Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

central Illinois

"That Man is Me": Local Priest in America Magazine this week

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Father Charles Klamut, a priest of the diocese of Peoria, who is currently serving at St. John’s Center at the University of Illinois in Champaign, is featured in this week’s edition of America magazine with a reflection on Les Miserables and his first reading of it as a young adult.

My husband pointed it out to me since he follows The Deacon’s Bench blog by Greg Kandra.  I do too, but I can’t keep up with all the blogs that I “follow.”  So thank God for a husband who keeps up on blogs and shares with me.

Here is the quote that I pulled out of Fr. Klamut’s piece.  Keep in mind this was before I went to link to Deacon Greg’s post on it.  It turns out we picked the same one! So it is true that great minds think alike (or at least, it’s true that bloggers like me can sometimes think like a superblogger):

I read Les Misérables in a week. It was the perfect book at the perfect time, with soul-shaking impact. For a long time afterward, I went over and over it in my mind and in my heart.

One day I had a revelation: Monseigneur Bienvenu never knew! The heroism of Valjean’s subsequent life was unknown to the bishop. Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Eponine, the Thénardiers, Gavroche, Javert, the barricades, the students, the wedding—all unknown. The bishop sent Valjean off with his silver and a promise, never to see or hear from him again. For all he knew, Valjean went back to his old ways. And yet it did not seem to matter. He treated Valjean as he treated everyone: as Christ would. Bienvenu was the unknowing mover of all that was to follow. But for his act of mercy toward Valjean, the whole beautiful story would not have been.

This was when it hit me. I thought of the bishop, and the impact he made and what his priesthood meant. I can remember praying, “Lord, if that’s what it’s about, if my life can do that…sign me up.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

Fr. Klamut’s entire article is well worth reading.  I also didn’t realize Fr. Klamut has a website for his music.  Interesting!


Meet a Reader (and Writer): John Kelly

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Here is the monthly feature from this weekend’s print edition of The Catholic Post called “Meet a Reader.”  As I do from time to time, I feature a local author in these pages as well.  Thanks so much to John Kelly for agreeing to be featured in The Post and for sharing about his new book, The Other Law of Moses.


How you know me:  I was born in Peoria.  I attended St. Thomas grade school & Bergan High.  I’ve been in the financial services industry for thirty-six years.  I am widowed from Nancy and married to Amy.  We have four grown children and one grandchild.  I’m still active in my parish (St. Thomas), and Amy and I have headed up our parish’s Great Adventure Bible Studies for the last six years.  I’ve also been active in the Cursillo, and in the Diocesan Vocation Support Group.  Amy teaches at Holy Family School in Peoria.  I enjoy reading as well as writing.  Last January, I published my first book, The Other Law of Moses. I have also published several articles about the intersection between our faith and practical, widespread prosperity.

Why I love reading:  I enjoy both fiction and non-fiction, but I like non-fiction best.  It might be history, politics, biography or Catholicism, but I’m usually into a book that will broaden me, and hopefully challenge me.  There is so much to learn, and I believe the answers to most of our problems are already out there.  On the other hand, I also enjoy a good mystery or thriller, or even poetry. Perhaps another reason I love reading is that I love to see what truly talented wordsmiths can do with our wonderful language.

What I’m reading now:   True to form, it’s non-fiction.  I’m in the middle of Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.  I just finished The True Gold Standard by Lewis Lehrman, the author of Lincoln at Peoria.  Before that, it was Father Robert Sirico’s excellent book, Defending the Free Market – The Moral Case for a Free Economy.

My book:  I wrote The Other Law of Moses about the economic Law inside the Law of Moses, and how well that great, but mostly unknown gift, worked.  The Law brought about great general prosperity, and made ancient Israel the world’s first middle-class nation.  The book follows God’s people through their cycles of compliance and non-compliance with the “Land Law,” as I call it.  I even suggest that Jesus spoke of this Law often; that his followers understood what he was saying about it, but that we do not.  The ending highlights the uncommon prosperity many places in the world enjoy where parts of this Law are practiced.  Surprisingly, these places are unaware of the ancient pedigree their successful economic rules have.

