So today is Sunday, July 6, and this is William Michael, the headmaster of the classical liberal arts academy. One of the most frequent questions that I receive comes from adult men asking how they can obtain a classical education. They may be through their own formal studies. They may be established in their own career, married, starting a family. I’ve even had older men established in their careers in the latter half of their lives, wanting to get the education that they never had, and seeing it as a good opportunity later in life to do that. And so I spend a lot of time talking with adult men on how to pursue real wisdom classical Catholic studies, not for the sake of degrees or diplomas or jobs, but for the sake of wisdom, for the sake of happiness. And a topic that comes up a lot in those discussions, has to do with our vocation, our job, what we do for a living, and so on. And I’d like to take some time today to talk about the topic and to explore it a little more than I usually am able to the topic of our jobs, the topic of our occupations, and how we can transform our jobs, our occupations, our careers, from things we do for money that are relatively unsatisfying, boring. Into things that are actually spiritual and virtuous and satisfying, because I think this is a cause a lot of the frustration that men have, and it’s also an obstacle to real mystical to real devotion and study. So I’d like to share some thoughts about how we can transform whatever it is that we do for a living into something that we can really understand as a vocation in this life, as a Catholic vocation in this life. And then, if I remember, near the end of this talk, I’ll discuss why this is so important for Catholic devotion and the pursuit of wisdom. I remember when I was starting the classical liberal arts academy, one of the challenges was that I had a very clear vision for what I wanted to do. I had a vision of restoring classical Catholic education in modern society. I knew modern education. I worked in private schools. I attended a big university. I was very comfortable in the modern educational world, but I wanted to restore classical Catholic studies, and the challenge that I had to overcome was figuring out how to generate enough revenue through this work so that I could do it full time and devote all my attention to it, and so that I could be responsible, as a husband and a father, provide for my family, but pursue this, this work that I really wanted To pursue, that I felt called to pursue, and so I had to, I had to think about the business side of classical education, and that that really annoyed me. I really didn’t want to think about the business side of things. And to this day. I, I hate thinking about the financial side of classical education now I’ve, I’ve provided for my family for 17 years now through the classical liberal arts academy devoted entirely to the research, restoration, publishing and teaching of the classical liberal arts, which was my dream, but I’ve had to devote a great amount of time to study and working on the business side of things, because with that, the work wouldn’t even be possible. And Aristotle talks about this in the ethics. He talks about the fact that in order to do virtuous works, in order to do good things, we have to have material resources. We can’t take this detached attitude and say like we don’t care about material things, because in order to do good, we have to have material things. We can’t give food to the hungry if we don’t have food, we can’t we can’t give shelter to the homeless if we don’t have a place to shelter them. So all of these works of mercy, especially the corporal works of mercy, they require us to actually possess the things that are needed. So I realized that for me to pursue this goal of mine in a responsible way, in a real way, I had to deal with this challenge of developing a business plan, means of revenue and so on for this work that I wanted to do, and I started watching talks and reading books on marketing and advertising and sales and accounting and business plans, all of these sources on how to actually develop and run a business, just looking at everything from the business perspective. And I came across one talk. It might have been a TED talk or a talk at a marketing convention, but I came across one talk. I forget who the speaker was, but he was talking about sales. And up until this point, I just saw sales as sort of this cold, indifferent pushing of products and services on others as a necessary part of business just what needs to be done. But this one speaker talked about sales and marketing as a means of helping other people and making them happy. And he presented a view of sales and marketing that helped me to break through this whole obstacle that I had because I wanted to pursue the restoration of classical Catholic education because I believed it would make people happy. That’s why I was interested in it, because it made me happy, solved problems in my life, gave me wisdom, allowed me to enjoy a happy life, and I wanted to share that with other people. And yet, when I thought about the business side of things, I had this sort of cold, mechanical view of sales and marketing, until I saw this one talk, and he explained that if we have a product or a service that we’re responsible to sell to others, we should think of How that service, how that product, can genuinely help other people’s lives. We should think about how the work we do can really help other people, and we should do the work that