Episodes

Fr John Perdue – The Flying Fathers

The Flying Fathers were a hockey team of Catholic priests originally started back in the early 1960s. There is optimism of-late for the team’s resurrection, according to Father John Perdue, Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Peterborough in Ontario, Canada.  He not only is playing for the team but leading their return.  He talks about it during this conversation that was recorded while he was in Rome for the canonization of the five newest saints.

Notable guest quotes:

“So he sits down and explains with him that he’s been sensing this call and that he’s gonna go and become a priest.”

“Part of why I’ve been willing to invest time and energy in being a part of (bringing back the Flying Fathers) because I see the great value it has to sort of humanize the priest.”

“If young men can see guys like priests kind of having fun, engaging in sport, it makes them kind of think, ‘Hey, I could see myself doing that.  I see a similarity between them and myself.’  And certainly will open hearts and minds to vocations, I think.”

“For those of us who live in the faith… we have the most fun, when you’re living in the fullness of the joy of the gospel.”

“I see the need for generous young men to lay down their lives in service of the gospel and if sport can be a bridge to have young men see priests as humans who do good for society through these games and laugh and are normal guys, by all means the vocational aspect is sort of a third, ya’ know there’s the charity, there’s the joy, and there’s the vocational aspect.”

“So, spiritually speaking, I’m offering Mass with the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, I’m making Christ present on the altar alongside Peter.  It was very moving to do that, just to stop and just think about what I’ve just done, where I am.  And it’s kind of a little overwhelming.”

“The Flying Fathers were granted an audience with (Pope) Paul VI.  They had risen to enough acclaim and had done, I guess, enough for charity that they met Paul VI.”

“The only directive that our Lord ever gave about vocations, was, ‘Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that He might send laborers into His harvest’.”

Related link:

Video about the Flying Fathers

Bear Woznick

He is a champion of numerous surfing events.  He is also a licensed scuba diver and licensed private pilot.  Plus, he is a skydiver and has rappelled off mountains.  He has even been a mentor on the adventure reality show “Clean Break” on the FOX network, as well as been a guest star and stuntman on “Hawaii 5-0.”  He also has been seen on EWTN television and heard on EWTN Radio and has led pilgrimages to places such as Greece and Israel.  Plus, he wrote two books, including one called, Deep Adventure: The Way of Heroic Virtue.  He also is a Benedictine Oblate to the Mary Spouse of the Holy Spirit Monastery in Hawaii.  He is also an inductee in the Sports Faith Hall of Fame.

Notable guest quotes:

“Every Catholic is an evangelist.  We’re all called to be evangelists.”

“You cannot be a wimp and love Jesus.  Every single disciple – all but one of them – were martyred.  So, through history there’s nothing more heroic than being a Christian.”

“The most radical thing you can do in life is abandon yourself to the wild adventure of God’s Will.”

“There’s nothing more exciting or thrilling or wild than listening in the morning, tuning into the Lord maybe through the Liturgy of the Hours or the Mass, praying the rosary, and then seeing God open doors and close doors and seeing walls fall down as you pursue His Will.”

“In college, I began to really hunger for God.  It was like, ‘God, if you’re there, you’re kind of like a real remote father who maybe sends child support checks, but I would like to know you and be in a personal relationship with you’.”

“This is a total abandonment to God’s Will.  It’s not just a little optional extra you add on to the rest of your life.”

“The Lord miraculously healed my back and now I’m a world champion tandem surfer.”

“I’m so grateful, not just for the depth of teaching, but for the sacraments.”

“I love the Benedictine life, and I love the Liturgy of the Hours, living the Liturgy of the Hours through the day, and understanding detachment and not focusing on the things of this world but just desiring God.”

“That’s my great weapon when I pray, intercessory prayer.”

Related link:

Bear’s website

(This episode contains a prayer by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R., as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Luke Vercollone

He played 15 years of pro soccer, having retired last year from the United Soccer League after having initially been drafted into Major League Soccer.  He had played the sport collegiately at Seton Hall University (a Roman Catholic university).  Although he founded a program that teaches basic soccer skills to kids, he is now working for a pro-life organization.  He is also in the Knights of Columbus and has started a men’s ministry.  He also has a faith-based line of apparel.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was so blessed to be raised in the faith, growing up, but, it was often more of my parents’ faith and that comfortable environment where I was surrounded by it than it was my own personal faith.”

