Three Posts About Running & Prayer
#Prayer and running go hand-in-hand. To most of us runners the connection is obvious, and the practice of both is invaluable and inseparable1 .
Below, I’ve linked up three of my favorite pieces about the practice of prayer and running. Two are from personal blogs and one appeared in U.S. Catholic. I’ve included a brief quote from each and provided links so you can read the whole thing.
Do you have anything to add to this list, or do you have your own thoughts to share? Feel free to leave a comment below! š
Running is Prayer
Over the past couple years Iāve come to appreciate running as a form of prayer. Having long grown weary of prayer as simply a multiplication of words and requests, Iāve embraced a daily practice which involves my entire body and lends itself to silent connect and listening, without the need for a lot of words. My RunHaiku project has also been an exploration of, in essence, prayer. The act of noticing, listening, connecting…
— Brent Manke, brentmanke.com
Why running can be prayer: Running and prayer are siblings in repetition
Like running, prayer is a discipline that takes repeated practice. I have noticed that if I donāt pray one night, it is more difficult to return the next night. I can fill those minutes with so many other activities: watching television, scrolling endlessly on my phone, worrying about the future. Jesuit Joe Simmons writes, āWhen I fall away from runningāor for that matter, from prayingāI feel out of sorts and lazy; alien to my best self.ā To say that I have made writing and prayer habitual actions is not to devalue their significance. Rather, when something becomes habit, it becomes part of our skin and soul. I run to run faster; I pray to pray better…
— Nick Ripatrazone, U.S. Catholic
R&R: Running and the Rosary
One thing I really enjoy doing while running is praying the Rosary. During a road marathon, I find that I can say 5 Rosaries and 5 Divine Mercy Chaplets and still have time to sing along to “Call Me Maybe” on repeat several times. (Yes, by the end of a marathon I lose any sense of self-consciousness and am perfectly happy singing out loud to music no one else can hear.) …
— Julie Schmal, Running as Prayer
Footnotes
1. One contributor to Runners World made the humorous observation: “They say there are no atheists in foxholes, but the same could be said of runners hitting the wall.”
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Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash
