This week I spent some time with the Gospel story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. When you sit with a Gospel story for long enough it gives God a chance to speak. After a while I kept coming back to the concept of just how lavish and amazing was Mary's response to what Jesus had done in her life.

It's so easy for us to fall into a casual Catholicism where we quickly lose track of just what it is that God has done for us. Mary seems to be one of the most striking examples in the Gospel of a person who was deeply aware of what the presence of Jesus meant for her life.

So this week, I am exploring the concept of extravagance on a few levels. How extravagant are you in response to what God has done, is doing and will do in your life?
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TRANSCRIPT

Well, hi there! It is Jonathan Doyle with you from ‘Going Deeper and Being Catholic.’ And it is great to have just a little bit of your time to share something with you that I hope will really encourage you as a Catholic Educator. My heartbeat, my real desire is to motivate, inspire Catholic teachers around the world because I am convinced that you have an incredible role to play in the lives of young people and in the new evangelization that John Paul II really encourage us to become a part of. And I do not know why these years I had a background in Catholic Education but I’ve worked with ten to thousands of teachers in live seminars and now, through the Going Deeper Program around the world. And I just think well, if you guys really knew what you are capable of doing and what God wants to do through you in the lives of young people. So many people say that young people, they do not want to go to Church; they are not interested in faith. John Baptist de la Salle, the great Catholic Educator talked about teachers being like visible angels that our students need to see. And often, in the Going Deeper Program, I talk about a great quote from the Church Documents that says that, “You as a Catholic Educator are a living Catechism. And our students are reading you.”

So, I just want to encourage you and I want to share with you some ideas in the podcast here that are going to be useful to you. It is quick, it is punchy, and you are very busy as a teacher, as an educator. So, I am not going to take too much time. But it is great stuff.
And what happened was I was at adoration this week and I try to get to adoration every morning. I am an early riser. So, I get up very early and then, I usually go on train for nearly two and a half hours. On the bike, I’m a crazy-obsessive-road-cyclist. So, my morning is awesome, I have the best mornings. I just get to pray. I drink really good coffee and I get to ride my bike ridiculously fast with a bunch of other people but safely of course, very safely; very respectful of other road users. But there I was at adoration, and you have got to put yourself in a place where God can speak into your life. We are so busy, we are so fragmented. Aren’t we? With so much coming at us all the time that we just don’t really allow God to speak to us. You know, think of Elijah, back in the book of Kings in the Old Testament. You know that time when he is hiding in the cliff of the rock and he knows that God is about to pass by and there is fire and there is raging wind and there is an earthquake and God is in none of that. And then, basically, when he does go out, there is this gentle breeze, and God is present there. So, I just want to encourage you, to consider Eucharistic adoration, to consider praying more because, not because it is a duty but because you are, as I always say in seminars,