“He lived it.  He lived the faith fully and he had peace and he had something that I wanted… He was… a likeable, relatable person who practiced the faith… and I told him what I wanted and he said it can be done… in giving God all of my life and not just trying to hold onto parts of it.  It really transformed my life.”

“But the balance is always tough.  I mean, where do you get your identity?  And for me, sometimes I would get it in soccer and find fulfillment in succeeding in soccer, but I knew that it had to come from God and from God alone.”

“What helped a lot me was that relationship through prayer.  And just by prayer, on campus I would pray for 15 minutes a day, my senior year… in front of the tabernacle.  In the sacraments – prayer and the sacraments are just so powerful with that personal relationship with God.”

“That identity and that discernment in prayer, in sacraments, and understanding that to do God’s Will doesn’t mean that I can’t do the desires of my heart.  So, that prayer really helped a lot.”

“As I was discerning retirement with pro soccer, I felt a strong calling to ministry and towards evangelization.”

“So many great saints in our tradition that we get to learn from, be inspired by, and have them intercede for us, so, we are grateful that they’re praying for us daily.”

Related links:

Save The Storks
Mighty Kicks
Luke’s apparel line

Tanner Kalina

In college he played Division I baseball and was being scouted by the New York Mets, going on to play at another college before eventually made his way out of the sport.  He remains an avid surfer and has also found success in comedy and films, including a movie released earlier this year that he says is, “Littered with Catholicism.”  He and a friend are also going around college campuses giving talks, which was spawned from his having participated in FOCUS.

Notable guest quotes:

“Sister Ruth was kind of training me in what being a Catholic looks like.”

“In middle school I’d walk myself to Mass and make sure I was in the pew every Sunday.”

“I have peace about it, and I’ve forgiven them, but, one of them came up to me after my time at HBU and said that they tried to break me.”

“It kind of presented a bit of a spiritual crisis too because I saw everything I had worked for so hard and diligently my whole life, everything I wanted, and everything I felt God wanted me to do just kind of falling through the cracks of my clutch and it made me just see that kind of my whole identity was wrapped up in being a shortstop, being a professional ballplayer, and so I was kind of forced to confront that, lean into God.”

“When I went to UT, the first stop I made was at the university Catholic center.  And, the first person I ran into was a FOCUS missionary and she immediately got me involved with a Bible study there.  Which, that Bible study became my community and still some of my best friends.”

“Authentic walks are possible.  Authentic relationships with God are totally real.”

“I feel my vocation is to bridge the sacred and secular.”

“Your plans are not your plans, and your plans aren’t gonna work out.  But just kind of have fun in the freefall that is the walk with God.”

Related link:

Tanner’s IMDB page

(This episode contains a prayer originally excerpted and adapted from Day By Day: The Notre Dame Prayerbook for Students by Thomas McNally, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Matt Biondi

He has been a sports TV anchor and sports reporter in Seattle and many other markets, and he has been a sports radio host.  He even still does some work for media outlets that need him for the visiting teams that come in to play the Seattle Seahawks.  He has two daughters, one of which just finished a four-year scholarship in golf at a Catholic college in southern California.  Matt himself played football in high school.

Notable guest quotes:

“Watching these athletes on a day-to-day basis and where is their faith as it relates to all the fanfare they get, and they’re really put on a pedestal for so many years.”

“You’ve gotta stay sort of cemented with your feet firmly on the ground as it relates to just focusing on your job and your faith and not thinking that you’re better than the next person.”

“Sports, for fans in Philadelphia and other markets I’ve covered, it’s a real passion and it’s a generational thing, passed down from families.  And so, where does faith end up on a Sunday afternoon at 1:00?  Unfortunately, sometimes in their back pockets instead of foremost in their mind.”

“Faith can be our greatest attribute when we can balance life a little bit, because we actually – to me anyway – we further understand more the importance of faith when you do have some balance in your life.”

“Those that wanna pursue the Lord and pursue God as their number one thing in life, I mean, they will do that no matter what the circumstances.  The ones that are on the fence sometimes need a little guidance.”

“I saw enough of these athletes where, and I talked to a lot of ’em, where their faith was a central part of their life … They understand that difference between what’s on the field and how close they are with their faith.”

“When you get rejected in something… you have to fall back on something and that’s another reason why faith comes into our lives on a daily basis, because our lives are filled with rejection.”

“I couldn’t wait for the next challenge, the next adversity day to show up, because I knew deep down that (God) had my back.”

“God has me on this earth to serve Him and that’s in the bond with my children.”

Related link:

Matt’s company

Megan Landry

Finished her softball career at Nicholls State University (in Louisiana) as the program’s all-time leader in victories, following a career at Central Catholic High School in which she played three sports, which included (as a pitcher in softball) over 1,000 strikeouts and multiple no-hitters.  In high school she was a leader of Sisters in Christ and Retreat Team Leader.  And, in college she was leading a Bible study as early as her sophomore year.  Since graduating from Nicholls State University, she has become an on-campus missionary elsewhere.  In this interview Megan also talks about how tearing her ACL became a wake-up call for her as well as the challenges she faces in where she is and what she’s doing now.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was burning out toward the end of my high school career.  So I was questioning, not only doubtful, ‘Am I good enough to play in college,’ but I was also doubtful of, like, do I even want to play in college.  Am I getting tired of sports?  Am I overdoing it?”

“Tearing the ACL was definitely a blessing in disguise.”

“It was a complete identity crisis.  One day I was an athlete going to all these practices one after the other.  And the next day I have nothing to compete about.”

“Throughout the rehab process it was definitely a time that I ran to Jesus.”

“He was rewarding me for my outside – my faith, really – so that was really cool to experience in my freshman year.”

“God just worked through the situation that I was thrown into.”

“I would ask my coach ahead of time, ‘Hey coach, is it okay if my parents come pick me up from the hotel room, bring me to Mass, bring me back.  I promise I’ll be on-time for breakfast’.”

“(coach) understood how important Mass, the sacrament, Bible study, Jesus, was to us.”

“It is literally my job to serve the female athletes… and show ’em Jesus, bring ’em to Jesus, bring ’em to the one who will actually satisfy their hearts, and teach ’em how to glorify God through their sports, through their workouts, through everything they participate in.”

“I’ve literally lost all my cool-ness points being a missionary, but honestly that’s the perfect place to be in because it allows Jesus to do the work.”

“THE number one priority in my day is to remain in Jesus.”

“Sometimes one hour with Jesus is just not enough.  We have to go back to adoration at night.”

Megan’s missionary work website

Dr Kelly Morrow

Fans taking sports too seriously.  Parents being WAY too involved in their son or daughter’s sports.  Superstitions that fans carry out.  Sports betting.  Hear about these and other issues from a professional and spiritual perspective via the Clinical Psychologist at Saint Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, where part of her work includes meeting with priests, religious, and lay men & women who are seeking faith-based counseling.  With a sports background herself, she also works with seminarians attending the Institute for Priestly Formation and conducts psychological evaluations for individuals interested in entering seminary, the deaconate, or religious communities.  She is a member of both the Catholic Psychotherapy Association and the Catholic Medical Association.

Notable guest quotes:

“I come from a mind, body, spirit perspective, and, we know that the evil one loves to take advantage of our weaknesses, but also the situations we find ourselves in.  And, when he sees faithful Catholics becoming overly obsessed with what’s happening in a game that’s supposed to be for fun and enrichment and community building, and instead it’s causing division, he’s thrilled.  He loves to take advantage of opportunities for pride to rise up to the surface.”

“If we’re aware of our vulnerability for (Satan’s) influence… we can engage the community – here on earth as well as in heaven – the saints and the angels and our fellow Christians to help us to combat that and to reject those temptations to let our emotions go wild whenever we’re watching sports or even playing sports.”

“It’s hard as a parent, or as a fan, to sit on the sidelines because we identify with our loved one who’s playing or the team… We often talk about ‘We’re winning,’ ‘We lost,’ and that identification helps us to feel as though we’re playing in that game.  The problem with that from a psychological perspective is that I have no control as a fan over what’s happening on the court or on the field.”

“There actually can be real life consequences to games, and in that, you need to check and say, ‘Okay, is this game becoming the most important thing in my life right now?  Is it more important than my loved ones that are here?  Is it more important than the reputation I have with these other people that are here?  Is it more important than my faith in God’?”

“I think as a Catholic it’s good to just remind our fellow Catholics, ‘Hey, the church does not agree with superstition.  And I know you think it’s just for fun, but I want to challenge you to not wear that shirt today’.”

“(my husband) is the calm parent.  I’m the one who often times will leave the game and go pray a rosary.  And actually, that’s a good stress management technique too, because it puts things back into perspective.”

“I find that if I need to get away to put things back in order and to make sure that God is first and center in my life, a silent retreat is the best way that I’ve found to do that.”

(This episode contains a prayer originally from catholic.org, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)