we do in a way that really helps other people. And we should learn to think about the work that we do not as a way to make money, but as a way to help other people, because as far as our occupations are concerned, as far as the jobs that we do are concerned, we really end up settled into a certain place in. In life for all of the talk in modern society about freedom to do whatever you want, and so we know that that’s really not true. We really aren’t free to do whatever we want. We live in a competitive, capitalistic economy. There are people already doing things that we want to do. There’s competition for available resources, and you can’t just pick up and move into some other field and make a living. We’re in the place that we’re in for lots of reasons, many of which are outside of our control. And even though we can move a little bit within that field or within that occupation. It’s very rare for us to pick up and transplant ourselves in something totally different. So we are what we are, but we can think about the work that we do differently, and this can be the most mundane work that there is, but we can learn to think about it from a Christian or an ethical perspective. We can say what is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to be happy, to be happy forever, and we can think about our occupation as a means by which we help people become happier. We help people move forward towards that ultimate end, and it doesn’t matter what kind of work we do, because all of the work we do, the reason why people are willing to pay for it in the first place is because it’s either necessary or they judge it to be helpful. But we often think of our work as just being what we do to make money, and we need to change that way of thinking, and instead, think of how we can help other people, how we can maximize the helpfulness of the product or service we offer. So let’s just take a few examples. Let’s say that I was an auto mechanic, something that seems as mundane as possible. I repair cars. We can think that Well, you know, I’m a Catholic man. I’m interested in theology, I’m interested in church history, I’m interested in the saints and the lives of the saints and and yet, I’m stuck in this job as an auto mechanic, changing tires, doing oil changes, repairing or replacing broken parts, diagnosing problems with cars, just this boring, mundane work that I do to make some money, but what I really want to do is I really want to study theology. I really love the faith. I love the pursuit of wisdom. I love the Catholic Church. I really wish that I could devote myself to Catholic study. And we feel this, this this tension between our spiritual life and the work we do. And this is common because of our shallow view of the work that we do. Again, the problem is that we’re thinking about repairing cars as a job that we do to make money. And so the problem with this job is our thinking about it, not the job itself. The problem is the way we think about it. We we degrade the work that we do, and think the only reason that this work exists is because we need to make money when that’s not true at all. This work exists. This work as an auto mechanic exists because people need transportation. People need automobiles to get to work, to get around, to travel to school. We need automobiles. It’s a necessary part of our life in modern society. And these automobiles are are complicated. They require lots of mechanical knowledge. They require supplies and tools and parts and so on, and most people just don’t have that. And so you. So when a car breaks down, or when a car is due for maintenance, they bring it in to have it examined, diagnosed and repaired or serviced by someone who knows what he’s doing, an auto mechanic. And so the auto mechanic has as a significant role to play in the human society. And what the auto mechanic needs to do to think rightly about his profession is think of the role that it plays in society. In human society, think of how people are benefited by the use of their cars, by their ability to get up and go and transport themselves here and there. Think about how important transportation is, and consider themselves as an auto mechanic to be a partner in other people’s lives. Think about themselves as an auto mechanic, as a person who can help others, help others succeed in their businesses, help others succeed in their lives. Help mothers bring their children to and from school. Help fathers get to and from work. Help families enjoy a nice vacation, a trip to the beach or to the mountains. The auto mechanic can think of how he can help a young kid who just got his license to find a reliable and affordable first car. You can see that the occupation can be thought of not as a way of making money, but as a way of helping other people enjoy a good life, fulfill their obligations take care of their families and so on. We can think of the safety of other people. We can think of the financial benefits others can enjoy. We can think of the benefits of work. We can think of the benefits of family life and recreation and the auto mechanic. Can think of himself as being a man who can help to provide all of that to other men, to other women, to other families. He can think of his work as a generous form of service to the human community, which allows the quality of life to improve for others, he can see his work as a way of loving his neighbor As himself and ultimately, as serving God by loving his neighbor. He can do all of his work. Cora mdeo, in the presence of God for God’s glory. He can do it honestly, generously. He can study to become a real master of his craft. He can do his work generously he can give honest advice to people, give them good direction as to what they should do, help them make good decisions, if he thinks about his work as a way of helping other people that mundane job that he just does to make money can be transformed into a source of Christian service, a means of serving the common good, because we really depend on transportation. It’s really a source of anxiety and stress and financial concern for many people. Many people’s careers and lives depend on their transportation. And then auto mechanic with a with a right mindset, with a Christian disposition, a Catholic worldview, can look at his work in auto mechanics and say, I want to direct my work in auto mechanics according to God’s will. I want to do God’s will through my work as an auto mechanic. I want to honor God and bring glory to God and help and love my neighbor through my work as an auto mechanic, and in this way, that man becomes like the Good Samaritan who used his work to help his neighbor. That something as mundane as auto repair can become a real Christian vocation. And when we think of our work in this way, when we think of our work not as just a way for us to selfishly get money from other people, but we think about it really as a way to help other people. Not only does it make the work more meaningful, not only does it give us something to study to become really expert in, but it actually allows the sales and marketing of the work that we do to become a kind of evangelization, because what we’re actually trying to do is not just sell something or push something that a person doesn’t need or doesn’t want, or try to charge extra money that we know is beyond what a thing is worth. That’s all selfish. What we’re actually trying to do is promote our business, promote the work we do, promote our company, because we know that we will actually help and take care of other people. And you can see how all of the messaging of that business changes. It changes from sales gimmicks and marketing tactics that are just impersonal and selfish. It changes into a personal appeal to let me help you. We’d like to help you. Let us help you solve your transportation needs. Let us help you make the best use of your money. Let us help you make this difficult decision. Let us help you get to and from work or wherever you need to go, safely and affordably and without worry. You can see how it becomes a kind of evangelization and all of the messaging changes our job can be transformed into a Christian vocation. Let’s think of another example. Let’s say I don’t want to talk about fields that I really don’t know anything about. I’m familiar with mechanical trades. Let’s take something like teaching. Let’s say that you’re a math teacher or a science teacher, and you say, Well, you know, I’m a Christian, and what I do here, let’s say I’m a public school science teacher, but I’m a Christian, I’ve got almost like two separate lives. I’ve got this one life where I’m a public school science teacher, and I’ve got another life which begins when I leave work, where I’m like this faithful Catholic who loves church history and the saints and theology, and I’m with my my family, and we have a Catholic life in our parish, and it’s just it’s almost like I’m living two different lives, my work life and my Catholic life. And this is the dilemma that modern people all often find themselves in they have this this sort of tension or this sense of contradiction in their lives, and for many it is a contradiction that needs to be fixed. And they say, Well, you know, my job, I just don’t feel satisfied because I’m just teaching science. I don’t even know if I believe half the stuff that we teach in the school. I don’t even think it’s very effective. The kids don’t really learn it. It’s not like when they’re learning real science. We’re just going through these textbooks and doing these dorky experiments in school, which aren’t real science experiments at all. I just don’t even know what I’m doing. I wish I could do something that was Christian, but you really have no idea what else you might do. We can think of how that job as a public school science teacher can be transformed into a Catholic vocation. We can ask, what’s the real purpose of this school? What’s the real purpose of a public school? What’s the real purpose of a. Public school science class and so on. Think about why people are bringing their children to the school, why these children are in the school in the first place, and ask, How can I help them to move towards happiness? How can I help them to accomplish what needs to be accomplished by their enrollment in this school and and it breaks down to some pretty simple things. No, the public school science class is not a place where the Catholic faith is explicitly taught or promoted. That’s true, but neither is a gas station, neither is a restaurant. So that’s not that’s not necessary, because human society is more complex than that, and the service of the common good is the application of Catholic moral teaching to any different field of work or service. So if we’re in the public school, we need to ask, how does the public school serve the common good? What is the purpose of the public school? What does the public school offer the children in my classes, or even the parents of the children in my classes, and how can I help them to enjoy the benefits that they’re in need