The CatholiCity Message
Volume VIII, Number 7 – October 28, 2004
How is excellent hitting in baseball like excellent prayer? We have that, a pleasant announcement, and an election prayer for you today.
1. THE BEST HITTING TEAM EVER
There are many reasons why the Boston Red Sox made history by coming back from being down three games-to-none to the Yankees followed by a nearly complete domination of the Cardinals, not the least of which was new ownership, intelligent management,
and the literally blood-red sock of an ailing and heroic pitcher named Curt Schilling. Red Sox players and fans deserve to enjoy the sweetest triumph in the history of sports after suffering for generations (a suffering which included the humiliation of having others take pleasure in their pain).
If you missed the games on television, or don't follow baseball closely, then you missed the opportunity to watch perhaps the most virtuous and disciplined display of hitting in the history of baseball by the Red Sox. Media hype about the Red Sox overcoming the so-called and silly "curse" will overshadow the fact that the Red Sox hitters have utterly decimated every record for runs scored over the past two seasons.
How does this apply to your prayer life, or lack thereof? Discipline in hitting comes by following the principle of not only avoiding swinging at bad pitches (balls), but not swinging at and/or "fouling off" difficult-to-hit strikes. Over the past several pressure-packed games, the Red Sox players, from top to bottom of their line-up, "swung and missed" fewer times than most teams swing and miss in several innings. This is a measure of their penchant for swinging only at "good" strikes–pitches they can hit hard.
As a result, they hit well against the best Yankee and Cardinal pitchers, drew more walks, hit more balls harder, and produced on average two or three more runs per game than most teams Have averaged over the past hundred years.
The Only-Swing-At-Good-Pitches principle is simple, but it is deceptively difficult to execute. The best pitchers strive to make their "strikes" appear to batters as balls, and their "balls" to appear to batters as strikes. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, this is why the television analysts talk so much about "changing speeds" and why so few pitches are actually thrown "straight." The best-thrown pitches change trajectory and velocity just before reaching the batter.
Before making our analogy to prayer, one must note that baseball, because of the difficultly level of hitting (where a mere 3 successes out of 10 is considered excellence), is a sport where unchecked emotion harms performance. Batters must concentrate. They must not "grasp" at swinging at baseballs screaming towards them at 90 miles per hour which "appear" to be strikes when they are not. The best pitchers play on the batter's emotional desire to "get a hit" to literally tempt him to swing at bad pitches. Angry players do not hit well. Despondent (and therefore distracted) players do not hit well. Pitchers must also keep their emotions in balance.
The spiritual life is similar to hitting because prayer is about receiving the gift God is always and everywhere offering us. The batter receives the pitch. We receive "pitches" from God. We enjoy union with Our Lord in prayer when we "receive" His grace. Prayer, which is the foundation for making prudent, non-emotionally-driven decisions in life itself, is about swinging only at the good pitches God is throwing to us.
Our relationship with God, unlike the relationship between a pitcher and a batter, is not adversarial. God the Father throws good pitches and good pitches only. If we lack virtue in this area, it's often because we're not even in His game. We're off in the world, swinging at "bad pitches" hurled at us by a seductive world of pleasure. Our desires to be well-thought-of, to own material things, to "own" earthly sexual pleasure, and, in general, serve our selfishness, lead to strike outs. These are disordered emotional desires. We swing wildly. We fail. We slump. We decide to abandon such a difficult and frustrating game–the game of life with God, which lasts for seven or eight decades. Christianity is also a team sport, and if the other folks on our team–our family and friends–do not support us by swinging only at good spiritual pitches themselves, it makes offering God a virtuous and holy life all the more difficult (but by no means impossible).
Daily contemplative prayer is about stepping up to the plate and receiving a good pitch. We can get a hit every time if we go before the Blessed Sacrament or find a quiet place in our homes or at work, and receive what God offers. But we must stop swinging at the bad pitches the world throws at us first.
Someone once said, "If you love God, you will pray. If you don't pray, you don't love God." The Red Sox curse was an illusion. The real curse, the curse of Adam and Eve, is real. Sometime back, we sent CatholiCity Citizens a simple, practical, and heartfelt encouragement called "Giving God Twenty" to help you begin or improve your daily contemplative prayer life. If you read it, did the seed take root in your life? Or did it fall on rock and get washed away?
If it got washed away, take heart. Do not despair. Take courage from the Red Sox, who kept battling that great force of evil (that is, the Yankees) for 86 years. Plant the seed again. Swing, batter. Below is a link to "Giving God Twenty" once again. If only one of the 60,000+ readers of this message steps up to the plate every day over the next year, it was worth all the tortured baseball analogies.
http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/macfarlane/givinggod20.html
How to Pray
The Most Popular Guide in the History of the World
Under 40 pages with larger print
and 1-page Reference Guide!
2. OUR PRE-ELECTION PROMISE: NO TAXES IN 2004
Because of your generosity last year combined with a year of hard work on our end to complete a technology and systems overhaul to make us even more efficient (a project now nearing completion), we will not conduct our "annual" Tax Drive in 2004.
Instead, we're considering switching to an even more low-key Lenten "alms drive" in 2005. We're especially grateful for our faithful monthly supporters, who form the financial backbone for our nuts and bolts plan to reach hundreds of millions of Catholics worldwide in the coming decade. If you would like to join these monthly heroes, go here:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/monthlydonor.html
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"The Red Sox are the most Catholic team. Every ten years they take you up Calvary and crucify you."
G.K. MacBrien
"Keep the faith."
Manny Ramirez, Red World Series MVP
3. THE FULCRUM
Our theme, everywhere and always, is that prayer changes the world. Most folks understand that the election next week will have implications for the entire world, perhaps for decades. For centuries? We'll find out long after we've shuffled off this mortal coil. As for us, we simple few, we 60,000, we can pray,
and pray together, for God's will to be done. Let us be the fulcrum that moves the world through the humility of asking Our Father for what we need, trusting that He knows best. Let's begin, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit..."
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, pray for us.
Saint Katharine Drexel and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.
Saint John Neumann, pray for us.
Saint Thomas More, Patron of Politicians, pray for us.
Saint Therese the Little Flower, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, Patron Saint of Canada, pray for us.
Immaculate Mary, Patroness of the United States, pray for us.
Jesus Christ, King of Kings, we adore you! Amen."
4. NEXT MONTH
An amazing offer. Keep your eye on your inbox. Pray. Vote. Love.
With Christ,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
