In today’s episode of The Catholic Teacher Daily Podcast, Jonathan Doyle encourages every Catholic teacher to stand firm in the truth that you really do have Good News to share with your students. In a world where secularism often sidelines faith, Jonathan offers practical insights on how to confidently present the Gospel as the true source of human happiness and flourishing.
Discover how to:
- Recognize the deep need young people have for meaning and hope
- Address the challenges posed by a secular culture
- Share the Gospel in ways that are authentic, joyful, and relatable
- Understand why following Jesus is the path to genuine human fulfilment
This is your reminder that your vocation is not just to educate minds but to inspire hearts—and that the Good News you carry is exactly what the next generation needs most.
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
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https://www.instagram.com/jdoylespeaks/
Transcript
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Catholic
Speaker:Teacher Daily Podcast with global Catholic speaker Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:In today's episode, Jonathan shares some important ideas about how as Catholic
Speaker:teachers and leaders, we can find new courage to share the gospel with our
Speaker:students, colleagues, and families.
Speaker:Drawing on insights from the Old Testament and recent homilies from
Speaker:Pope Leo, it's time to learn how we can live out our vocation and
Speaker:share the good news with the world.
Speaker:Well, hello there, my friend Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:As always, welcome to the Catholic Teacher Daily Podcast.
Speaker:It is good to be with you.
Speaker:I had a very busy day yesterday.
Speaker:I was privileged to speak at a fantastic conference called the
Speaker:Evangelian Conference, and for complex reasons, I had a 6:00 AM flight
Speaker:back outta that city the next day.
Speaker:Uh, went out for a great dinner with all the conference people and I think
Speaker:I got to sleep about 11:00 PM and got up at three and then flew two flights
Speaker:across the country, finally got home.
Speaker:It was just bizarre, but, uh, such a great experience to my topic was
Speaker:taking the gospel to the world.
Speaker:And if you're a regular listener.
Speaker:The good news is that we got a great video of that at the conference
Speaker:and a great audio feed, so I'm gonna have that all prepped up
Speaker:by the team in the next few days.
Speaker:You get to hear that keynote, which I think is really good.
Speaker:And it was awesome because I got a chance to read deeply and to think
Speaker:deeply about this whole concept of taking the gospel to the world.
Speaker:So I will be talking about some of that in the next few days, next few episodes.
Speaker:So today I was back in the studio and I wanted to share with you
Speaker:just a really powerful insight from today's daily readings.
Speaker:Our regular listeners know that often talk about the power of the daily
Speaker:readings and how much influence they can have on our lives as educators.
Speaker:We are in Deuteronomy for those who read these readings on a daily basis.
Speaker:You sort of know this journey that we're on through, uh, Genesis
Speaker:and Exodus and numbers, and we're into Deuteronomy chapter 11.
Speaker:And this little chapter is talking about really what God
Speaker:would like the Israelites to do.
Speaker:And I wanna show you how this is really interesting for Catholic education.
Speaker:So I. What it talks about is I made a list.
Speaker:So in the studio at about 5:00 AM this morning, I was doing this
Speaker:reading and Moses is telling people exactly what God wants 'em to do.
Speaker:Here's the list.
Speaker:Fear the Lord, which we can often transcribe as revere, revere
Speaker:the Lord, walk in all his ways.
Speaker:Love him.
Speaker:Serve him with all your heart.
Speaker:Serve him with all your soul, and keep the commandments and statutes.
Speaker:Now, the important part is that at verse six, it then says these
Speaker:very important words, all this, all of this is for your good.
Speaker:So what I wanna talk to you about in terms of Catholic education is,
Speaker:I don't know what it's like right on the front lines, but I can definitely
Speaker:remember when I was teaching, it was a challenging, challenging world
Speaker:to try to break through to young people with the truth of the gospel.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because primarily the power of secularism.
Speaker:Secularism, uh, which is really well defined in a church
Speaker:document called Evangel ndi.
Speaker:And I was, you're lucky you tuned in today 'cause I was
Speaker:talking about it on the weekend.
Speaker:And in paragraph 15 of Evangel ndi, it defines secularism and it's basically
Speaker:says it's a doctrine where the world is.
Speaker:Explained by itself.
Speaker:So the standard by which the world communicates what the world
Speaker:thinks it is, is its own self.
Speaker:So, and it says that the idea of God is seen as superfluous or an encumbrance.
Speaker:See with me that the, the forces of secularism basically create a
Speaker:world where people kind of look at reality and they don't think in any
Speaker:sort of transcendent categories.
Speaker:They don't think about.
Speaker:The mystical, the sublime, the transcendental transcendentals
Speaker:of truth, beauty, and goodness.
Speaker:They think of it's a very mundane world.
Speaker:It's a world that is explained by inputs and outputs and power relationships.
Speaker:So the world explains itself by itself.
Speaker:So we don't sort of look to these other categories of God and so.