of or that they’re seeking through this public school education? And we can say, well, the first thing is that my students here, they have to get high school diplomas. They need to get a high school diploma so they can move on into their adult life and either go to college or join the military or find a job and so on. They need to get through high school and get a diploma. That’s what they need. That’s the, that’s the that’s the real practical interest of these students in going to the public school. They need a diploma so they can move on into adulthood when they graduate. So what I can do is I can help my students earn their high school diploma. I can help them. I can make my science classes as clear and easy as possible so they get the credits available for my science class. I can help them learn to study. I can help them learn to manage their time. I can I can volunteer to meet with them after school and just help them with life skills and planning. I could even help them with other classes, because the goal is to help them get their high school diploma. I can, I can do all that’s in my power to help my students get a high school diploma. And if my students need to go to college or want to go to college, I can help them by writing reference letters for them, giving them advice, helping them with SAT prep. There’s lots of work that I can do to genuinely, generously and sincerely help my students to become happy, to become successful, to find a good and honest place in the world as adults. So my job is a lot more than just being a science teacher, a lot more than just submitting my lesson plans and getting assignments graded and getting my paycheck. I can offer my students a lot of personal help as a fellow human being, and, more importantly, as a Catholic, as an example of a Catholic that they will remember for the rest of their lives. And I can, I can give to my students, speaking evangelistically, I can give to all of my students an example that they will remember through their whole lives of a Catholic man or a Catholic woman who is just a good, generous person. And that’s that’s the kind of help that Catholicism needs in modern society. So I can think about all the ways I can help my students. I can pray for my students. I can, I can perform all of the works of mercy in the lives of my students. If I have students who are poor, I can, I can help. Them materially. I had a first grade teacher who who used to bring clothes in for one of the girls in our class. We had this one girl from a poor family, and I remember my first grade teacher would buy this girl clothes. And would, you know after school, would it would hand this girl bags of new clothes. That’s what a teacher can be, much more than just a person who’s there for a paycheck, but a person who is there to just do good to others and help others, who happens to be a school teacher, but that’s not a limit as to what they do as a school teacher. I could also think of the parents and say, what is it that my that the parents of these children are seeking by sending their children to school? Well, first of all, these parents have to work. These parents may be under real financial stress. They may be looking for a place where their children can go to satisfy school requirements, but more importantly, be safe. They want their children to be safe and in the influence and in the presence of respectable, trustworthy adults, I can help the parents of my students by providing such a person in their children’s lives. I can communicate with their parents and give them assurance. I can help their parents fulfill their duties in parenting. I can help the parents take care of the work that needs to be taken care of. I can give parents that assurance that the children are safe and in good hands, and that they have someone who’s got their back and is watching out for their child every day while at school, I can go out of my way to communicate with the parents and let them know What I see when the children are at school, I can help their parents fulfill the duties of parents. I can help their parents navigate questions and decisions that come as they come to the end of their school years and they’ve got to think about their own vocations and occupations and schooling and all of the options I can work to become a valuable resource to parents to help them help their children. So it’s much more than just being a high school science teacher who goes and punches in and punches out for a paycheck. The job as a high school science teacher just becomes a way of connecting with people in my community that opens these opportunities for me to live the Catholic life, to preach the gospel, maybe Not by direct lecturing on Catholic theology, but by demonstrating the moral principles of the Catholic life, showing others the fruits of the Holy Spirit and living with the consistency and discipline and strength of character that can come only through the Catholic life. I can be an evangelist where I am. I can do the works of mercy where I am. And this is true of any kind of job. This is true of any position let’s take. Let’s take an even simpler job that might seem even more difficult. My mother had sort of a low level position in accounting. She was an accounts payable clerk for Maybelline, the big cosmetic company, she worked with a dozen other men and women just processing bills and payments from the sales people out in the field, and she just went in in the morning, punched in, put in her hours doing her desk work in her little cubicle