My favorite books:  Progress and Poverty by Henry George, written in 1879, is at the top of my list.  Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is also up there.  More recent favorites are Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. The surprises and answers in the Bible continue to astound me.  And the list would not be complete without Michael Novak’s excellent The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

The Electoral College and Voting

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After Mass this morning, I took our younger kids to go and vote.  I’m always so grateful for the opportunity to vote.  I was personally surprised at how easy the ballot was this year in our district.  Both our (excellent) state Senator and state Representative ran unopposed–I liked getting to show the kids how I could only vote for one person in quite a few races.

The kids got stickers, too!  As a side note, our youngest really, really wants the chance for kids to vote.  We are all wearing our stickers proudly.
We’ve had some discussions in recent days about the electoral college, and what that means. I subscribe to the lovely blog Like Mother, Like Daughter and a recent post  gave some ideas and links to help kids (and grown-ups!) learn about the electoral college, and work to call the election one way or another.  So we are taking a little break today from regular schoolwork, and our very halting start at kids NaNoWriMo, to do math, geography and other subjects via politics.
We printed off multiple copies of this map, and right now the kids are working to color in the likely states for each candidate.  They are using the Real Clear Politics website’s predictions as a start, because there are so many “toss-ups” listed, and it gives us the opportunity to check the latest polls and make our own predictions. 
Our 12-year-old just pointed out, “Romney has more states, but Obama has states with more elecctoral votes.”    They are just getting to their predictions, but the Real Clear Politics site provides many, many polls for each state, so the kids will have a chance to see who’s likely to win each of those states.  After discussions about the margin of error in polling, the nine-year-old has decided to flip a coin for each toss-up state; not a bad plan. 
After they finish this map, they will start on a new set of maps based on the FiveThirtyEight blog, run by Nate Silver for the New York Times (note to self: make a request at the library his new book, The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail, But Some Don’t–I’ve heard an interview or two with him and keep meaning to check out the book).  
The Five Thirty Eight map is more “filled in” (for some time, it has been calling the race for Obama) and I will be interested to see whether the kids’ predictions match Silver’s own predictions. 
I took the time to do some reading up on both websites, and from what I can tell they are both reputable as far as details.  The former leans conservative; the latter leans liberal.  Regardless of their political bent, the sites seem well-respected by most, and by each other.
Kind of late to the party, I have (just today, if I’m being honest!), put on hold a number of youth books at the library about the electoral college and presidential politics.  Doing so reminds me about one of our favorite authors, Jean Fritz, who has written many, many excellent books about American history and presidents.  I love everything I’ve read of hers, but probably my favorite is Homesick: My Own Story, her memoir of living in China as a child.  She is still writing books; here’s a look at her book newly published last year about Alexander Hamilton.   If I’m still alive at 95 years old, I hope I am still writing.
Have you voted yet?  Are you doing anything special to mark today? 

LIFE Runners Marathon, Part 2: Race So As to … Finish

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You can read Part 1 of my marathon story, “High Five!” here.

St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians (9:24) that all runners in a race run, but only one receives the prize, and we should run for the prize.

In running a marathon or a half-marathon, all finishers receive a medal, so perhaps the prize becomes “to finish.”  In fact, each person running a race will have a unique goal or “prize.”

For instance, a few of the LIFE Runners racing in St. Louis had ambitious goals, such as qualifying for the Boston Marathon. This is very difficult: you can see the time cut-offs for this year

When I had the chance to visit with some of my fellow runners at the pre-race banquet, I found a multitude of goals: having fun, going for a specific time; running “not just for myself” (a LIFE Runner from Massachusetts told me this goal); finishing my first half-marathon; finishing my first marathon; being a witness to life.

I think all the LIFE Runners were excited to be there as part of the largest charity group running the St. Louis marathon and half.  I know I was; this was my first time being part of a charity group for a run (I’m normally in the category of “run for myself”!), and it was terrific.

My personal overall goal (in addition to my LIFE Runners participation) for the marathon was not a time goal, but rather a positive experience.

The marathon I ran last year was difficult.  I loved the course; it was a trail marathon, not at all technical and very beautiful; and the race series was well-organized and small.  On purpose, I chose my first marathon with a super-long time limit, to ensure that I would finish (there was also a 50-mile race at the same time, so I had 12 hours to finish!)   But I struggled mightily the last nine miles, and that’s a long time to be struggling.