Speaker:In that secular world, sort of the idea of God becomes superfluous
Speaker:or as it says, an encumbrance.
Speaker:An encumbrance is interesting because I think you'll agree that the
Speaker:secular view of Catholicism is, are you Catholics with all your rules?
Speaker:You know, you just encumber people.
Speaker:You put these burdens on people.
Speaker:And Jesus of course talked about that with the Pharisees, right?
Speaker:He said, you put burdens on people's backs and you don't lift a finger to help them.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I wanna push back against that and I just, I'm trying to set this up right.
Speaker:I'm saying that with students.
Speaker:I just wonder how strong these ideas still are that when you're really
Speaker:trying to share the gospel, that you're really trying to preach and teach in
Speaker:the right context with your students can be hard because they just have this
Speaker:sense that, you know, this gospel or this Christian stuff is just not for me.
Speaker:And interestingly, I found this, I'm just gonna pull this
Speaker:up on one of the monitors here.
Speaker:So great line from the opening Hom, the mass, the homily at the
Speaker:opening mass of Pope Leo the 14th.
Speaker:He said these words, he said, even today there are many settings in which the
Speaker:Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent.
Speaker:Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian
Speaker:faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent.
Speaker:Anybody that's read a bit of Friedrich Nietzche would kind of know that ideal.
Speaker:Um, Nietzche kind of argued that.
Speaker:Christianity was a slave religion.
Speaker:It was a religion of slaves.
Speaker:And what the Superman, the Uber mention needed to do was to kind of
Speaker:get outta those categories and, and get into the real world that was way
Speaker:beyond what he called good and evil.
Speaker:Sort of this new world where you would make up your own rules and that nietzche
Speaker:idea of Christianity being a slave religion, a mentality for the week.
Speaker:You can see Pope Leos pointing at it right here.
Speaker:Even today.
Speaker:There are many settings in which the.
Speaker:Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent.
Speaker:So my friend, what has this got to do with you and what's it
Speaker:got to do with your classroom?
Speaker:So this list in Deuteronomy, serving the Lord, walking in his ways,
Speaker:loving him, serving him with all your heart, and then that crucial
Speaker:line, all of this is for your good.
Speaker:Really jumped out at me.
Speaker:Because I'm deeply convinced after many years that the church's teaching on
Speaker:every aspect of life, but particularly in terms of its moral theology, like how
Speaker:we live in the world, our relationships, what we do with these bodies as
Speaker:they move through time and space.
Speaker:The church's exhortations are always and everywhere for our good.
Speaker:The sacraments are for our good, conforming our lives to the truth
Speaker:of the gospel is for our good.
Speaker:And I've lived long enough now to know it to be true, that the longer that we
Speaker:walk in the footsteps of Christ as his disciples, and of course we don't do it
Speaker:perfectly and it's a hard road at times.
Speaker:It's for our good.
Speaker:So I wanted to say to you, to say to you guys today as educators
Speaker:and as leaders, that really.
Speaker:We need to reposition ourselves here to realize that this is an invitation
Speaker:to take good news to young people and helping them to live the gospel, helping
Speaker:them to live virtue is for their good.
Speaker:You are not imposing and encumbering them.
Speaker:Encumbering them with something or my English teachers, I
Speaker:don't know if that's a word.
Speaker:I just made it up, but we are bringing them something profound and beautiful,
Speaker:and so we don't need to be afraid of secularism because secularism.
Speaker:It's essentially just this faulty way of looking at reality that
Speaker:just discounts and rejects so much of the nature of reality itself.
Speaker:Alright, that is pretty much all I wanted to say to you today.
Speaker:Stay tuned.
Speaker:'cause the next few days I'm gonna be sharing with you some really great stuff
Speaker:from the Evangel Evangelism Conference.
Speaker:But just remember you have the words of eternal life.
Speaker:You have the gospel that is Christ's word.
Speaker:For the healing of the world and for the restoration and redemption of the world.
Speaker:So way back in Deuteronomy, this list of exhalations was for people's good, that we
Speaker:can take this to young people, not in fear or dejection or despair, but in confidence
Speaker:and courage because we know that helping them to know Christ, helping them to live
Speaker:the life of the Spirit is for their good.
Speaker:I'd be confident in that.
Speaker:Alright, that's all I wanted to share with you today.
Speaker:Thank you so much for what you're doing.
Speaker:I meet so many incredible Catholic missionaries and teachers,
Speaker:and principals and bishops.
Speaker:We had two archbishops in the room on the weekend for my keynote, which
Speaker:was great, and just this diversity of people doing so many great
Speaker:things, and you are one of them.
Speaker:So may God bless you on this beautiful journey.
Speaker:May he encourage you, call upon the spirit to guide and direct you
Speaker:every single day in your vocation.
Speaker:Um, my name is Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic Teacher Daily Podcast, and you and I
Speaker:are gonna talk again tomorrow.
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