Praying and Running

Last night my daughter's confirmation sponsor invited her to Mass this morning and then breakfast after. When my daughter told me this I realized that I was on vacation, not doing a darn thing and the idea of attending a weekday Mass hadn't even dawned on me.With that I decided that I would go to Mass this morning too. When I woke up this morning the reality of the "Real Presence" was on my mind. This is a Catholic doctirine that states that the Eucharist becomes truly and fully, not symbolically or partially, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. As I was sitting and waiting to leave for Mass I was moved to compose this facebook check-in for when I arrived at the Church. I had hoped at the time that this would make a difference to someone else. That maybe it would inspire some soul to become more fervent about what happens at Mass. What I think it really did was to cement the importance for me in what I have come to take for granted. It actually served to ins...

 Sometimes it is good to sit back and evaluate your life, where you are and where you want to be and when you get there will it really be all that you thought it would be?. We seem to spend an awful lot of time chasing happiness. What makes you happy? What is it that will finally satisfy you? Do you know? I can remember just out of high school thinking if I could just find a job where I made $300.00 a week I wouldn't ever need any more than that. I got that job and I remember thinking if I could just get that full time job that paid $12.00 an hour and offered health insurance I would be set. I got that job and began searching for a way to just make $40,000 a year. The pattern continues through out my life. I reach what I thought was the goal and a new goal appears. I could recite a similar pattern with things. If I only had this car or that phone or this television life would be grand! It feels like it is never-ending because it is never-ending. Money and things never bring conte...

17 weeks. 1142 Mile. 146 hours of running. 95,135 calories. One 30 mile run and 9 runs of 20 miles or more. Average pace 7:41. 25 hours of strength training. This sums up the work I put in for the 26.2 miles I ran at the 2013 Carmel Marathon on April 20th. Friday on my lunch hour I drove to the Monon Center in Carmel IN for packet pickup. Not much to say about this except that trying to squeeze it into a long lunch resulted in undue stress. Also this didn't allow me  time to stick around and explore. But in the end I guess that's OK. Friday evening we headed out for some serious carb loading. With the taper and my efforts to load up on carbs over a 3 day period, I wasn't really hungry but I ate that pasta like a trooper anyway knowing that I would need it in about 12 hours. Sleep Friday night was spare. A sick dog and a wife finishing up her last semester for a Bachelors degree kept the house hopping until about 11:30. No problem, if you follow my training on dailymile  y...

"Blessed is the one whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit. Because I kept silent, my bones wasted away; I groaned all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer heat. Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my transgression to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:1-5 One week of Lent remains. This is a great time to rediscover the Sacrament of Reconciliation or as it is commonly called confession. Most parishes will be offering extended and extra time for parishioners to receive the sacrament. I know it can be daunting if you haven't been in a long time. You don't remember the formula and you're nervous about telling someone else what you did and what that will make them think of you. To help you the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop...

It's sad to think that people put God aside and miss out on a life of faith because ultimately they feel they are unworthy. None of us can ever be worthy! And thank God we don't have to be. Psalm 6 and a very good reflection . Enjoy.

I have been stunned every time the Holy Father has spoken. Usually it is because he has a way of communicating the truths and nuances of our faith in a way that always resonates with me. The faith, as Pope Benedict XVI conveys it, always seems so simple, beautiful and undeniably true. However, today I am stunned by his resignation. As much as I am stunned, I am saddened. I have great admiration and respect for the Pope and as I stated above he has always spoken in a way that really "speaks to me", so to speak. I believe Pope Benedict XVI was exactly the right Pope for where we are, both the Church and humanity as a whole, at this point in history not only because he spoke, taught, and lived the truth of our faith unapologetically, but also because he was very effective at being able to communicate that truth. Even though I am saddened that we will be losing this Pope, I have always believed in the supernatural guidance of the Church and therefore I must look with Hope and J...

The first phase of training for the Carmel 2013 Marathon is complete. This phase is called the endurance phase and lead me through a build up in mileage from running 55 to 80 miles in a week. I am now in the last few days of a recovery week where my mileage and intensity is purposefully cut so that my body can respond to the stimulus provided and make the adaptations needed to allow me to run more with less fatigue. This will be valuable in the next phase as I will increase the intensity of running while maintaining and even increasing the distance in order to teach my body run further, faster. In looking back at this period of training which began on 12/23/2012 I have logged about 350 miles at an average pace of 7:41 / mile for a total of over 41 hours of running. My average distance is about 8 miles per run with the longest run being 21.1 miles. The average of 8 miles per run doesn't really tell the story though as the runs tend to be either 12 - 15 miles or 5 miles. About once...