the saga continues…

My Catholic dilemma continues.

After the board said I needed a more detailed letter, I had my Priest write one for me. No problems, he said. “Anything else you need?” he said? Nope, I assured him. See you on Sunday!

 Turns out the much more detailed letter–honestly, he made me look like a Saint–wasn’t quite enough for the School board. They called me on Friday and said, “We got your new letter. Now we need you to go get it signed by the Pastor [i.e. the HEAD Priest] of the church.”

Now, the church I go to is really big, and they have over a dozen services/week, and a different Priest presides over each one. So…I don’t actually know the Pastor personally. Which put me in a tough spot.

According to a very respected Catholic teacher I know: “this is bordering on absurd.”

What happened next, though, convinces me that the bad press the Catholic Church has gotten over the years ["they just want your money!"], is completely inaccurate.

I went up to the Pastor today after Mass. “Father Bill,” I said. “I’ve got a bit of a problem.” And I explained my situation to him.  Without so much as blinking he responds [direct quote]: “I have a good feeling about you, my son. I’ll write that letter and you tell them to come to talk to me if there are any more problems. Is there anything else I can do for you?” What a wonderful man.

So it looks like I’ll get my letter (revised, and now revised again). If the board says again, “not good enough,” I’m going to have the Pope call them. That should suffice.

In other news:

r. I finished my second placement on Friday. I’m really going to miss my classes. I wrote them a poem using all of their names (I’ll post it later this week).

s. Ryan Krook’s stag was last night. We went to Medieval Times. Our knight was absolutely terrible, but Len’s halarious commentary made up for everything.

t. Bike riding in Toronto is the pits. I rode 60k outside (yeah for being outside!), as 5k ride to high park, 28loops of high park (2k per), 5k home from high park. 28. book it.

 u. 3 weeks until I move back to Guelph. I’ll miss this place, but I’ll talk about that another time.

strong and mighty

There’s this feeling I get when I run sometimes. It’s rare, but it feels good. It’s the feeling of running faster but hurting lesser (excuse the spelling).

Today I ran 15k at 3:43/km pace (really fast for me!) and it just felt wonderful.

As I ran through the beautiful countryside with the sun shining brightly, the wind blowing gently, and spring slowly unveiling, I couldn’t help thinking that the simplicity of life makes it worth living.

Blessings on this Easter Sunday!

not catholic enough

Today is Good Friday, and although this is the day that Jesus Christ did all he could to bring people closer to Him, something happened to me this week that seems to be symptomatic of why people struggle with the Church.

Here’s the sitch.

I got a call this week from a Catholic school board asking me for an interview. Since teaching jobs are wicked hard to come by right now, this is fantastic. They did have a condition, though. That condition was that I go back to the Priest who wrote my reference letter because the first letter he wrote “didn’t sound Catholic enough.” That surprises me, because I do a lot of religious-type things. What the board wants, however, was a list—yes, a list—of everything I do in the church. And that’s so awkward—listing the good stuff I do.

I mean, before my man JC left this world for the Big Show, he said things like, “when you do good, do not let your right hand know what your left is doing” and “when you pray, do so in secret”and “don’t do anything just to be seen by anyone” (except God, of course). So when the board says, “you’re not Catholic enough: go make a longer list and then we might hire you” something feels really awkward. 

And as usually happens, this stuff seems to work itself out when I’m punishing myself in the water or on the road.

So I was rolling through a set of9X300s yesterday (holding 3:30ish in the yards pool), and a 12k tempo run off the bike today (47:00 flat), and something about an awkward stroke here, and a clumsy stride there reminded me of my Catholic dilemma.

Sometimes following an invisible God is just plain awkward. There are moments when I’m rolling (kilometers six through nine, for instance), but then the wind at kilometer ten makes the whole thing really difficult, and clumsy feeling. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going in the right direction.

My point is this: I know I can make the greatest difference in the Catholic school board. So even if it feels a little awkward, I have to keep rolling, or stroking, or striding [pick your metaphor]. If I fix my sights on the end goal, the means are just the details.

And let’s hope my priest thinks I am Catholic enough. 

greasy fast itallian

I learned two important lessons today. 

1. If I run with the best distance runners in Canada for more than 10k, I’ll suffer badly for the next 10k.

2. If that second 10k is straight into the wind on some wicked rolling hills, I’ll suffer even more. 

In other words: I ran with the Speed River boys today and 21k later am feeling like I got hit by bus, a very large one.

I followed up the run with a 2:30 ride while I watched Rocky hammer Apollo (twice), and crack the Russian (but only once). It’s hard not to be motivated when Mickey is screaming, “You can beat him because you’re tank. You’re a greasy fast, 200 pound Itallian tank.” I can relate. So I pedal on.

Night ended at M and J’s fine dining and a game of “Things.” Thankfully, “hippo-porn” only came up half a dozen times. That’s much less than last time.

what is healthy?

I saw Bon Jovi last night. AMAZING. Really, really. Cannot describe now amazing. I’ll post pictures and sing-along videos shortly. My Dad texted me on the way—“have healthy fun.” It was loud, and wild. But it was healthy.