I was determined to have a more positive experience this time, and improve my time if I could.  I could write many paragraphs about this, but suffice to say that I trained much more this year, and tried to be careful about everything from nutrition to strength training.  As in the past, I’ve used a book called Marathoning for Mortals by John Bingham and Jenny Hatfield, but I was much more “by the book” this time, especially for my taper–the last several weeks of reduced mileage and training before the actual race.

But I also tried to do “more. “  For instance, last year I did only one 20-mile long run in training, and this year I ran that distance twice (the second time was actually 21 miles, as I had misjudged mileage that day).

Even with all my training, my times this year were a lot slower for pretty much every run, whether long or short, from the same time last year.  So before the marathon I was pretty sure a better time might not be achievable.  So the “better experience” was top of the list.

Race day was beautiful–nice and cool to start.  I walked over from our hotel, about a mile away from the start, with several runners who had run many Rock’n’Roll events, so I got a lot of good stories from them and encouragement for doing the full marathon.

After a bit of looking around, I found the LIFE Runners group for the pre-race prayer service.  LIFE Runner leader Rob Rysavy gave a reflection concluding with “No one runs alone today… You are all LIFE Runners.”   He encouraged us to pray for life and those affected by abortion while we ran.  I wish I had taken better notes, but the pre-race jitters were beginning to build.

Then we all prayed the LIFE Runners Creed.  It was very powerful to pray it out loud with such a large group.  If it’s hard to read it in this photo, read it on the LIFE Runners website.  It’s a powerful prayer, one I’m convinced was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Then I got a photo with a new friend, fellow LIFE Runner, Amy G, (who incidentally went on to run a very strong half-marathon).  At the banquet the night before, I kept thinking, “I know her!”  So after the program, I went up to introduce myself.  It turns out she and her (now) husband went to Bradley University in central IL  She had also babysat for some local families that I know a little, so we may have encountered each other during her Peoria days.

At the race start, there was a nice sunrise behind the Arch.

Both half and full marathon runners started at the same time, but in “waves,” (several hundred runners starting a minute apart) so I had plenty of time to wait and visit with many other runners.  I loved this couple (who were actually married 2 weeks before, and were running the half together that day):

The race officially started at 7 a.m., but they delayed the start to 7:05, and since I was in a later corral for my “wave” I didn’t start running until about 7:30.

True confession:  in the days before the race,  I had a moment or two of nervousness about wearing the LIFE Runners t-shirt; what if there might be abortion supporters who would say or do mean things as I ran?  I didn’t seriously think something violent would happen, but also didn’t relish the idea of having to argue with people.  In reality, and on race day, I had nothing but positive feedback from fellow runners, especially the many LIFE Runners that I encountered along the run, but so many others.

Once I started running, however, I had a growing concern about any post-abortion women who somehow felt judged by the t-shirt saying “Remember the Unborn” on the back.  Part of me thought as I ran, that I should have tacked on a note with “Healing After Abortion” and a web address to Project Rachel.

There were several women LIFE Runners I met Saturday night who have had abortions (and who wore their t-shirts in the race Sunday morning), and I wish I would have thought ahead to talk to them about it, and find out their thoughts.   As it was, I made a special effort to pray for any women (or men) running who had been involved with abortion in any way, and for healing for them.

The half-marathon portion of the race was great–there were more than 11,000 runners in that part, so I was always surrounded by people, and here and there a few LIFE Runners, and some other people who wanted to chat.  A Rock’n’Roll race has bands about every mile or two, and most were really great and helped you pick up the pace.  There were plenty of water, gatorade, and porta-potty stops.  All fantastic.  The course had more hills than I realized ahead of time, and I hate hills.  But the beauty of the course helped to make up for it.  Here we ran past the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Then I got the part where the half-marathoners went to their finish, and a smaller group continued on with the marathon.

I don’t know if you can see in this “fork in the road” photo, but the black sign says, “half stay straight” and the green sign says, “marathon turn left.”  You might be able to see that there are a lot more people on the right than the left.

