Howie Hain

Being a full person makes you a much better athelte. Being a full athlete makes you a much better person. It's like inhales & exhales: one without the other leaves you simply out of breath.

For many athletes, this week is about deloading and focusing on academics. In the end, it's all the same: Excellence.

Be great. Leave the winning to what's found after you've left a competition.

There are many athletes who win but are not great, but there are very few athletes that are great who don't most often win.

Don't ever forget that a substantial part of the example that a husband & father sets for his wife & children is being humble enough to know he needs to set time aside to nurture and better himself, or he won't be any good at the provision and protection that holds up so proudly.

This morning I am reminded of a huge life wisdom for dads:

Athletic Artists Live Ordered Lives. Wisdom. Challenge. Gratitude. Growth.

If you want to be a great athlete, a great human being, then study the lives of the great artists, writers, thinkers... it's all one and the same. Greatness knows now boundaries... it only breaks them... continually. Expand your life, always, and in every way.

I just sat outside and read a few pages of a beautiful, old book on the monastic life. Was completely absorbed. In God. With God. Inspired. Praise God. To remember what it's like to have Christ as a friend.

There are times when asking God for something is less humble than just calling it down. What I mean, and with fear and trembling, am suggesting, is that there comes a time in our faith journey when and where we need to act as Jesus, truly. And, yes, of course, Jesus called upon the Father, but Jesus also on His own authoity, the authority given to Him by the Father, corrected, condemned, healed, proclaimed, blessed, and exorcized. Jesus used the power given to Him to bring the Kingdom within hand's reach... "on earth as it is in heaven." When we refuse to utilize the tremendous power handed over to us, by the Father, thru the Son, and with the Holy Spirit, but instead plead with one of the three persons of the Holy Trinity to do it instead, we are actually displaying a lack of faith, a false humility. We are not accepting our adult spiritual lives. We are living in our parent's basement and afraid to move out on our own. Do we really believe? Can we truly act in Jesus' name? Should we? Dare we? While we question, many suffer and suffer the worst of suffering, the spiritual suffering of anxiety, of fear, of utter loneliness, of despair. Speak! Speak in the name of Jesus, by the power of The Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, and rescue your neighbor... cast out crippling depression and fear... thrust into hell all those unclean, "evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls." Jesus wants us to be Him on Earth. You are a Jesus. So am I. Now, let's get to work. ---

@CynicalPublius Try The Last Kingdom on Netflix. It reminds us of what men were intended to be. My wife and I loved it and we re-watch random episodes when we need to "disappear" into a much-preferred God-intended reality.

So when I had my shoulder replacement surgery back in January and I couldn't do much (and was high on Percocet), I started binge watching sci-fi shows online (Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV+) and now even though I'm better I can't stop. So far I've watched: -The Expanse. -Westworld. -The Arcane (I'm not really an animation fan but this was amazing). -Mr. Robot. -Firefly. -Foundation. So I just finished Foundation through Season 2 (yes I know season 3 starts in a couple of weeks). But now I'm looking for a new one because I'm addicted. Any suggestions?

Don't try to argue or convince. Tell people what you believe. If you have conviction, if you sit quietly with God, if you love silence and being corrected, then you will think and speak truth, and that is incredibly attractive. People will move closer. They will listen. They will evolve. It is not our effort to make people change that changes them. It is our authenticity and love of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty that changes us and all around us who live life with some degree of sincerity and integrity.

Just went to Mass and listened to the homily of an incredibly humble, sincere priest. As I listened, and I was moved, in the truest sense of the word, the word 'sincerity' came to me, loud and clear. Unfortunately, I've listened to many homilies where I felt quite the opposite, and this morning, it became abundantly clear that a lack of sincerity is an awful deficit, rampant in our "modern" world. The contrast is so strong that when we do experience somebody who is sincere and actually humble, we are struck, we sense a greatness, a substantial presence unlike those we are told are great through our endless forms of media. We see not a haughty, arrogant, self-serving "servant" or "leader" who is desperately trying to change the world. No, we witness a man who is walking in simplicity. We witness a man who is changing the world. ---

Those moments when coffee, sunlight, and bird chirps combine... God is never so real... and His thoughts, His wisdom, His love, never so soothing... if only the morning could last all day... ---

Strength is not optional. How we define it is.

It's okay to be totally obsessed with a pursuit, an action, a goal... as long as that total obsession is in Christ. "...through him, with him, in him..." For a true disciple of Christ, every "action" is sacramental, every "time" and "place" is liturgical, every "thing" is from God and shall return to God. Now go forth and be obsessed.