I’m home in Guelph for March Break. I’ve been able to put in some decent workouts. I ran 10k off a 2hour bike the other day and averaged 3:42/k. So that’s sweet. I honestly think I run faster after riding, than without riding.  Tomorrow calls for a 400m swim TT tomorrow, and maybe a long bike OUTSIDE!  Sunday brings a long tempo run with my incredibly fit brother, and that means I’ll be limping until at least Wednesday. I’m getting professional coaching starting in April, so I’m hoping I’m not doing too much damage to myself right now.Enjoy the sunshine this weekend.

don’t make a big deal when you see me (left lobe)

and that really hurt

I did my usual tempo run this morning on the treadmill (all that snow is getting to be a little annoying). I ended up going 12miles at just over 6min/mile, and I felt (and probably looked) like the kid in this video.

I went to the bike show this afternoon and lusted on all that I’ll never be able to afford. I found a Discovery Channel jersey for 20bones so I hit that.

I’m off all week for March Break and my bro has hooked me up with some Bon Jovi tickets for Thursday night. I like to think I’m living on a prayer (get it?), but this is more like a miracle.

chopping.

I added to my vocabulary this week. My grade 12’s (who are way too cool for school) have done a fantastic job at keeping me up-to-date on how the English language continues to evolve. This week’s word was “chopping.”The word came up when the really pretty young teacher visited our class to pick up some books. As soon as she left, the kids said, “Come on sir, that’s all you. You chopping her?” Thinking this was some vulgar term for sex, I gave them an un-amused look and moved on. But they were not done.

Chopping, the young men informed me, is the act of persuading a girl that he is worth going out with. Chopping does NOT involve physical intimacy of any kind. It is not about sex [they were very clear about that]. Chopping is “everything up to the girl saying yes.” Chopping stops the moment the girl says yes. I don’t know what it’s called after that, but I’m sure I’ll find out shortly.  

I beat the blizzard back into the city last night, swam 3200m, biked 60minutes, made a massively greasy stir-fry, and went to bed really early (booyah for 11hours of sleep!).

Today I had nothing to do except train: 2.5hours on the trainer and 5k solo in the pool = borrrring.

Currently I have a dilemma. I want to go to Florida to train for a week but I’m pretty broke. The C3 coach gave me an amazing deal, but it’s still cash I don’t have. I talked to my friend Amy yesterday and we’re seriously considering a bank hiest. How hard can that be? And the payoff would be enormous. So I’ll keep you posted as our plans develop.

I’m going to walk up to Bloor now. I’m bored and the snow looks like it’s kind of stopped. Nothing beats a crisp winter night.

today

Today was a good day. Funny thing is, the simplicity of my days seems to make them all good. 

I woke up at 5:45am (gross). 4 minutes later I was on my bike (in my apartment). About 1/2 hour later I woke up for good, realized I was still peddaling, and spent the next 60 minutes attacking like no one’s business. Lance didn’t know what hit him. 90minute ride, book it.

I quickly made my blueberry oatmeal, raced out to the car, and spent 15minutes digging it out from the avalanche of snow that hit last night. I made it safely to my practicum school an hour later, mostly thanks to my dad’s text messages that “snow makes the road slippery” and “the traffic in Toronto is bad today.”

Good day at school. I taught the grade 10s “Macbeth,” and the grade 9s “Romeo and Juliet.” Super pumped that the niners had a great convo about the difference between lust (”what a playa’ does”) and love (”what a real man does”). I don’t know if they all got it, but it again confirmed why I love working with students.

Ended the school day with a grade 12 course. Since many students were away because of the snow, we had a pretty chill day, watching parts of a modern version of “Othello.” Things got interesting when one student blurted out, “Yo, sir. You juicing this weekend?” (you getting hammered?). Forgetaboutit.

Second workout of the day was a decent swim set. I haven’t been in the water in almost 2 weeks (because of a half-marathon I ran) so I struggled with a main set of 21X100 (6 on 1:40, 5 on 1:35, 4 on 1:30, 3 on 1:25, 2 on 1:20, and 1 on 1:15). I held 1:20’s almost the whole way which was oke-do-ke for me.

Ended the day with a 12-inch meatball on parmesan oregano, a bible study about passion, and some lesson planning. Tomorrow Romeo will be taking Juliet into the bedroom and I can’t wait to see how the 9s take that.

what’s the dif?

I went to Catholic mass today. I’ve been going all year, in fact. I

 am a Christian, but lots of different kinds of people have asked me if I’m Catholic. Sure, I tell them. I was raised by Italians…so culturally, at least, I’m covered. But what does it mean to be Catholic? Or Protestant? Or some kind of hav-cies?

Isn’t it all about setting your eyes on God, and then consistently and diligently moving in that direction? It seems that most people make their distinction based on doctrine, or tradition (most commonly, based on what happens on Sunday mornings). I’m not a theologian or a historian, but it seems that the original church body was unified at some point. Then Protestants and Catholics split. Then Protestants and Protestants split, while Catholics and Catholics did the same. [insert thousands of more splits emoticon]. Now we have 33,000 denominations (says the World Christian encyclopedia) that all came from that original church, Jesus’ church.

At mass I know what to expect. I know I’m going to arrive late, sing, sit, respond, sit, stand, respond, listen, kneel, shake, have communion, kneel, sit, stand, sing, kneel, and then go home. If nothing else, the Catholic church is consistent.

And that’s what I like about it. Sure, they don’t change much. But they have set their eyes on God, and are then consistently and diligently moving in that direction.