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

Joy, Humor and Laughter in Sports & Spirituality

Looking at Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer during ALDS Game 5 last week, I couldn’t help but respond to my friend’s comment with a “bad” theology joke.  What’s up with his eyes? Whoa! One is so blue and the other is so dark.  He should wear a contact lens!  I turned to her with a straight face and said “he’s just like Christ.  Jesus sees us with two eyes—one human and one divine.”  I thought it was brilliant (another pun?).  Was it appropriate? I think so….

In case you haven’t noticed thanks to the popular writer, James Martin, SJ there’s been a movement toward emphasizing and recognizing the need for joy and laughter in the Catholic Church.  Fr. Martin may promote his latest book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life but he’s on to something. Being a Catholic is demanding—we must carry our cross, die to self and live the call and the challenge of the Gospel. But this doesn’t mean we need not find joy in the journey or a laugh along the way.  

Stephen Colbert, one of the more popular figures in mainstream media today is both a Catholic and a comedian.  His story moved me. “A Comedian and a Cardinal Open Up on Spirituality” explains why he does what he does.  It says, “Mr. Colbert is the youngest of 11 children, raised by Catholic parents who both attended Catholic colleges. His father and two of his brothers died in a plane crash when Mr. Colbert was 10. He said that after the funeral, in the limousine on the way home, one of his sisters made another sister laugh so hard that she fell on the floor. At that moment, Mr. Colbert said he wanted to make someone laugh that hard.”  French philosopher and Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. said, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.” Indeed God can be with us at the funeral of our parents or even at an event that brought together Timothy Cardinal Dolan and Stephen Colbert in front of 3,000 students at Fordham University on September 14, 2012. 

The New York Times reported that “The evening was billed as an opportunity to hear two Catholic celebrities discuss how joy and humor infuse their spiritual lives. They both delivered, with surprises and zingers that began the moment the two walked onstage. Mr. Colbert went to shake Cardinal Dolan’s hand, but the cardinal took Mr. Colbert’s hand and kissed it — a disarming role reversal for a big prelate with a big job and a big ring. The event would not have happened without its moderator, the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and prolific author who has made it his mission to remind Catholics that there is no contradiction between faithful and funny."

So in that spirit, I would like to share another example of what has brought me joy and laughter, even bemusement in sports and spirituality.  I encourage you to think of your own.

As many San Franciscans know, October is our warmest month of the year.  We finally have temperatures climb above 75 degrees for more than one day at a time.  This is a welcome thing, with exception. 

My path to cross country practice leads me from the women’s coaches’ locker room past the girls’ locker room and then…the boys’ locker room.  As the season progresses, an odor builds to the point that it penetrates the hallway.  Boys sweat and girls do too. But boys who play football wear pads that they do not wash. I have often wondered if a power hose could assuage the olfactory cocktail of dirt, blood and sweat.  On these days, I cannot help but thing of John 11:39. 

Jesus arrives at the home of Mary and Martha knowing their brother, his beloved friend Lazarus is dead. Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days."

I walk by that locker room and after I am assaulted by the stench. I can’t help but wonder what has been dead for four days.  I also want to know how boys are able to eat food in there.  Boys. 

This is just one of many ways to link the tradition, stories and experiences of our faith to our everyday experiences—good, bad and ugly.  Funny and joyful.  We can all use a little more of that!

Photo Credits
Max Scherzer
Cardinal and Comedian
Lazarus' Tomb

Can Anything Good Come Out of Citizen’s Park?

Philadelphia: for a brief period of time, the City of Brotherly Love, the home of Benjamin Franklin, Rocky, and the greatest sandwich in America, also served as our nation’s capital. Those who know and love it realize their National League Champion baseball team is getting a lot of attention, not for how they are performing, but how their fans are. On April 15, a 21-year-old fan allegedly vomited intentionally on the 11-year-old daughter of an off-duty cop, Easton Police Capt. Michael Vangelo. Less than one month later, 17-year-old Steven Consalvi ran on the field and was tasered by a cop. The Chicago Breaking News article Tasered teenager, family apologize to Phillies reports that “Consalvi’s zapping has been viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube, and it’s been a big talker with fans at ballparks far and wide in the past few days. Few have offered their sympathies.” My guess is by now, that number has doubled, if not tripled.

What strikes me in the video clip isn’t the impetuous yet (somewhat) likely decision of a teenage boy or the questionable use of the taser gun, but the reaction of Phillies’ first baseman, Ryan Howard. Behind the glove or not, clearly, he’s laughing. Some players are shaking their heads, others hold looks of amusement but Howard and many fans are cracking up. And, I found myself laughing with them and because of them. 

Said incidents have raised two questions for me 

1.  What qualifies as appropriate humor? 
2.  Can anything good come out of Citizen’s Park? 

I hope you read the humor in that! In his article Laughing with the Saints: Joy, Humor, and Laughter in the Spiritual Life James Martin, SJ writes "Jesus himself embraces people with a sense of humor or even sarcasm. You'll remember the story of Nathaniel, sitting under the fig tree when he is told by his friends that the Messiah is from Nazareth. Nathaniel says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Which is a joke about how backwards the city was. That doesn't bother Jesus one bit. In fact, it seems to delight him."There is an Israelite without guile!,"

Philadelphia has always been known for having tough crowds—the Vet had a jail inside the stadium to deal with unruly Eagles fans. I’m not truly worried about Philly aka "Filthy" and its sports fans. They too are without guile. I am however a little uncomfortable about my reaction to both events. I’m sorry, but I can’t read the response from Vangelo “it was the most vile, disgusting thing I've ever seen and I've been a cop for 20 years." and not start laughing. As Martin points out, Ecclesiastes 3:4 said there is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens…. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. I think it’s okay to ask ourselves is this an appropriate time to laugh? The choices of sports fans on the field and in the stands will continue to provide us with instances by which to determine “yes or no.” 

Perhaps better answers to my first question are the answer to the second. And if not, Philadelphia natives will be quick to point out, the boorish fan who threw up on the cop and his daughter is not from Philly, but south Jersey.

Photo credits
Phillies Incident
Eagles Fan