1400 Miles from Home--and a Little

Today, I came back after my injury, ran 18 miles on the NCR trail at a 7:58 pace, and am now up to 1402 miles for the year.  Pretty cool to be up to that many miles already.  I am still on US 54 taking the long road through Kansas toward my ultimate destination.  The next time I'll be on a road other than US 54 I will be in Oklahoma on my virtual pilgrimage.  

Today's Gospel reading at church was one in which Jesus asks the disciples "who do you say that I am?"  The priest put this in a really interesting context.  He pointed out that if we don't try to give it some context then it is just an interesting historical reading and not tied to our lives today--which it should be.  Instead, he encouraged us to wonder why Jesus would ask this question. Was he insecure?  Was he curious?  Did he want to see what he had accomplished so far in terms of their understanding?  

No simple answers.  But Peter gave him an answer that led Jesus to announce that Peter would hold the keys to the kingdom of heaven. 

Notably, Fr Ray did point out a series of things that I found very interesting.  Knowing how well we are known by those around us is a natural thing to want to explore.  Partners (husbands and wives or any other variety) would want to know about each other.  Parents and children.  Friends.  Coworkers.  Many people would want to know what someone else thinks of them.

And the interesting thing is that the better you know the other person, the better you usually know yourself.  Everything I know about someone else can get turned into a question about myself.  Do I agree with this  if I don't, where do I stand?  Why?  What difference does it make?

And the most important way to learn--spend time.  I spend time with my running friends on the pavements or on the trails.  I spend time with Sherry in parenting, when we go out together, when we spend time just talking as couples do.  I learn about my children through spending time with them.  In the car.  In the kitchen.  Doing chores.  I learn about my faith by spending time.  Over the years I have read, studied, participated in student organizations, gone to mass, played in a worship band at mass, been a Eucharistic minister, taught Sunday school, and now serve on parish council.  All ways to learn about God.

But there are so many ways to learn about God.  When Father Ray asked if I'd seen or heard God this week, I could have said yes.  God is clearly present on the NCR trail--the natural beauty, peace, and serenity.  God is present in my son helping me to get bandaged after my fall.  God is present in my son getting ready to move into a dorm for his freshman year tomorrow.  God is present in so many ways in my life.  A bigger plan.  A bigger theme.  A call to follow and serve.

And while I was out on the trail today, I saw a number of people.  My friend Sandy was running north as I was running south and turned long enough just to say hello.  There were many other runners. Some made it as far north as I did from the same start.  Others I saw only as I was running south at quite a pace.  

And the most interesting thing I saw and a good opening line:

The morning's run had many interesting facets--the fact that the sun was not over the horizon as he started his first run since the injury and yet he went full speed ahead, the run all the way to the nine mile marker which he so rarely reaches for fear of boredom on a nine mile out and back run, and the two gentleman walking each with a pair of waders slung over his shoulder but with just one fishing pole between them as they prepared to enjoy a day fishing on the river.    

Through My Eyes on on Sunday Morning

This is a rewrite of yesterday's blog entry. Somehow when I was trying to get it to look better, the entire thing disappeared. So this is a quick rewrite on 1/13/14 of an entry initially written on 1/12/14. The key is that my day began at 5:30. I didn't wake Sherry up quite as early as she had hoped, but I did have a smoothie to her by 6. The, working with Daniel I had the cranberry sauce made and the start of a bread dough (was hoping for chewy rolls but it turned out to be more like focaccia) by 7 AM. Then, go ready to run and got a picture with my dog before the run. She was happy to see me ready to go outside but disappointed that I went without her.  You can see that I had my windbreaker on.  I was worried about the rain.  I took my phone with a camera with me.  I took pictures along the way, and thought about what I saw.  In short, the first picture was of the sun rising.  The second picture was just a little further along as you can see the first hints of yellow and orange at the horizon.  I originally went up Highwood, across Lake, down Chinquapin, up Northern, up the Alameda, and then across Regester.  The picture taken on Regester shows the sun hitting just the tops of the trees.  I love the contrasts.  I have written about contrasts many times.  The next picture was the end of the snow from after the Christmas season on Stevenson.  The snow fell just after the new year when some children were still on Christmas break from school.  The dirty snow represents the end of the season in one way.  The discarded tree on Gittings represents the end of the season in another way.  The next picture is a shot of the muted sunrise once I returned near home.  Mostly just a lot of gray and white.  Then my time.  A very easy run.  Then, two pictures with my dog after walking her.  One in which she surprised me and a second in which she was just showing her affection.  Then, the dough shaped into what I hoped would be rolls.  Later the rolls as they were baked.  Then, the rolls as they were served for lunch with brie and the cranberry sauce.  

The interesting thing between the completion of the run and walking the dog (the run brought me up to 72 miles from St Pius which puts me on PA 16 just west of I 81 and east of US 11 near Greencastle PA) was teachins Sunday school.  The chapter started out with Matthew 25:34-36 where Jesus talked about feeding the hungry and helping the thirsty, naked, ill, strangers, and prisoners.  We talked about that and we talked about Jesus's infancy (and being presented in the temple with Anna and Simeon recognizing him as the Messiah), then Jesus at the temple as a twelve year old, then Jesus teaching as an adult.  I got the kids to think about how they had grown in the church from infants to where they are now (singing, sitting still, paying attention, bringing up gifts) and what they might do as adults.  Some kids knew what they wanted to do.  Others struggled.  It was interesting to see what they came up with.

What a day!

The Spirituality of Advent, Christmas Day

So, it is 1 AM Christmas morning.  All the presents are under the tree.  99% of the dishes from Christmas Eve dinner have either been washed by hand or are in the dishwasher which is running as I write.  Dinner was a hit with all members of my family and with Kelsey.  We had Kelsey over the for afternoon during which she and Christopher walked the dog before we took the dog to the kennel and they got a great picture, she prepped for the music for mass with Christopher, she played Life with Daniel, and she then played flute at mass before enjoying dinner and gift exchange with us.

After dinner (quicker on Christmas Eve this year than most in the past) I took Joshua to an Anglican church where he was part of the choir that sang at a 10 PM mass including some carols before and the mass ended at around 11:30.  Since I had to drive home, I have not been able to shut down my mind.

So, since I have an interesting set of take away messages from the Catholic and Anglican services I attended yesterday, I figured I would just write.  Then get more sleep tomorrow.

In any case, the one common theme in both masses (particularly the homilies in each)--connection.

So, first let me talk about what I heard from Father Ray Chase at St Pius X at the 6 PM mass.  Father Ray first commented in his homily on how we still have all the trappings and activities that are associated with Christmas but we don't use the term Christmas so much. It is just "holiday this and that" rather than "Christmas this and that".  This, as he put it, suggests a lack of connection to anything with real meaning behind it, in other words, no connection to the "reason for the season".  

So, he suggested that he called the parable of the string after pulling a string from his wallet.  In his interpretation, Jesus is like a string.  He connects people--or ties them together.  He had more to say than the short synopsis I will give but he basically drew a line from overcoming a lack of connection to understanding to an outpouring of love to the world being a better place.  To me this relates to being a part of something bigger.  That is what leads to connection.  And when that happens, we connect with spirituality.  And when that happens, we can move behind many types of hard feelings as we are all on a path to being joined together.  He even commented that feeling connected and loved was a pretty basic human need and emotion.  Nothing at all religious about that.  A simple statement of a human need to feel fulfillment.  Without it, life is not the same.  With it, we can overcome many things.  

Father Ray also commented on how disconnected some of us are from ourselves.  In other words not feeling good about ourselves.  And he noted that feeling connected to Christ can help us to feel better about ourselves.  Thus, the importance of connection to God and connection to each other through our faith community.

Thinking back over the past month, I thought about connections to family, parish, music, and running.  Family these days starts with Sherry, includes our sons (of course), and includes Kelsey in many ways.  Particularly when we are lucky enough to have her come with us to a church experience.

Then, after the mass at our parish and dinner, I took Joshua to sing at an Anglican church. Just two days ago I was not completely pleased with having to go to Lessons and Carols a second time in a weekend.  But it turned out to be an incredible experience to see it a second time.  So, today, someone had to be responsible for taking Kelsey home and someone had to take Joshua.  While we originally thought of Sherry taking Joshua I ended up doing that.  

I especially enjoyed hearing him sing a solo verse of Once in Royal David's City that he had not sung at the Lessons and Carols celebration.  That was a real treat to hear my son sing that.  

Then, the service itself was very similar (but not identical) to the Catholic mass including a Gloria arranged by David Haas.  

Then, we got to the message after the gospel reading.  The Reverend David Drake made a really interesting point.  He mentioned that for the shepherds in the field who were told by the angels of the birth of a savior that the angels would have been a real surprise but the idea of having an unblemished child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger would actually not have been a foreign concept to them.  That was interesting.  His logic was that these were shepherds who would have been caring for the sheep who would be used as the Passover sacrifice.  These had to be unblemished lambs.  How do shepherds keep lambs unblemished when they are born?  By wrapping them in swaddling cloths and putting them in a manger.  Thus, this was a sign of what type of savior had been sent.

The Reverend was pointing out that God had found a way to communicate with the shepherds in a way that they would understand.   (Being in a business school now I thought of it as a study in marketing...)

The key was connection.

So, there are things about being connected to people and God connecting to people in ways they understand that provide good lessons for me.

In running (where all this blogging began), it means figuring out what matters to my fellow runners, being part of the running community, and then building relationships with my fellow runners from there.  It can be something as little as just deciding on a given Tuesday to run at the speed of others on the track just to help them or just carrying on a conversation for the better part of a 2 hour run.

For family--the most important source of connections--it means knowing what matters to my family and building on things that matter to both me and my family members to help us all move forward.

For teaching religious education, it is engaging in connection with parents of the children in my class  in a way that I have started to this year but never did before.  

But the key throughout is connection.  Connection to others.  Connection to God.  Connection to the other parts of the Holy Trinity.  And a realization that without the connections life is so much less.  And a realization of all that the connections can bring.  Connections to something bigger.  Something perfect.  Something that makes life more fulfilling and opens the doors to a spiritual life that are not open when one does not seek and take part in connections.  

"There is a lot of religion and spirituality that people don't talk about"

The other day I was listening to Maryland Morning on WYPR.  It is a morning news and information program.  They replayed an interview with Margo Adler (a voice familiar to NPR listeners) about paganism in the United States.  I had not realized that Ms. Adler is a Wiccan priestess.  The interview was not particularly about Wiccan practices, but more about spirituality in general and, in particular, spirituality that not everyone would necessarily be familiar with.

At about 3:23 in the interview, she was asked something like how religion fits into the current political discourse.  Her answer began with the quote that serves as the title for this blog entry.  So, before I take my own interpretation, it is critical to understand that she was making whatever comment she followed up with in the context of answering the question I described.

I believe she is right.  I believe there is also a converse--a lot of people don't spend much time at all talking about religion and spirituality.  Others spend a lot of time talking about it.  But there is a lot that people don't know about each other's practices, beliefs, or struggles beyond the basics of each religion's premises and practices that are part of our shared culture.

It caught my attention because I spend a lot of time thinking.  A lot of time struggling.  A lot of time trying to understand.  And I know that some of my friends do too.  We often come to different conclusions.  That is okay.  While some religions are based on the belief that it is possible to have a monopoly on the truth, I think that we can all agree that as individual humans none of us has a monopoly on the truth.  

What interests me is that within my own Catholic faith there are many who attend mass regularly but who don't have much to say about religion outside church.  I used to be that way.

Then I added teaching Sunday school.

Then I added playing in the worship band.

Now I blog.

All are ways to get in touch.  All are ways of sharing.  In Sunday school, I don't spend much time sharing my doubts.  I'll share the fact that some things remain a mystery, but I don't share my doubts with third graders.

When playing music that is not about doubts--that is about ways to increase the connection I (and hopefully others) feel with God through music.

When blogging, that is when I stop.  Think hard about what I believe.  Write it down.  Leave it for others to comment on.  And really listen for the whisper of God around me rather than what, as a child, I had always believed would come as a roar of revelation.  That is the type of spirituality and religious experience that I don't hear about much.  That is what I wonder how many other people have.