This is where things got to feel a little lonesome.  There were about 11,000 runners who did the half, and only about 1,700 who did the full marathon.  There were still bands every mile or so, and even a “mile of music” with speakers blaring along the route towards Forest Park, but there were very few people around me.  As I passed a few of the bands, especially a really great one at about mile 23, I felt guilty being one of only two or three people passing by!  It was like a little private concert, and that felt strange.

Because I was in the back of the marathon pack, and the course overlapped, I had a chance to pass by (going the opposite direction) some of the faster marathoners in while they were around miles 20-24, and I was around mile 14-17.  That was fun, and I got a photo and high-fives (really) from fellow LIFE Runners.

Here is Bishop Paprocki (in the middle of this photo).  He finished in 4:22.  Amazing!

Before this, I had passed Pat Castle and Jeff Pauls (one of the LIFE Runners who qualified for Boston at this race), but didn’t get a photo.  It was great to see fellow LIFE Runners, but also a little daunting realizing how far I would have to go yet, and how much faster they were than me.  But I needed to keep in mind my goal.  I’m not going for a BQ (Boston qualifying finish); I’m going for a good experience.

Another LIFE Runner, probably an hour or more ahead of me, and looking great!

As I described above, during my first marathon, the final nine miles or so were difficult, both mentally and physically.  I kept saying to myself, “I still have nine more miles to go!” and then eight, and so on.  It was brutal.

This year, I was determined to think more positively.  With advice in advance from fellow runners, I repeated the following phrases to myself:  “trust your training,” “you only have single digits to go”  and “this is like a short training run” (which 9 miles, or anything shorter, is for a marathon).  Strangely, I did not tell myself “high five!” but I’m sure that would have worked as well.

The result?  It helped so much.  Even though this course was harder than last year’s marathon, and I was probably just as physically drained, the mental focus helped me feel better.

Now, here, as promised, is the part of the marathon story that relates directly to books, to prove definitively that books and authors are super important to me.

As I approached the finish, there was a man I had seen the day before at the expo.  At the expo, there was  a small stage at the end of the vendor section where Olympians and others would share encouraging words and talk about racing to pump up runners.

Our family got to hear the end of a talk by Olympian Frank Shorter, and I thought the person holding the microphone for him and kind of “emceeing” looked like John Bingham, co-author of Marathoning for Mortals, the training book I used.  I asked the man seated next to me if it were him, and he said,“No, Bingham spoke earlier.”  Now at this point all the members of our family (including me!) were super hungry, so I didn’t stick around to verify that, in fact, it wasn’t Bingham.  (Note to self for future big-city races: enjoy the expo and check out the speakers in advance).

But here was this man again about 100 yards before the finish. Keep in mind, there are only a few people running around the same time as me, so it’s not like I was holding up the race, I asked, “Are you John Bingham?” and of course he was!

So I had to stop then and there and get a photo.  Fortunately, my family was nearby, and my nine-year-old snapped some photos of us.  I was so excited to get to meet Bingham, and so I visited with him for a couple of minutes.  (Clearly, I was not interested in my time).  I was delighted to tell him how much his book helped me train for numerous half-marathons and for both marathons.  I told him how encouraging the book is to new and slower runners, and how inspiring and practical his book is.

Then I happily ran across the finish line.  Here I am with the family just after the race.

They had been keeping busy having breakfast,  going to the Arch and walking around downtown during my six-plus hours (!) of running.

I feel the need to report here that my husband Joseph is much cuter and far more photogenic than this photo attests, but perhaps it was his morning corralling kids in a big city. 😉  Again, high five! to Joseph and our kids for all their support and love this weekend.

My husband said later that it looks like I strolled a mile rather than ran 26.2, since I looked so fresh and happy.  That was sweet!  But I have to say that my smiles were all about relief, because I did work very hard. I was so happy to have finished and not to be running any more.

There is also something very cathartic about long-distance running that shows in the faces of those who finish, and I’ll write more about that next.

LIFE Runners Marathon, Part 1: High Five!

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This post is unofficially subtitled, if you don’t like photos in a post, you might just want to come back in a few days, after I share over the next few days some of the many experiences running my second marathon earlier this month, and my first time as part of the LIFE Runners team.   This has taken me much longer to post than I expected, but I think readers and friends will enjoy hearing about my experience.

