.
Speaker:But eventually witness has to lead to proclamation.
Speaker:It doesn't matter if you're the best witness and the
Speaker:nicest person on the planet.
Speaker:If at some point the gospel is not proclaimed.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I think this could be hard to hear, and I preach to myself first.
Speaker:There has to be something remarkable about us.
Speaker:We have to be much more joyful.
Speaker:People have to look at us and see something in us that they go
Speaker:that, that, that thing, and this does not come naturally to me.
Speaker:And I have been working at it really hard.
Speaker:I have been freaking people out everywhere by smiling at 'em.
Speaker:So I play a lot of golf.
Speaker:A lot of golf, and I belong to a very snooty golf club.
Speaker:And everybody there is very snooty and I'm just smiling and
Speaker:everybody, I'm just walking around every day going, how you doing?
Speaker:Great weather hot.
Speaker:It's raining.
Speaker:It's like, you know, constantly.
Speaker:Trying to bring the gospel into the world by the sheer presence of joy.
Speaker:So maybe someone sees me smiling for six months and then we have a drink
Speaker:after a game one day, and then maybe we get talking and maybe they come to
Speaker:dinner and then maybe their father's dying of terminal cancer, and maybe
Speaker:I'm sitting by their bedside in three years time and we have a conversation
Speaker:where the gospel is proclaimed.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But I know that I'm never getting that shot of, I'm walking around
Speaker:looking miserable all the time.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:We've all got our crosses and our wounds in life and our personalities, but I
Speaker:think there needs to be something about us that people go, now I'm working at this.
Speaker:I got, I, I just tell you, there's this guy I run every morning really
Speaker:early, and there's this guy and he's like 75 and he looks miserable.
Speaker:And every single morning I run past him and every single morning
Speaker:I'm like, morning, how you doing?
Speaker:Good day.
Speaker:How you going?
Speaker:Nothing.
Speaker:It's weird, like it's rude ass.
Speaker:The guy just will not even look at me just like this every single morning.
Speaker:Don't say a word.
Speaker:And this has been going on for months.
Speaker:And I'm thinking, well, maybe he's like had a stroke or something.
Speaker:Or maybe, maybe like he's from another place and he doesn't even speak English.
Speaker:I'm thinking the best.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Every morning and then a few weeks ago, I'm at the shopping center and I see
Speaker:the guy and he's standing there and his like wife's coming to pick him up.
Speaker:And he's laughing and talking.
Speaker:He's going, no, park it.
Speaker:Here he is.
Speaker:Just like, I'm going, what?
Speaker:Yesterday?
Speaker:No, yesterday morning I'm running and he's there.
Speaker:I'm like, Hey, how you doing?
Speaker:Nothing.
Speaker:I go, I know who you are, man.
Speaker:Like, so my point is I'm just gonna keep bringing the witness and the joy
Speaker:and you gotta pray the Holy Spirit.
Speaker:You gotta ask the Holy Spirit.
Speaker:I, I know.
Speaker:I just wanna be sensitive.
Speaker:'cause some of you could be listening to me thinking I'm just
Speaker:not gonna be ridiculously joyful.
Speaker:I'm going, well, friends.
Speaker:Ask for joy, ask for it, model it, then we proclaim.
Speaker:That was a really good section, by the way.
Speaker:You would've loved it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Um, last, honestly, see, I'm not looking at you again.
Speaker:You, you caused this, you caused this.
Speaker:All right, just let me just quickly finish.
Speaker:I wanna thank Steven for this 'cause Steven comes to my house
Speaker:every Friday and drinks my beer.
Speaker:Um, and, and we sit around a fire and I was telling Steven about this and
Speaker:he kept saying to me, it's very long.
Speaker:You should shorten it.
Speaker:No, um, it's, uh, but I was talking about how we do this and I was talking
Speaker:about Christology and all this stuff, and Steven said, well, you know, the
Speaker:thing is you gotta talk about the Holy Spirit, and I'll just touch on this to
Speaker:finish, but you know, before Pentecost, what, what are all the apostles doing?