and punched out at the end of the day. And you might look at a job like that and say, How in the world can anyone think that that’s a Christian occupation? I. Clearly she’s doing it just for money. And people who work these jobs often wring their hands over the situation and say, I wish I could do something that was more Christian. I wish I could do something that was actually Catholic. But I would argue that they’re thinking of the situation wrongly, because there’s lots that can be done in that position to fulfill the Christian mission in life. First of all, a person who’s working as an employee should think of themselves and the role that they play in helping their company, helping the business that employs them, helping their superiors, helping their bosses, helping their coworkers. They can think about the benefits that they can bring to the people around them. For example, if I have to work this job processing, accounts payable issues, I have to do this because I need to make a living. And this is necessary work that needs to be done, necessary, legally, necessary, financially necessary for the business, necessary for all of the sales people out in the field so that their expenses are reimbursed and covered. This is necessary work, and I can do this to benefit all of those involved. I also have to realize that the people that I work with are here doing this because they also need to make a living, and this is a way to make a living. So I can look just at my coworkers. And you know, my mother worked the same place for years and years. I knew all her coworkers by name, but we could think of our coworkers and say, I want to help pat or Janet enjoy their time at work every day. I want to help make their workplace a place that’s pleasant and joyful. I want to be the best possible co worker. I want them to love coming to work. I want to be reliable for them. I want to be helpful to them. I want to be a friend to them as they go through things in their own personal lives. I want to provide them with someone they can talk to, someone who can offer them help and advice. I want to be a friend to my coworkers as a Christian, I want to be a Christian friend to my coworkers, and if God wills, take the opportunity to evangelize them and help explain to them the Catholic faith and lead them outside of work to get their lives in order and take care of themselves spiritually, because our lives outside of our work are even more important than our lives at work. So the work that I do as an accounts payable rep. That’s really not what defines me. That’s just what I do as an occupation. But my work there, my life there, my activity there, is much broader than that. It’s just a human activity, and I can work in a way that blesses my coworkers. Helps them to earn a living in the most pleasant environment possible. I can help them succeed in their job. I can help them to enjoy stable employment by helping them succeed. I can help them, help their families and in an in a way, bless them and contribute to their family needs. I can think about my boss and think that my boss is here working for the same reasons. He’s got to provide for a family. This is his career and his success. His success is dependent on the work that I do, the work that my coworkers do, so when I devote. Myself to doing the best work that I can, to being the best employee I can and helping my coworkers be the best employees they can be. We help our supervisor or our boss and put him in a position to succeed and make his life less stressful, less anxious, less troublesome, and so on. So I have the opportunity to bless and help my boss, and I can, I can be a good witness of the Catholic faith by providing my boss with an experience working with a Catholic employee, a Catholic employee who is humble and honest and just diligent, intelligent, concerned with others, empathetic, able to work with others in a group, humble in the sense that I can accept my role as his inferior and work to help him succeed. I can give my boss an experience with a Catholic Worker that he will never forget in his life, and if in his life he ever enters into a time of spiritual crisis, he’ll always have my witness to think back on and say, you know, there was one person, one person who I always knew was a good, honest person, one person who blessed me in so many ways it was that Catholic employee that I had, that person was so generous and unselfish and humble and joyful, and our relationship with with our co workers and bosses can be a means of their conversion. And so there’s a lot more to think about than just doing our job and getting our paycheck. I Yeah. So you can see that by by reflecting on the work that we do, and I’ve just chosen three random examples, by reflecting on the work that we do, by really putting the good of others first, by living according to the golden rule, by doing to others what we would have others do to us. We can transform any job into a real Christian vocation, because there’s much more to that job than just the core tasks of that job itself. There’s relationships, there’s broader issues. There are times where we get to participate in meetings and can influence decisions and influence policies, and we can contribute very significantly, not just to the businesses or the companies that we work for, but to society in general. And we need to be willing to make the most of those opportunities. My mother, for example, who was a good Catholic woman is a good Catholic woman. She’s retired now, but she had no