You may be thinking this is a little far afield from books, my primary focus here.   And I do promise that some of this relates to books–promise!  And I will do a round-up of great pro-life and running books that I’ve reviewed in past years, as well as have a Q&A with a fellow LIFE Runner who authored a book recently about his cross-country run.

But for now, it’s all about the marathon and LIFE Runners; definitely on-topic as far as I’m concerned.

I have been training for since early in the summer, and only several weeks ago discovered the group LIFE Runners and that the group was doing their annual race weekend in St. Louis, just a few hours away.  I wrote about changing my plans here, and so I signed up for the LIFE Runners team as well as the St. Louis Rock’n’Roll Marathon.

LIFE Runners was founded in 2008 by two Air Force Lieutenant Colonels–Rich Reich and Pat Castle, to “pray, raise funds, and run…All In Christ for Pro-Life!”  The group has a goal for a major race or race series each year, and have been running them since 13 LIFE Runners ran the 2008 Chicago Marathon.  The group has grown to the 252 who ran in the St. Louis Race series, the largest charity group (by far) there.   Runners agree to raise funds for one of several local charities, and run wearing a LIFE Runners t-shirt while running the race. Impressive!

I confess I was a wee bit intimidated by all the military active duty or veterans, since I’m  not … military… but the LIFE Runners is very diverse, and everyone was very welcoming, and I was glad for high level of organization and great experience of pro-life solidarity that they created.

The expression “High Five!”  comes from Pat Castle (one of those Lt Cols) , the president of the group, and he is super-motivating, to say the least.  High-fives abound, whether on the LIFE Runners website, the Facebook page, or in person from Pat.

Now, I’m going to use the expression “high five” in this post a lot, and I want to make perfectly clear that I am in no way making fun of “high five.”  I think I did first smile when I heard and saw all the “high fives,” but I quickly realized the genius of it; how it brings us together and encourages in a genuine way.  I feel confident that the other LIFE Runners are smiling along with me and nodding.  It’s just a great expression in so many ways, and captures Pat’s personality and LIFE Runners in general.

We made this a family trip, and I have to high five! my husband and kids for being good sports about various issues with the weekend.

We arrived very late Friday night, so Saturday morning was dedicated to a little sleeping in as well as going to the health and fitness expo to pick up my race bib as well as check things out.  Now, one of the things about big race expos, as many articles  and books will tell you, is that you tend to overspend and buy weird things you would never normally buy, like crazy running tights or hats with strange messages on them.

I kept saying to Joseph and the kid, but it didn’t seem to have much effect on them or me, because we ended up buying a few things, but fortunately none of them were particularly crazy.

The free samples were a big hit.  Unfortunately, we kept finding our 9-year-old at this free sample booth, looking with puppy dog eyes at the young women handing out samples. He was not successful (high five! sample ladies), I’m happy to report, but I couldn’t resist a photo and a laugh, as well as endure our teenager saying, “Don’t encourage him!”

There was just a little time to grab a quick late lunch and head over to the Cathedral Basilica for the LIFE Runners gathering before the 5 p.m. Sunday Vigil Mass.

While I’d been in Facebook contact with the LIFE Runners team, I had never met anyone in person or knew any of them, so I’ll confess to being nervous.  But the group was welcoming, and I had no trouble making friends.

We started with a group photo.  According to the LIFE Runners website, there were 252 LIFE Runners in St. Louis, making it by far the largest charity group running the races.  A large contingent was there for the pre-Mass photo:

Then Pat Castle gathered us for some high fives (really!) and talks.  First was a blessing by Bishop Paprocki of Springfield.  Pat Castle is here introducing Bishop Paprocki:

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Next we had a talk by a priest from Steubenville, who it turns out was a fellow marathoner.

Finally, Karla shared her experience of having an abortion at age 15 and healing after many decades, and shared how important it is to be a witness to life.  This is at close range becuase the cathedral’s bells started to go off during her talk, so Pat Castle brought us all in close to Karla, which made it that much more intimate an experience, and beautiful and healing for all of us.

