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

Sports and Spirituality: Making Teaching Fun Again

I asked a few colleagues at lunch the other day, "When is teaching fun?" I heard answers like "when you are not grading." Someone else said, "when you are not giving detention for dress code." I didn't get the information I was seeking. And then I realized that no one should ask this question at the end of the third quarter. Timing is everything, right?

Here's the good news. In spite of the grind and the rampant senioritis, I have answers. Teaching is fun when I get to engage with my favorite topics, play with ideas, make connections, think creatively and invite young people to come along. For me, it fun to teach and talk about culture, language and of course sports and spirituality. 

Though I do teach Sports and Spirituality, a senior elective in the Religious Studies department, one need not have a class dedicated to the topic alone. I think there is a way for every teacher to incorporate what they love into their curriculum. There's a lot to be said for the teacher who is enthusiastic and passionate about the subject. #Differencemaker. 

So to keep some, if any, fun in teaching—give this a go. You can use this information at the beginning of class as students settle in or as a fun way to wrap up the period. Whether or not you are an educator, each one offers something to think about. Enjoy.

Opening Day, South Korea and Population Demography

March 20 marked Opening Day for Major League Baseball. If you feel the need to put an asterisk by that, I unerstand. For 28 of the 30 MLB teams, Opening Day is not until Thursday, March 28. To further complicate matters, MLB teams have the home opener (if their team starts on the road), Opening Night and Opening Day. I have written about this misnomer before. Regardless, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers traveled to Seoul for a two game road stand in what is the first time an official MLB game has been played in South Korea.

A number of questions should follow:

1. Why South Korea?
2. Why those two teams?
3. Does having more than one Opening Day compromise the significance of the tradition?

A few answers: For one, baseball has exploded in popularity in South Korea. As noted by sportswriter Jee-ho Yoo, "People just love baseball here." Turns out the country has produced 28 MLB players and the first to be drafted in the United States. Chan-Ho Park, who pitched in MLB for nine years, threw out the first pitch—wearing a dual team jersey. Perhaps that is why those two particular teams made the cross-Pacific flight to what is the sixth largest metro area in the world.

Sixth largest!? Yes, Seoul is home to 24.3 million people. I think it's valuable to teach and share population demongraphy. Ask students if they have been to Seoul.  Invite students to guess the other answers.

Thank you to YahooSportsAM for the material...and the hint: The five largest metro areas are in Japan, India, Indonesia, China and the Philippines.

Answers:

• Tokyo, Japan (36.5 million); 
• Delhi, India (30.1 million); 
• Jakarta, Indonesia (29.8 million); 
• Shanghai, China (26.9 million); 
• Manila, Philippines (25 million)

Most students got two or three out of the five. And, I had but a handful of Opening Day purists. Students think it is good to grow the game and give international exposure.

Feel free to research the faith traditions of those countries named. I guessed higher, but Korea is 11.9% Catholic. 

A Different Kind of Holy Week
The 2024 Masters will take place April 11-14. The events that preceed the first major of the year are magnificent; each one steeped in tradition. It starts in Augusta’s clubhouse on the Tuesday night of tournament week with the Champions Dinner. The reigning champion sets the menu and gets to pay the bill for this elite dinner party. Past winners only.

The 2023 winner Jon Rahm who hails from Bairika Spain created a menu that reflects his Basque heritage. My mouth started watering and I recalled traveling to the Northeast part of Spain to walk the Camino Ignaciano. Each day concluded with a delicious meal featuring cured meats and flavors much like what you see here.

Ignatius of Loyola, the patron saint of the school where I teach and the founder of the Society of Jesus is also Basque. Having lived over 500 years ago, it can be challening to relate to his identity, personality and humanity, too. However, food is a fundamental for connection. It speaks to culture without words....all taste buds.

March Madness
I came to find out that "eight schools in this year's men's NCAA tournament have won multiple national championships." Thanks again to YahooSportsAM. This weekday resource asked me to name them (hint: three are in the same state), I started to wonder if any Catholic colleges made the cut. Negative.

I then considered what Catholic University has the most NCAA championships. I held on to hope that my alma mater has that locked in for the women's tourney. The Irish do, with two titles in 2001 and 2018. For the men, the answer is difiifferent. Want to guess? Villanoa has three. Impressive.

When speaking about Catholic schools in this context, I always find it worthwhile to teach about the religious communities that founded them— the Augustinians at Villanova and the Congregation of Holy Cross at Notre Dame. Invariably that information is news to people. So much so that Sister Jean Lenz, OSF included an anecdote about this perception in her book "Loyal Sons and DAUGHTERS: A Notre Dame Memoir." 