Speaker:They're in the crouch.
Speaker:Oh, they're so in the crouch friends, they're like got t-shirts, like
Speaker:in the crouch, written on 'em.
Speaker:They're just like the terror.
Speaker:They're not going anywhere.
Speaker:But have you noticed that after Pentecost boom.
Speaker:And this is new for me, so very, again, I've got all these great quotes about it.
Speaker:These will be, you can download 'em.
Speaker:I'll send you the thing.
Speaker:But just, this is the spirit's work.
Speaker:He impels us to witness and he impels us to proclaim.
Speaker:So get on your knees.
Speaker:Not right now.
Speaker:Get on your knees and start begging the Holy Spirit every single day to form
Speaker:you, to sanctify you, to direct you, and guide you to put the words in your mouth.
Speaker:And, and just quickly, I am gonna finish, I promise.
Speaker:Uh, they're gonna turn the lights out.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:The beautiful quote here from Evangel, Angeloni just says that the spirit
Speaker:puts the words on your lips, and it also prepares the heart of the hero.
Speaker:So guess what?
Speaker:It doesn't all depend on you.
Speaker:You just gotta turn up, get sanctified, turn from sin, allow the spirit
Speaker:to work in you, and then, and then ask every morning, every morning.
Speaker:Help me, give me the words.
Speaker:And when I look at you people here, and I think there are some of your
Speaker:grandparents, there are some of you, young people you don't know.
Speaker:You don't know, the conversation you get, you don't know.
Speaker:It's so cool.
Speaker:It's so cool that the spirit can just take this tapestry.
Speaker:It's a diverse tapestry and do incredible stuff.
Speaker:So please get on your knees and ask the, the, the spirit
Speaker:to prompt you and to guide you.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And the last thing that I was gonna go into great detail on is
Speaker:just how do you stop burning out?
Speaker:You stay in the heart of the church.
Speaker:Sacraments, prayer scripture, sacrament prayer, scripture,
Speaker:sacrament, prayer scripture.
Speaker:I just live in the heart of the church.
Speaker:I just live in the heart of the church.
Speaker:If I can get to mass every day, go to mass every day, why?
Speaker:To impress you, to show you how pious I am?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:'cause as Forrest Gump said, I ain't intelligent man, Jenny,
Speaker:but I know what love is.
Speaker:See, I ain't intelligent man.
Speaker:I just know where the grace sit.
Speaker:So I go there every day that I can, and I take prayer seriously and, and confession
Speaker:to my, to the priests in the room.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:That sacrament, the Eucharist, we get, but that sacrament of
Speaker:confession where the, that sacrament.
Speaker:Get to confession friends, if you're not regular, go there.
Speaker:I go a lot.
Speaker:Am I a really bad sinner?
Speaker:Well, I don't know.
Speaker:We're not gonna compare are we?
Speaker:That would just be awkward.
Speaker:But, but I love that sacrament, that sacrament's brought such
Speaker:incredible healing into my life.
Speaker:So if we want to witness and proclaim, we wanna be in the heart of the church.
Speaker:So to finish is what we're gonna do.
Speaker:Uh, I made something for you.
Speaker:Uh, and I showed it to Karen first 'cause she's the creative
Speaker:and she said that's pretty cool.
Speaker:Because there is a beautiful closing line in Evangeli, paragraph 80 where the
Speaker:Pope is speaking to you and he's speaking to the church and it's very beautiful.
Speaker:It's very short, and I made a video about it.
Speaker:And the words you hear are just the last words of that paragraph, and I'll make
Speaker:it available to you after the QR code.
Speaker:So friend summary, the gospel is the declaration of Christ's kingdom.
Speaker:The world desperately needs it.
Speaker:You need to witness it and proclaim it.
Speaker:And to do that, you need to allow the spirit to lead your life and
Speaker:stay in the heart of the church.
Speaker:And then we're just gonna enjoy this last little video that we hope
Speaker:will work, and let this speak to us.
Speaker:God bless you everybody.
Speaker:We're done.
Speaker:Thank you.
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