The following comes from a Mar. 28 story by Trent Baettie in the National Catholic Register.
….Something else that really helped to shape me as a young Catholic was the availability of retreats. I was able to go on and even lead some retreats while at Bishop Manogue High School in Reno, Nev., so those experiences helped to solidify my connection with God. When I went to the 2012 Catholic Athletes for Christ retreat, I was able to learn even more than I had previously.
That 2012 retreat was where I met Justin De Fratus, a pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies. We discovered that we had a lot in common, so we kind of stuck together that weekend.
You were also able to go on that retreat with Jeff Suppan, who played with you for a year while he was with the Padres in 2012, right?
Yes, Jeff is a great man who isn’t shy about laying out the faith with anyone at any time. There’s a story from the 2012 season, when we were doing pitcher fielding practice. It was after we had been to a Bible study with some other players and were discussing how Catholicism is very biblical.
While the other guys started to become quiet as they did the drills, Jeff kept talking about the Catholic faith. Even as he was going through his pitching motion and scooping up balls in the infield, he was still going on about one aspect or another of Catholicism. I was very impressed with his multitasking abilities, which made it possible to play baseball and evangelize at the same time.
Jeff is an awesome guy who has been a great example to me of how to carry myself as a baseball player and a man. The same is true with Mark Kotsay, whose house I got to stay at last season. Being around Mark and his family was one of the few bright spots from last year, as I was grinding along, recovering from surgery….
To read the entire story, click here.
Sports and other activities are fine and wholesome, as long as they do not become false gods. It is like everything; too much of anything is wrong. We can have hobbies, but they must not become the major reason for our existence. In the Old Testament, it was the pagans, and not the Jews, who were sports minded. The main point in our lives MUST be God; family comes second, country third, and all other things fourth. The first commandment is to love God above all things; then comes our neighbor. Up until the 60’s, sports were not played on Sundays. It was the Dallas Cowboys who began playing on the Lord’s Day. Now Little League, and all the school sports are more important than going to church and what is learned in the classroom. The boy scouts and the girl scouts taught team work, but now it is ‘god ball’ that everyone is interested in. Until we get our priorities in order, and put God first, we shall continue our downward slide into a cultural and moral disaster.
https://vontrapp.wordpress.com/category/celebrating-with-the-family-in-heaven/the-land-without-a-sunday/
CATHOLIC ANSWERS LIVE will have a show called “The Spirituality of Sports” on Catholic radio on Monday the 14th. The host will be Bishop Thomas John Paprocki.