Mass was next in the beautiful Basilica, and another large group there for Mass was a Society of St. Francis de Sales, who happens to be the patron saint of journalists.  I thought that was neat coincidence for me.

Here’s one of the many beautiful mosaics inside the Cathedral Basilica.

After Mass, we went over to a gathering space next to the cathedral for a pasta dinner served by the Knights of Columbus.  As we waited in line for buffet, diners could pass by booth set up by various groups, in particular the three charity beneficiaries of this year’s LIFE Runners races.  Our kids enjoyed getting to chat with the staffers at the Thrive booth.  Thrive is one of the beneficiary charities for the LIFE Runners this year.

What I loved was getting to meet the brewers from Two Lawyers and a Priest Brewing, who brewed a special beef for LIFE Runners. High five, Catholics who brew beer for pro-life!  They were giving away bottles in a kind of silent-auction method, and I’m happy to say that I did get a bottle, though I’ve not yet had the chance to enjoy it.  I’m going to split it with my husband.

So much was memorable about the dinner and program.  Jennifer Brinker writes about the LIFE Runners and the weekend more at the St. Louis Review.

Bishop Paprocki, one of the LIFE Runners (and a seasoned marathoner) received the first LIFE Runner of the Year award.  His remarks were amazing–he spoke about the Communion of Saints and how he feels more connected to them during distance running.  In particular, he told a moving story of how he lost his father between the time Bishop Paprocki qualified for the Boston Marathon and ran the Boston Marathon, and how he felt the presence of his father during Boston.

I think it is difficult for me to convey how good his short remarks were; I’m not sure if it sounds trite; he is an excellent preacher and captured this beautifully. I have definitely felt that “communion of saints” feeling, when I ran a half-marathon less than a year after my father passed away.  There really is something unique about distance running, not just in a physical way, but in a spiritual way.  I’ll write more about that tomorrow and the next day.

That’s it for Part 1 of my LIFE Runners marathon experience–high five to me for finishing it before the end of 2012!  More tomorrow.

"You Know, You Could Name Your Son After Fulton Sheen": Guest Post

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Even though it is no longer September, I still have a number of stories to share from those who love Arcbishop Sheen, so this will continue as a regular feature here at Reading Catholic. 

Today’s guest post is from Michelle Rebello, who lives with her husband Cliff and five children (teenagers down to 4 years old) in Peoria.  I’ve known Michelle for years, and readers here may know her as the person who had the inspiration for the Rosary Victory Project (and if you haven’t signed up yet, please take a moment to go on over there and sign up, and don’t forget the rosary is this Sunday, October 7).

Thanks, Michelle, for being willing to share your Fulton Sheen story here!

It was such a glorious celebration, that truly I thought all of heaven was looking down and rejoicing! That was what I thought of the Mass in 2008 celebrating the closing phase of Peoria’s involvement in the cause for the canonization of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

I was 9 months pregnant when I attended that Mass. at the Mass and also 9 months pregnant, with my son’s Confirmation class. I had always enjoyed Archbishop Sheen’s “Life is Worth Living” reruns on EWTN, but, like many my age, I was too young to fully appreciate him when he was alive. I sat amazed as I listened to Father recount Sheen’s life, including many funny prophetic episodes, and was quite impressed.

“You know, you could name your child after him,” I heard inside my head.  It was curious, but very clear.

 “You’re right,” I found myself replying, “I could. Let me see what Cliff thinks.” (My husband, Cliff, watched the Mass later on EWTN and concurred that we should name our son after him.)

Three days later, Matthew John Fulton Rebello was born in Peoria, two weeks early. He could be the first person named after the Archbishop in his home diocese.  Matthew was born just three days after Sheen became a Servant of God.

Matthew was the fruit of much prayer since he was born a few days shy of my 44th birthday, after we had already had four living children and four miscarriages.  I had prayed that God would send us another child—a son— and that perhaps this child could become a priest.

A woman known to the Archbishop had told us how Sheen used to be a support to her while she raised her five children. She remarked that we need more holy priests to help another generation of families. Sheen could be continuing his legacy! Now, under the watchful care of the Servant of God (now Venerable) Archbishop Sheen, I can’t think of a better person to intercede for our child!