college education, barely had a high school diploma, and she went from working entry level an entry level Accounts Payable job, she ended up rising through promotions all the way up into management, where she was making a ton of money working in New York City for the Maybelline main offices, just by being a good, good employee, good person, being reliable, being unselfish, being generous. What happened for her was she was such a blessing to a couple of her supervisors and bosses that when they received promotions, they just pulled her along with them. Her one boss, a lady named Pat, became a family friend, and when Pat got promoted. My mother went with her, and so there’s just no way to know what the overall effect of our lives can be in the work that we do, or what the end can be that comes of the work we do. But by focusing on doing good to others, by focusing on. Of living the Catholic life, seeking to to bless and benefit others, and really putting our financial concerns second, and trusting that if we, if we attend to the to the moral and spiritual duties of our life, the financial concerns will take care of themselves, and as I said before, the work of promoting our business or promoting our products or promoting our services changes from being this cold, mechanical, selfish plea for money to become more of an evangelistic offering of benefits to others, offering to help them, offering to solve a problem in their life and so on. So we can transform any occupation or job into a real Christian vocation, and that’s what the laity is supposed to do. The mission of the Catholic laity, as the Catechism teaches, and I talk about this all the time, the mission of the Catholic laity is to direct temporal affairs according to God’s will, to get our hands involved in temporal affairs. And we all engage differently with different temporal affairs. As I was saying, one could be an auto mechanic, one could be a construction worker. One could be a public school teacher. One could be an accounts payable clerk. Our hands are involved in these temporal affairs in all different ways, not to mention politicians and doctors and lawyers and physical trainers and nutritionists and counselors and on and on into every different field, all of our hands, as lay people, are engaged with temporal affairs, and what we’re all supposed to be doing is to whatever degree we can influence those affairs, to be directing them according to God’s will. And you see, that provides all of us with a very great challenge. We can all see ourselves as being in a certain place, being put in a certain place, in God’s providence, not to just make a living and then go have our spiritual life someplace else, which is really not a true spiritual life, but to see ourselves as put in a certain place in the world, in the midst of this giant machine of temporal affairs, and given some degree of influence that were put there by the Lord on behalf of the church, to push those affairs into The way of God’s will, to move them towards God’s commandments, to sanctify them, to improve them. So we’re all like missionaries sent into these fields to make them better, to make them more just, to make them more honest, more beneficial to all involved were all sent into these places, into these occupations, into these fields, into these institutions, as as missionaries of the Catholic Church to make them more Catholic. That’s our mission, and that can become a very satisfying mission if we embrace it and understand it for what it is. Now, often we look back in history and we honor people who did this. We respect people who worked in all different kinds of fields, did all kinds of different work, and we say, Oh, that guy was faithful. He did this and she did that. And we admire saints, for example, like Saint Isidore, the farmer. We admire him because he sanctified farming. And we we honor I think there’s an Italian doctor named Giuseppe moscati who was canonized as a doctor because he sanctified the temporal. Affairs of medical work. And if we learn about his life, we we see that he was a man who he was just a physical medical doctor, but he he understood that there was much more to his work than checking the boxes to get his paycheck, and he directed all of his work in medicine according to God’s will. And we can go through lots of examples, through church history, but then when we look at our own temporal occupation, we often think less of it. We don’t think of it in the same way, or we arrogantly imagine that we belong someplace else doing something more spiritual or more prestigious. There’s a funny song by an old songwriter named Jim Croce. I grew up hearing Jim Croce songs because my dad listened to Jim Croce, but he’s got a song called working at the car wash blues, and you can look it up on YouTube. It’s easy to find, but Jim Croci, C, R, O, C, E, it’s a funny song about a guy who works at a car wash and he believes that he should be working in an office somewhere. I don’t know if I’d remember the words off the top of my head, but he’s working at a car wash. He’s just the guy on the car wash line, and he says that he should be sitting in some high rise office building with a big office. That’s what he should be doing. But here, here he is just stuck working at the car wash. And many people think of themselves in that way. They imagine that they they should be someplace else. They should be some someplace higher, someplace more prestigious, and that’s just not that’s not a prudent or honest way of thinking. It’s usually arrogant. We usually are where we are because that’s where we do belong. And you can make excuses and say, Well, if it wasn’t for this or for Yeah, well, that’s real life. That’s real life. You are where you belong. We can think about Bible stories like Joseph in the Old Testament, who ended up in prison as a slave, even though he was the favorite son of and descendant of Abraham, he was a slave in prison because of a false accusation. And what did he do? But he glorified God while in prison. He glorified God while in prison and ended up being raised up to the highest place in Egypt, but he didn’t despise his humble place. He sought to glorify God there and to prove himself faithful in that low place where it’s relatively easy to be faithful. And Jesus says, He who is faithful in small things will also be faithful in greater things. So if we are in a humble place, in a simple, lowly place, if you’re not faithful there, you’re deceiving yourself to think that you would be more influential if you were in a more prestigious place, because you can’t even be faithful in a humble place where it’s easier to be faithful. So we need to learn to think rightly of ourselves, to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. And if we get this disposition, like I said, we can transform whatever work we’re doing, wherever we’re at, we can transform it into a very significant Catholic mission, a mission proper to lay persons. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. And while you fulfill this mission, you also enjoy the temporal benefit of paying your bills. So it works as a double benefit. Now I mentioned earlier in order to wrap this up, how does this help us with Catholic devotion and the pursuit of wisdom? I said that if we learn to think about our jobs, and these are just our present jobs, we have no idea what the future will hold you. We’re serving God in our present place, seeking to prove ourselves faithful in small things, leaving our future to God’s providence. I said that if we learn to think of our jobs where we are in the right way. It’ll help us with Catholic devotion and even with classical studies. And I’d like to explain how that is. In order for us to make progress in studies, we have to have some application. There has to be something that we’re doing with the knowledge that we gain. There has to be an application. We have to go into a study with specific questions or problems that we’re seeking solutions to, and we have to study to find those solutions that gives our that gives our study focus and purpose and urgency. There has to be something that we’re seeking to do, or a problem that we’re seeking to solve, that drives our prayers and our studies and these problems can be found in the work that we do. It can be something as simple as the conversion of one of our coworkers. It can be solving a problem where there is something that our company does that’s not moral, maybe even illegal, and we’re and we’re seeking to try to find a solution to that. My wife, for example, when we were in college, was working at an Italian restaurant where they had illegal immigrants back in the kitchen working and cooking, and the boss was basically sneaking them around town all the time. And my wife really struggled with it, because she was a Christian with a with a with a good conscience, and she was she was upset by how the business was conducted. She didn’t know if she should work there, if she should leave, because it was obviously unjust and illegal what they were doing, and so she had this, this moral dilemma to try and solve. You can see how that that sends us to prayer and sends us to the scriptures and to the catechism and and to our other studies, with a problem to solve with a question to answer with urgency, with a practical application. And so we can go to the Summa Theologica or the Catechism, or the Catholic Bible or Aristotle’s ethics, or, you know, whatever the subject may be. We can. We can go there on behalf of our job, on behalf of our occupation, seeking solutions, because, remember, it’s our duty to direct temporal affairs. These are the kinds of things we’re talking about, to direct them according to God’s will. So we’re studying to understand what exactly is God’s will in this situation, what exactly is God’s will? How should our business do this? How should our company do this? If I’m given an opportunity to to share my thoughts at a staff meeting. What should I say? What can I offer as a as a solution, as an alternative? Maybe I can fix this problem. Maybe it is the way it is, because nobody else, nobody knows what to do, nobody has any better ideas. And I can influence temporal affairs according to God’s will. This engagement in temporal affairs with a Catholic missionary spirit is what gives our studies focus and purpose and urgency and makes them effective. For example, you may have heard that that I continue my studies at Harvard, and you may wonder, you know, if you’re already running a school, the school’s already accredited. You have no need to do that. You have no need of a degree. Why? Why are you troubling yourself with the cost and the work of pursuing an unnecessary degree? And the answer is, because I’m actually not pursuing my Harvard studies for for my own. Sake. I’m pursuing them for the sake of of my students and the parents in the classical liberal arts academy, and I can explain how I think about that. As as the headmaster, my students will need reference letters from me, and they’ll be seeking to apply and gain admission to the most selective schools possible. When I think about writing a recommendation letter for my student, I think, what could I do to give my students the most impressive recommendation letter possible? And I say to myself, well, I can add to my credentials, membership in the Harvard Alumni Association and present all of my students for college admission as a Harvard graduate. The benefit in this is for my students. That’s what motivates me to pursue more study, more learning, learning that I that I personally have no need of. I seek it because I think it’s beneficial to my students. I also pursue it because I know that there are parents who have had a modern education themselves, and they come to classical education, and they think, I just don’t know about this. I I just don’t know, is this just some crazy Amish thing, or is this actually, is this actually good for for students preparing for modern vocations? You know? How can I trust this? And I say to myself, if I go and prove myself capable of studies at America’s most prestigious, even one of the world’s greatest, universities, I can help relieve those concerns for parents and help them get over that hump and allow their children to enjoy A classical Catholic education. I do it for the sake of the parents. When I study, I’m studying and constantly thinking about how I can use the things that I learn, or even the things that my professors do, the way that the courses work, the way that some of the best professors, leading researchers in the world, the way they approach subjects, the way they teach, the way they organize their courses, the way they make use of of online resources. I’m looking at the practical side, not not even the courses, as much as how the courses are conducted, how the technology is used, what sort of things Harvard uses to conduct their online courses and so on, and I can bring that into the classical liberal arts academy for the benefit of all of my students. So my work in education, this also applies to accreditation. Knowing that the more credentials I accumulate, the more satisfying they are to secular accreditation evaluators. I’m willing to go and do that and gain that because I can, and it brings benefits to all of my students. It gives focus to my studies, it gives purpose to my studies, it gives urgency to my studies. And without that practical application, I would just be swimming in a giant ocean of information, and that’s where many Catholics find themselves. They just don’t have a purpose. They don’t have a mission or an application, and yet that mission is staring right in their face. It’s their full time occupation, but they just don’t think of it as they should think of it. They don’t think of their coworkers as people in need of evangelization, as people in need of counsel and help who are objects of the works of mercy and so on. They don’t think of their profession or the work they do as a temporal affair that needs to be directed according to God’s will. They don’t engage with their profession. And so the opportunity is right in front of them, but they’re always looking past it to some kind of goofy, abstract, spiritual life that really doesn’t exist because the Catholic laity is in the world for a purpose, and all of the study resources, all of the theological resources, all of the sacramental life, all of the devotional resources, all of them are set before the laity by the hierarchy of the church to. Perfect them in the work that they are doing in their temporal affairs. And you can see this is a really great challenge when we learn to think of our jobs as a place where we can get our hands involved in the work of this world and move it into conformity with God’s will, and we’re only responsible to move it as far as we’re able, and that’s that’s in God’s control. God can give us barely any influence, and that’s like being the servant who is entrusted with just a few talents, to whom less is given. Less is expected. If you’re given a small circle of influence, you should concern yourself with being influential in that small circle. And if God decides to give you a greater circle of influence, you can then work to be more influential, but that’s really not in your control, and so we don’t need to trouble ourselves with those kinds of thoughts. We just start where we’re at. Think about what we can control, what we can influence, and push it as far as we’re able towards God’s will. So by thinking of our jobs, we can transform our secular occupations into real Catholic vocations. And when we do that, that then gives us a mission, that then supplies us with problems, to solve questions, to answer people, to pray for discussions, to prepare for it gives purpose and focus and urgency to our studies. And then, if you come to me in the classical liberal arts academy and say, How can I pursue wisdom, if you come with that mindset, then we can really have some productive discussions, because you’ve already got the questions and the problems that need to be solved, and we can get to work on them. And I can help you do that. So that’s my advice, and why? The first thing that I’d have you consider is not where should I start my studies, as if you’re just diving into an ocean of information, but, but come with an occupation, come with your job in mind, come with your co workers, come with your family situation and needs, come with all of those temporal affairs and then ask, How can I pursue wisdom and we can really get to work? I hope that’s helpful. God bless you.
