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.
Transcript
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.
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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
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