7
Introduction
As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve always been fascinated by professional
athletes. These are people who, for the most part, prepared their whole
lives to make it to the highest levels of their sport. They have an amazing
ability to make what they do look easy. Of course, that’s because
of countless hours of hard work and dedication. This is much like the
spiritual life.
St. Paul analogized the spiritual life with athletics in 1 Corinthians 9:24-
27. “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race,
but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises
discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after hav-
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
When you look at the lives of these professional athletes, you realize that
they continually go back to the basics of their sport. Major League Baseball
has spring training, the NBA has summer leagues, the NFL has training
camp and the preseason, PGA pros are constantly practicing, and
so on. While they have all mastered the basics, they continually practice
them. Exercise physiologists call it honing their “muscle memory.”
That’s how they make it look easy.
This is exactly what this book is for: to help us go back to the basics of
the spiritual life. Hopefully, as we practice and meditate on these spiritual
basics, practicing our faith will become second nature and we can
make it look easy, too!
I wish that a book like this was not even necessary. Unfortunately, I’ve
found that it is very necessary. In my work as a talk radio host, I hear
so often about how little most Catholics know about their faith. For example,
a recent study showed that only half of Catholics could correctly
identify the teaching of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Half of Catholics said it is simply symbolic. As well, I recently spoke to
������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������