We have all been there. We tried hard but as our heads hit the pillow all we can think about is all that we did not accomplish and all the things we might have done differently. Every Catholic teacher faces so much pressures these days. It can be easy to feel that you are not making any headway. How do we deal with that? In today’s episode I want to share with you a beautiful quote from a very special saint who teaches us how to let go and let God at the end of every day.
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome back to the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:Hope you're doing well.
Speaker:Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker:Thanks for dedicating.
Speaker:Just a few minutes of your day to allowing God hopefully to speak into your life.
Speaker:That's a bold assertion from me.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:It's like I am the voice of God.
Speaker:You will listen to me.
Speaker:I could try that with my kids.
Speaker:It hasn't been too successful.
Speaker:Let's see how I go doing it on a podcast, but welcome aboard.
Speaker:Let's trust that the holy spirit is going to take the few loaves
Speaker:and fishes of my words and multiply them into a banquet in your life.
Speaker:We are going to talk today about a beautiful quote from Centuria Benedictor
Speaker:of the cross, who many of you would know of course was also known as Edith Stein.
Speaker:She died as a mater in Auschwitz, but an incredible woman, incredible
Speaker:Catholic woman of intellect, a brilliant philosopher, a brilliant writer.
Speaker:It's uh, you know, I often think.
Speaker:Uh, when I was speaking for many years, I kept coming across this
Speaker:idea that the Catholic church was deeply anti-women and, uh, and that
Speaker:women were constantly repressed.
Speaker:And now I don't want to go down that rabbit hole because I'm sure people
Speaker:have all sorts of different thoughts and opinions on it, but I always kept
Speaker:coming up with the fact that why do we have so many incredible female sights
Speaker:and female doctors of the church?
Speaker:And then you get people like Saint Teresa Benedicta of the cross who
Speaker:had just phenomenal Catholic women, just women in a fight and sacrifice
Speaker:and brilliance and intellect.
Speaker:So let me share with you something from her today that I hope will
Speaker:encourage you as a Catholic teacher.
Speaker:Because yesterday I launched a survey for the, all the people on my email.
Speaker:And I wanted to ask them the question, what is the single biggest
Speaker:problem that you face every day?
Speaker:So responses have been coming in.
Speaker:It's been really interesting, a great privilege to read these.
Speaker:And of course, it's not surprising that the bulk of resources, uh,
Speaker:responses, sorry, responses, uh, in the area of fatigue.
Speaker:Exhaustion overwhelm, which is kind of the topics that I've been addressing.
Speaker:I think, as a speaker for many, many years for teachers, it's huge, isn't it?
Speaker:The complexity, the demands, the daily intensity of all
Speaker:the work that you're doing.
Speaker:So I wanted to offer you something today from, uh, St.
Speaker:Teresa Benedicta of the cross.
Speaker:And she says this and when night comes and you look back over the day, And
Speaker:see how fragmentary everything has been and how much you planned that has
Speaker:gone on done and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed.
Speaker:Just take everything exactly as it is.
Speaker:Put it in God's hands and leave it with him.
Speaker:You ever been there, you ever had that sort of feeling when your head
Speaker:hits the pillow at the end of the day.
Speaker:And you're like, I feel I got nothing done.
Speaker:I feel I didn't achieve anything.
Speaker:I want to give you a couple of thoughts on this.
Speaker:The first is of course, just the beautiful way that she says, you know,
Speaker:we have to learn to leave it with God.
Speaker:I mean, you know, for all of us parents out there, you know, can
Speaker:you imagine our kids when they were little putting him into bed at night
Speaker:and sort of saying to them, you know, I'm really angry with you because
Speaker:you did, you weren't efficient today.
Speaker:You didn't accomplish the goals that I set out for you and
Speaker:your kids would be like, huh?
Speaker:What your kids just want to be loved at the end of the day?
Speaker:And I think God deeply understands that he knows that.
Speaker:He knows that we are trying to cooperate with what he's doing.
Speaker:He sees the intentions of our hearts, and I don't think he judges us judges us on
Speaker:what we, you know, whether we finished the to-do list at the end of the day.
Speaker:So we have a great, phenomenal, you know, continental, philosophical
Speaker:genius, like us and Teresa Benedicta of the cross, Edith Stein.
Speaker:If she was going through hood eyes feeling, as she says, he
Speaker:I'm embarrassed and ashamed.
Speaker:Of all that she'd planned to do and not done.
Speaker:And she learned just to leave it in God's hands.
Speaker:So I want to offer you that.
Speaker:I want to offer you that as a discipline, as you go through each day and wherever
Speaker:you're listening to this know I've got listeners all over the world.