It's hard to imagine that I knew nothing about the Congregation of Holy Cross and its relationship to the University of Notre Dame during my adolescence on the South Side of Chicago. I suspect if anyone tested me along the way, I might have guessed Notre Dame was run by the Jesuits, a belief which fits into that somewhat legendary story about how the Jesuits took a poll to find out—among other things—which of their universities was considered the most well know, only to discover that Notre Dame had landed the top spot. 

Furthermore, it has always been surpring to me how many people thought I went to school "back East." South Bend, Indiana is as midwest as it gets. Why not get students to locate each school on a map? South Bend sits on the SOUTH bend of the St. Joseph River. Sometimes life makes sense....

I hear it often: I would love to teach Sports and Spirituality! Others tell me they wish they could take a class on Sports and Spirituality. Here! Here!  Wth this blog post, I hope I got your mind thinking of ways to get those synapses flying, your noggin moving and face smiling. There's always a lot to learn. Why not make it fun?!

Photo Credits
Chan Ho Park, Opening Day and MM Trophy
Menu

An Additional Lens for Sports Fans: Art But Make It Sports

This question is going to sound ridiculous. Hear me out. When you go to a game or watch sports on TV, what are you looking for? Obviously you aim to see an athletic contest, a victory and a defeat, a display of talent, athleticism, grit, good sportsmanship, and so forth. But what else do you pay attention to? A specific athlete? the star players? I would argue that what captures our imagination reflects who we are and is worth further consideration. Though I have long believed this to be true, PBS Newshour brought this to light in meaningful and unique way.

Part of me thinks it's amazing that anyone goes to games anymore. Between the cost, the time and effort, let alone the comfort of my couch and the high def of my TV screen—it is just so easy to stay at home. Another part of me is amazed at how many people do in fact not only go to gamea but watch them on TV, live-streamed and more! Clearly, sports offers us something more than entertainment. It is not a mere diversion. So what is it that we are seeking? What are we finding?!

If you are a coach, it's hard not to pay attention to how other coaches comport themselves before, during and after the game. How do they talk to their players? How do they respond to bad calls? to mistakes their athletes make? As someone related to referees, I can't help but take notice of the zebras on the gridiron and the hardwood. Do they move the game along? How often are they talking to athletes and to coaches? For my friends in the dean's office at school, I know they are always looking at how other student bodies demonstrate school spirit—both in what they say and how they say it. And, as a teacher of Sports and Spirituality, I am perennially on the hunt for moments of grace, inspiration, selfless play, undeniable sportsmanship, respect, stories and more. This blog has been in the works since 2009 because I have found it. 

But I never find it on my own. Quite often friends, family, fans and colleagues share ideas, examples, stories and situations that might resonate with my vision of sports. For example, on #SuperSickMonday, the day after Super Bowl LVIII, a colleague shared a segment from PBS Newshour about an artist who pairs photos from sports games with nearly identical paintings from history (often religious). According to their social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, and a website), Art But Make it Sports aims to "turn Art into Sports (and vice versa) | “Everything I didn't know I needed" - follower testimonial | No AI used | See inspiration? DM/tag us." This digital media project was launched in 2019.

I strongly recommend that you watch the video for yourself.  (Here's the link. Hopefully it gets you to the time stamp, but if not, the piece begins at 48:55). The curator, LJ Rader admits "I try to see things through a sports lens, even if it is a piece of fine art....trying to figure out what could that moment of art be in sports? What could I compare it to, image wise, that might make someone look at it and say "Yes. Yeah, I get it. I can see the parallels here?!" 

Rader admits that people are not used to seeing art and sport talked about (and put together visually). I have to admit, I hear the same exact thing when I mention sports and spirituality. His reasons for the connection he finds between the two aren't much different than mine. However, the spiritual life is often abstract and needs to be made visible and concrete. And yet, Rader enjoys the challenge of connecting abstract art with sports, as well.

I have told my students that one of my goals is to include a work of art (usually a painting or a sculpture...sometimes a photographic image or a song) into every class. Why? Christian Wiman, the author of "My Bright Abyss" explains it well. He writes, 

The purpose of theology, the purpose of any thinking about God, is to make the silences clearer and starker to us, to make the unmeaning — by which I mean those aspects of the divine that will not be reduced to human meanings — more irreducible and more terrible and thus ultimately more wonderful. This is why art is so often better at theology than theology is. 


Art But Make is Sports has not only made my job a whole lot easier, it has provided an additional less for how I see each game. 

Photo Credits
All images art from Art But Make it Sports.