Joe Paterick
Episode 30
26 AUG 2019
He has done 52 marathons and has been a triathlete for 24 years. Back in the day he also played football and basketball. The day before this interview was recorded, he did a 240-mile bike trek from his home in Milwaukee to a Catholic school in Michigan. In addition to that journey, he also talks about a book he’s writing – but not about his athletic endeavors.
Notable guest quotes:
“I really found, even in life, when you really do for others, it’s the old adage, ‘Do unto others as you want them to do for you’… There is a lot of strength in that. There really is. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
“Even as a kid, people used to say, ‘You’ve got that Catholic conscience,’ and I would say, ‘Well what’s wrong with that’? It’s not a bad thing at all.”
“It’s that character that you don’t give up, but you learn a lot from it with sportsmanship. Think about it, at the end of a game – in football or basketball or soccer – you shake hands with the person you just defeated. It was just a game. Okay? And, I just think that in the end it doesn’t matter because it’s just a memory – how many wins and that’s good and that – but you don’t have to feel bad because you lost.”
“I could tap into that spiritual consciousness that (my mother) had. She couldn’t go to church anymore. There wasn’t a priest to visit her. Okay? But there was something very special. She didn’t even have her legs anymore, but she grabbed my hand one day and she said, ‘I still want to help people’.”
“(My mother) lives within me, but also, with my father, both of them, that spiritual connection is just very powerful.”
“I was a young Catholic growing up, and maybe I wasn’t paying attention I’m not sure, but it didn’t seem like there was enough on the spiritual side. It was always about proving things. Not taking Jesus out of it, but it was still the Holy Ghost and God the Father.”
“You don’t need to have Jesus appear in front of you and say, ‘I’m still alive.’ He’s still alive, we just don’t seem him!”
Related link:
Holy Name Catholic School project
