From the Field to Faith: Three Ways to Inspire, Teach and Reach Students

Good teachers are forever seeking to make connections to everyday life, to what helps students learn and remember and what takes ahold of their hearts and minds. They know their students and their interests, so I'm never surprised when I get asked from teachers, administrators, and catechists how to incorporate sports and spirituality into the curriculum. There's no secret sauce, but here are three simple and practical ways. Let's go!

1. Humor
What parishioner doesn’t enjoy a homily that begins with a good joke? It immediately puts the congregation at ease and prepares us to receive the message. Humor is an important pedagogical tool for it helps us to open our ears and ideally our hearts. 

I'm not sure we use humor enough in the classroom. One of my colleagues made it her PEERS teaching goal to laugh more with her students. We wondered if this were a lofty goal. It's certainly a worthy one. 

One of the joys of sports is the way it invites and invokes humor. Rivalries, the culture of professional, collegiate and local teams, the personalities of athletes let alone their names offer a treasure trove of creative ideas, possible pundits, jokes and more. Because sports are dynamic—showcasing humanity at its best and its worst—it’s not surprise that is serves as a stage where the absurd and the inspiring coexist. We laugh at the blunders as much as we marvel at brilliance. We have to.

I woke up this morning jacked from the 34-24 Notre Dame win over our rival, USC. I read this post by my friend Jim and I laughed out loud. 

A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.   

Love is patient, love is kind. Love ran for 228 yards against the Trojans.

The word of the Lord.

☘️ Credit to SoCaliDomer @ndnation.com 

Christians are quite familiar with this passage from St.Paul. And ND fans are very familiar with the success of Irish running back Jeremiyah Love. 

Thanks for posting that quote, JC. I always enjoy what you write!

In class, we are studying the Church's historical engagement with sport. The text states, "Jesus offers no explicit commentary on sport in the four canonical Gospels. However, Saint Paul on multiple occasions invokes the motif of running as a metaphor of discipleship, most commonly in his repeated injunction to not running in vain. (p 15)" Having fun with scripture keeps it lively...and Paul was right to write...

2. The Analog
In the St. Vincent de Paul parish newsletter, my pastor, Father Arturo, shared a message that beautifully connects athletics with the spiritual life. He draws an analogy between what athletes require to succeed and what faith calls forth in us. He writes:

Many athletes can tell us how important stamina is to their success. In the closing minutes of a game, it can often come down to who still has the energy to do their best. Persistence in their will power and athletic talent can often determine the winner. Saint Paul said: "I have competed well. I have finished the race; I have kept the faith."

Often, our faith requires stamina as well. Beaten down by tragedies, failures and disappointments, is our faith strong enough to enable us to persist living God and loving our neighbor? Is our faith strong enough to pursue justice and peace? Is our faith strong enough to persevere in prayer even though our prayers can seem unanswered? Remember: "Sometimes, God shuts the door to us but He opens the window."

As we celebrate the Jubilee Year, may hope sustain our stamina to the end of our days.

With a Prayer, 
Father Arturo Albano, Pastor

Theology is faith seeking understanding. Metaphors like the one Father Arturo and Saint Paul offer are more than helpful tools. They invite and enable the faithful to reflect upon their own experiences to understand God in a new and personal way.

Catholic spirituality is characterized as a both/and proposition. It is not dialectical; it does not embrace an either/or way of seeing the world. God is both in Church and in sport. This point of view underscores how and why a "theology of sport" is valuable and worthy of further study.

3. God Speaks to Every Element...|
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit priest, philosopher, and paleontologist wrote, “God speaks to every element in the language it can understand” Amen.

God is always seeking to connect with us, reach us and find us. God speaks our language—we need not speak God's. For me, that language is sports. I grew up in a home that embraced sport. We watch sports, participate in them, have coached and refereed sports. But not everyone speaks sports. And, among those of us who do, we may speak a common language but there are dialects and accents. 

However, many of us speak several languages. I would love to teach Spirituality and Rock n Roll. I think my mom could teach a class called Spirituality and Gardening. To me, the analog is so obvious and invitational. And, that's my point. As a teacher, you might not find metaphors between Sports and Spirituality easy to create but you might have a few one goods for Spirituality and Cooking or Spirituality and Art. In short, don't let sports get in the way of spirituality—find what resonates with you and run with it (pun intended).

In Conclusion
I love talking Sports and Spirituality. I am always looking for new ideas, lesson plans and ways to connect with my seniors. No semester is the same because sports is always changing—and so are the spiritual lives of the young people in my class and mine, too.

Teaching is demanding and rewarding. It is challenging but fun. Keeping laughter, creativity and connection in the classroom make it that much better. I'm grateful to teach this language and way of connecting to God. 

Photo Credits
J-Love
Sports Theology
The Fit