A question from a fan:
===
Do you ever do much content touching on any links between prayer and working out? Or spirituality and the body?
===
It seems my reputation as somewhat of a fundamentalist religious nutjob precedes me.
The short answer is yes to both questions.
The longer and more interesting answer is that my spiritual beliefs are threaded through all of my writings, sometimes obviously other times less so, but they are always present for those with eyes to see them.
Generally speaking, I tend towards subtlety, not because I am ashamed of my faith but because I am Very Aware of how poking at people’s religious values can drive them to make purchasing decisions they otherwise wouldn’t have made had that most sensitive of buttons not been pushed. The net result of that being a bunch of stress and strife all parties could do without.
Not today, though because I have decided to share a couple of righteous examples of saints who have much to teach us on training and adjacent matters.
As I am such an evil misogynist, it’s appropriate I start with St. Gianna Molla.
Physician, wife, and mother, this most excellent lady didn’t let her work and family commitments impede her love of sports – specifically, skiing and mountaineering. Her mental toughness was second to none, a fact proved beyond all doubt by her decision to refuse a hysterectomy while pregnant with her fourth child when a suspicious fibroid was discovered.
Instead, she opted to have the fibroid removed at great risk to her own health. A decision that resulted in her death from peritonitis a week after her daughter was born.
Next, a quote from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a spanish priest and joint founder of the Jesuit order, who wrote in a letter concerning the importance of preserving one’s health to an associate who was suffering with tuberculosis:
===
“And do not think that trying to recover your health is an easy task. Your only purpose in desiring it is to serve God, and according to His holy will. Even though you use every reasonable means to get well, great resignation is required if you are to be content with whatever disposition God makes of you. As long as He visits you with illness, accept it from His hand as a very precious gift from the wisest and most affectionate of fathers and physicians. Be resolved especially both in mind and body, in work and in suffering, to be content with whatever pleases His Divine Providence. And write once in a while at least, though it be but a few lines.
Master Pompilio tells me that you have asked for some spiritual books. It would be good for you to read from time to time or have someone read to you, for your soul’s refreshment and consolation, but do not spend much time in reading or in many devotions, especially those that require mental activity, as this would be to close the door on your recovery, which is the very reason for your going home and for the obedience that sent you. Use moderation, therefore, in every mental exercise. Remember that bodily exercise, when it is well ordered, as I have said, is also prayer by means of which you can please God our Lord.”
===
There is much to be gleaned from those two examples.
Unless the person reading them is the sort who is liable to spontaneously combust when treading on consecrated ground, but I suspect they have unsubscribed already so they can go about their degenerate ways without feeling judged.
Whatever.
There is a link below explaining the details of my three month programme “Silver Era Secrets”.
No, you don’t have to be a Christian to work with me.
No, I haven’t the slightest interest in trying to convert you.
https://philtyreman.co.uk/programme/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman