Praying and Running

I have some friends who are struggling with difficult situations in life right now and I have been thinking a lot about them lately. While thinking and praying about and for these friends I realized that I have been going through a blessed time with nothing weighing heavily on me. For the most part my life has been happy and carefree for the last several months and I am grateful for that while still knowing that it won't last forever but confident that God will guide me through whatever situation I find myself in in the future if I let him. To my friends who are struggling and find themselves in times of trouble remember this verse “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” MT 11:28-30 Our Lord is still with us and we can truly follow His invi...

I have known for sometime that in order for me to race my best I need to have training runs longer than the race I am preparing for and this is not unique to me. Most people who want to compete in a race from the 5k to the half-marathon are aware of this and train like this. When I stepped into the world of marathoning however, I found that conventional wisdom and nearly all training plans have long runs capped anywhere from 16 to 22 miles with 20 being the common longest long run. I was uncomfortable with this during my first training cycle for the 2012 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon but "they" all said that going longer than that wouldn't produce any benefit that would out way the negatives. "They" all said a run any longer would carry with it great risk of injury and would require too much recovery time. I am a big believer in knowing your body and understanding what it is capable of rather than letting conventional wisdom dictate your limits. For that re...

In the Gospel reading for Mass today, LK 5:12-16 we read Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” LK 5:12 The weather this morning forced me into the gym and onto the treadmill. So as I was runningandpraying on the treadmill I kept coming back to this first verse of today's Gospel. This verse I think addresses 2 profound yet prevalent misconceptions about Christianity. On one hand, there is a notion that Christians believe they are perfect and don't sin and don't need to be made clean. But that is just not true. We are all like this leper, full of sin that is eating away our life. That doesn't mean we cannot approach our Lord. Rather, it means that we must approach Him because He is the one who can make us clean. On the other hand, a lot of people have the idea that Christians think they merely need to say "Jesus i...