Speaker:So you might be hearing this at the start of the day or at the end of
Speaker:the day, either way, let's start to build this as a practice, huh?
Speaker:That as we look back over the day, we see a fragmented, it was how we didn't
Speaker:always accomplish what we wanted to do.
Speaker:And we just give it back to God.
Speaker:We go, Lord, this is what I could get done today because you know, I think.
Speaker:Cole upon us at this time in history is the stress and the anxiety in the world,
Speaker:the fear and the, the stress comes from this belief that we must manage everything
Speaker:that we must be across, everything that we must manage and deal with everything.
Speaker:And I think that's the way this overwhelm comes from.
Speaker:You know, the greatest answers to our problems are always so simple.
Speaker:And I've been an executive coach now for many, many years, and, you know,
Speaker:often, highly intelligent people.
Speaker:Struggled with the same sorts of things.
Speaker:They struggle with a sense of inadequacy or overwhelm or exhaustion.
Speaker:And the answer it's rarely about time management and structure
Speaker:is a little bit of that.
Speaker:There's a little bit of, you know, I want to deal with, you know, we
Speaker:can do with some structural things that can be helpful, but at the end
Speaker:of the day, it's a mindset shift.
Speaker:It's a shift from, I must accomplish, I must do everything
Speaker:so much is coming at me.
Speaker:I must be prepared to shift to this sense of.
Speaker:Low, what I will do today, what I can reasonably do with the grace that you
Speaker:give me for this day, regular listeners.
Speaker:Now how often I go on about the Lord's prayer, give us this day,
Speaker:our daily bread, give us today the grace that we need for today, we
Speaker:don't get tomorrow's bread today.
Speaker:We get today's bread.
Speaker:We get today's Grice.
Speaker:So friends, you know, please, um, surrender at the end of the day.
Speaker:Surendra it at the end of the day, let it go, hand it back to God.
Speaker:Pray for me that I can do this too.
Speaker:Uh, It's the simple things, you know, don't be too hard on yourself.
Speaker:It's the simple things, you know, yesterday I worked so hard.
Speaker:I was up at 4:00 AM, again, doing a hundred million things.
Speaker:And then, you know, working super hard all day, we're doing so much in
Speaker:the business and my kids came home and my daughter, my oldest daughter,
Speaker:she, she wanted this time for me with a work on one of her, um, her essays.
Speaker:So I put an errand to that and she just lit up like a Christmas tree.
Speaker:She was just like so grateful and excited and happy.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Couldn't believe that I'd give her an an hour.
Speaker:She was, you know, it's kind of like, she felt that I'd painted the Sistine
Speaker:chapel ceiling and then she wanted me to take it to kick a soccer ball.
Speaker:So, uh, so we did sorry for everybody who's offended by me calling it soccer.
Speaker:She wanted me to take her to kick a football bowl and, uh, we went down
Speaker:and it was cold and it was dark, but the flood lights are on and we took
Speaker:the dog down and we just kick the ball.
Speaker:And she just absolutely loved it.
Speaker:And she was in the car going, this has been the best afternoon
Speaker:ever say, teenage girls are easy.
Speaker:You just got to do their essays and kick a soccer ball.
Speaker:That's all it takes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, um, it was beautiful.
Speaker:And you sort of realized that at the end of the day, it won't necessarily be
Speaker:whether you finished your to do list.
Speaker:It will be as a Catholic teacher.
Speaker:Did you stop, did you pause?
Speaker:Were you present with a distressed student?
Speaker:Did you take a bit of extra time?
Speaker:Did you encourage a colleague who was struggling?
Speaker:These are the things that make the real, real difference.
Speaker:So friends, that's it for me today.
Speaker:Let it go.
Speaker:At the end of the day, hand it back.
Speaker:There'll be grace for tomorrow.
Speaker:All right, please make sure you've subscribed to the podcast.
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Speaker:I'd love it.
Speaker:If you could share it with people.
Speaker:So if you've enjoyed what you're hearing today, please put it on
Speaker:Twitter, put it, uh, send it to other teachers that would be a huge help.
Speaker:Of course, come across to Facebook.
Speaker:You can find us at one Catholic teacher, O N E.
Speaker:Teacher, just check that into Facebook.
Speaker:You're going to find the group or the page, and it'd be great to
Speaker:welcome you into that community.
Speaker:And of course, on Twitter, you can follow me at J D Catholic at J D Catholic.
Speaker:All right, friends, God bless you.
Speaker:Thanks for what you're doing every day.
Speaker:Let it go.
Speaker:At the end of the day.
Speaker:He's with you, this grace coming for today.
Speaker:God bless you, everybody.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic teacher daily podcast, and I'll have
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