Who is the Patron Saint of Runners?
theophilus May 3rd, 2009
I ran a half-marathon this morning. Had a very strong run; a run I hadn’t expected to have because my training over the past few months has been sporadic and inconsistent as I’ve battled a wet and cold Midwestern winter and spring.
But on one of my final training runs this week, I realized that I was dwelling on all of the miles I hadn’t run, instead of the miles I had run. And that is when I realized that I couldn’t do a darn thing about the miles missed; it was too late to make them up four days away from a race. What I could do was focus on the miles I did put in and use them as the springboard for a good race.
And I couldn’t help but think; that is what Christ wants us to do in life. He wants us to forget about the mistakes made and the opportunities missed; and focus instead on the things we do right and the future ahead. We can either let the faults of the past weigh us down and keep us from doing his will; or we can ask for and accept his forgiveness and mercy and use him as the impetus for being the disciples we are supposed to be. It’s why Christ gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation; to accept and atone for what we did wrong and then to move on.
I also thoughts of two things in my race today. The first is that the course passed three Catholic churches. I said a little prayer and made the sign of the Cross as I passed each of them; thinking of Christ inside on this blessed Sunday morning. I then noticed that I started running a lot faster; as if the Holy Spirit was giving me a little push. The other thing I noticed is that I couldn’t think of a patron saint for runners; so I think I am going to start a movement to have St. Peter and St. John named as such because of their foot race to Christ’s tomb on Easter morning.
St. Peter and St. John pray for us; and may my muscles be able to move in the morning.
I was just at my Church tonight with my parents. My mom brought me, saying that there was a man there we were going to see that received messages from God and would tell us Saints we should pray to. I decided to go with her and we waited for about an hour and a half for our turn with this man (there was a lot of people). When he came to us, he prayed over my mom and dad first. He then told them a little about themselves and then gave them Saints to pray to to help with any things going wrong or things we needed help in. He knew about my dads sore back (which I didnt even know about!) and a project he was working on, and how my mom was a perfectionist and knew a good Priest friend of his. Then it was my turn, I gave him my name and he began to pray. He then looked at me and said
“Your a runner, arent you?”
I couldnt keep from smiling and answered yes. He told me to pray to Saint Paul, who he said is the patron Saint of runners. He then told me other Saints to pray to, one of which would help me with a stress fracture I recently got and that would help me with my injury. One of the things I found most funny a long with the runner thing was as he said good-bye and was moving onto the next person, he looked back and said:
“Oh, and you hate writing.”
He couldnt have been more right, never do I enjoy writing any essays, except for one I wrote about running.
I didnt mean to end up writing this whole novel, but I felt that I should share this experience I had tonight, as well as to say that St. Paul is the Saint youre looking for for your running. I hope this Helps.
God Bless.