Glasgow: Back to school message from Archbishop Tartaglia

Archbishop Tartaglia

In a Mass offered for teachers and all who work in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese, the Archbishop of Glasgow, Most Rev Philip Tartaglia offered a powerful message of encouragement to all who share the task of educating.

He said: "Sometimes Catholic teachers feel that they are not virtuous enough or knowledgeable enough or confident enough to give a good account of the faith they are asked to teach, explain and offer to the children or young people who are their pupils. But just like the Lord said to Jeremiah, I say to you: don't say you can't do it. You can. Don't say you are afraid. Trust the Holy Spirit within you.

I'll tell you something: we all have these doubts about our worthiness and our ability and our knowledge and our wisdom. But I can tell you this. Be a witness. Speak with your heart. Show the children and young people that you believe, that you follow Jesus, that you pray, that the sacraments are central to your life, that your faith is the vision for your life, and that this brings you joy, happiness, hope and fulfilment."

The full text of the Archbishop's sermon follows

Mass for Teachers and School Staffs

First of all, I want to welcome you all to St Andrew's Cathedral for this Mass for Teachers and School Staff in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Glasgow. You are from both the Primary and Secondary sectors, and I want to bring you together at this Holy Mass so that you can be together, pray together, and support one another in the great project of Catholic education to which we are all committed.

And it is important to me as the Archbishop that you should know that your bishop and the whole diocesan community immensely values your calling to be a Catholic teacher and holds your mission and work in great esteem. I wish to encourage you with all my heart and I implore the grace of God, and the Intercession of Mary and the saints on you and on your colleagues.

As we heard in the first reading, God called Jeremiah to be a prophet. He called him and then silenced his doubts and objections. Don't say: I am a child, he said. Don't be afraid, he said. I called you from the womb, God said. I will put my words into your mouth. And this evening I want you to realise and accept that in his providence God has called you to be a teacher both as a profession and as a vocation. To be a Catholic teacher is a development and a shaping of the vocation to which you were called in your baptism to be a child of God, a disciple of Christ, and a member of the Church. In being a Catholic teacher, your baptismal vocation is given a particular form and character and colour and density, and it is something holy and good. It fits with your vocation to be a Christian man or woman, wife or husband, mother or father, religious or lay person. And, I say again, it is holy and special and good. And at this Mass and every day we give thanks for your vocation.

Sometimes Catholic teachers feel that they are not virtuous enough or knowledgeable enough or confident enough to give a good account of the faith they are asked to teach, explain and offer to the children or young people who are their pupils. But just like the Lord said to Jeremiah, I say to you: don't say you can't do it. You can. Don't say you are afraid. Trust the Holy Spirit within you. I'll tell you something: we all have these doubts about our worthiness and our ability and our knowledge and our wisdom. But I can tell you this. Be a witness. Speak with your heart. Show the children and young people that you believe, that you follow Jesus, that you pray, that the sacraments are central to your life, that your faith is the vision for your life, and that this brings you joy, happiness, hope and fulfilment.

To be a Catholic teacher is to be at the intersection of education and catechesis. Through your teaching, in RE perhaps especially but really in every subject, you both help your pupils to learn, to engage with a whole world of exciting knowledge, experience and insights and also you propose to them a way of life which is centred on Jesus Christ, a way of faith and love and service.

This happens in all your teaching because it is YOU, the follower of Jesus, you the Catholic Christian, who are living your teaching. And you cannot lay down your faith to teach. You teach with your faith, you teach with your whole person. This intersection of catechesis and education is an exciting place to be because it is essentially formation and never indoctrination. In your education-catechesis, you invite your pupils to engage critically in a way appropriate to their age and stage with the mystery of faith which you are teaching. Catholic education does not aim to produce brainwashed Catholics, and manifestly it does not. Catholic education is not a production line. Rather, because of the wish of parents, it invites children and young people to follow Jesus freely, to receive the sacraments joyfully, to grow in knowledge of the mysteries of Jesus Christ and to be a members of the Church who are comfortable in their Catholic skin.

Our faith can stand any amount of questions, investigation and study. It has always been at the intersection of faith and reason, of catechesis and education. In Catholic education, we are dealing with the mysteries of God in Jesus Christ, but we deal with them in away which is critical, which is intelligible, which is intelligent, and which invites free and full assent and which leads to an inner joy and peace that nothing else can match. And the great witnesses of our faith are not the great and the good and the brilliant and the feted and the famous, but the little ones, the poor in spirit, our mothers and fathers and forebears, those who have been faithful, and above all the saints and the martyrs.

In this evening's Gospel passage, Jesus told his apostles and first disciples who were fishermen: Put out into the deep. Don't be afraid. From now on, it is men you will catch. Especially nowadays, Catholic education is like putting out into the deep. It is an adventure. It is a little risky. But we are not alone. It is Jesus who sends us out to invite the young and the children to be Jesus' friends, to follow him, and to be captivated and inspired by the beauty and wonder of the person of Jesus Christ who invites us into communion with the Mystery of God. And this evening, I encourage you to come with me as we put out into the deep of being disciples of Jesus in the project of Catholic education.

Source: Archdiocese of Glasgow