Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation.
Question of Faith
What Makes for a Good Vacation?
What makes for a good vacation? The excitement of exploring unfamiliar cities? Savoring the thrill of live music performances?
Join Deacon Mike Hayes and Father Damian Ference as they share their unique vacation styles, blending city adventures with serene relaxation. Hear Deacon Mike recount how he and his wife found common ground in their travel preferences, and listen to Fr. Damian's passionate tales from following Bruce Springsteen on tour. Their conversation not only examines the joys of travel but also draws fascinating parallels between the dedication of top performers and the spirit of exploration.
Ever thought about the powerful impact of a live concert? This episode takes you through the exhilarating experiences of Bruce Springsteen's concerts, including an emotional trip to his hometown of Freehold, NJ. Discover how a spontaneous mass for the deceased coincided with Springsteen's birth year, creating a profound connection. Reflect on the joys of good company, delicious food, and the transformative power of music that revives the spirit and fosters meaningful conversations.
Curious about balancing dynamic vacations with deep-rooted family traditions? Our hosts take you on a memorable trip to Ireland, delving into family history and the emotions tied to visiting ancestral sites. The discussion transitions to family travel habits, contrasting homebodies with avid travelers.
We celebrate a thrilling softball finale, where we honor standout players, and share future plans for possible new sports leagues. Tune in for heartfelt reflections on the enduring legacy of music, camaraderie, and the simple joys of life.
Readings for this Sunday can be found here.
On today's Question of Faith what makes for a good vacation? Hey everybody, this is Question of Faith. I am Deacon Mike Hayes. I'm the Director of Young Adult Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2:And I'm Father Damian Ferentz, the Vicar for Evangelization.
Speaker 1:And you were just on vacation following Springsteen around. That's it, yeah.
Speaker 2:A couple shows in Pittsburgh and Philly and visiting friends along the way and enjoying life and resting and taking a nice break from work.
Speaker 1:Now, when you go on vacation, do you want to be very active and doing a whole bunch of things, or do you want to sit and do nothing?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you why I'm asking in a second want to like sit and do nothing, and I'll tell you why I'm asking in a second. But Well, I think I like to be active, because I'm a pretty active guy anyway, but I also like certain vacations. I like the mornings just to go slow and to read, um, but most importantly, I want to make good use of my time, whether it's resting and reading. I mean, I start my mornings with prayer every day anyway. But I also like to do things that I'm not able to do as much during the year and maybe see people that I'm not able to see as much during the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. When I first got married, mary and I were talking about where we were going to go on vacation and I said, well, I said, hey, you want to go to Chicago and we can take in a show and we can go see some folks that we know and we can do this and we can do that and we can go down Navy Pier and all kinds of things. She was like I don't know and I was like, well, what about Boston? We can go to Boston, we can walk the Freedom Trail, this. We could see our friends in boston. And she was like, well, like, don't you just like want to go somewhere and like relax and, like you know, read books and like you know, you know sit out on the porch and you know, lay in a hammock or you know all those kinds of things and I just looked at her I was like that sounds awful it's
Speaker 1:like that sounds like the worst vacation of all time. And she was like oh, and we just realized we had different ideas of what vacation was. So now we kind of blend those Sort of. What you just described a second ago is about like what we do now is like the mornings are a little slower, we relax. She's probably reading a book somewhere. I'm probably doing something similar, I would be reading something as well but then in the afternoon we're out.
Speaker 1:You know we're out doing something, or in the evening certainly, we'd be out and around wherever we go. So we tend to go to cities. But her uncle has a condo in Ventnor, new Jersey One of the yellow properties of Monopoly, if you're playing Monopoly and that was a place that we would go when we lived a little closer to there. So we haven't found like a quiet vacation spot yet here I see, but anyway, so you followed Bruce around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did so. I'm a huge Springsteen fan. I've been seeing him live since I was 16, and I've been listening to him since I was four years old, and he and Flannery O'Connor are my two favorite artists hands down, and so anytime I'm able to see him perform live, I do. Now he's 74 years old, he toured Europe all summer.
Speaker 1:I find that so hard to believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you watch him. It's so. It's very inspiring to see someone at that age performing so well with a band that he's been playing with the core of that band for 50 years and they're so tight and they're so good and it makes me want to be better at what I do just to see. It's watching anyone like, whether it's Caitlin Clark or Venus or Serena Williams or LeBron James. You watch anybody who's good at anything Simone Biles, katie Ledecky, aaron Judge, whoever.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Please, I don't want to praise the Yankees, but I will give him credit. He's good. I've seen him live. I saw him with Father Steve Breck a few years ago. The Mets played the Yanks at Citi Field and yeah, someone who's excellent, you just say congratulations, you're excellent at that, and it makes me want to be excellent at what I do too. Yeah, exactly yeah. So it was very enjoyable. Met up with some, and what did I do is Well, let me rewind a little bit. So my parents had me when they were older. My mom wasn't that old, my mom was 37, but my dad was 51. And so I have some memories of some family vacations as a kid. But I was hyperactive and so I couldn't be in a car for a long period of time, so we never went very far, maybe to Sandusky or like to.
Speaker 2:Cedar Point. Or we have some property down in Guernsey County where Kayla Gill's from, but by property I mean like a quarter of an acre next to my godparents' home which has an outhouse. So think rustic and then add something to it. So we'd go there just to get away. And we once went to Niagara Falls, but after my mom had breast cancer for the first time when I was in third grade, we never did family vacations anymore, and part of that was because my parents were older and wanted to go to places like Frankenmuth and up in Michigan and visit the Christmas store and I was like I just want to go. So I think I've gotten used to vacationing with friends and figuring out how that works pretty well. So that's what I did. I just set the week up where I stayed with friends almost every night, with the exception of one, and my one friend who I was with had some points. So he put us up in a nice hotel in Philly the night after the Springsteen show. But we had a good time.
Speaker 2:If you've not followed Springsteen, oftentimes he'll play the same city two nights, not consecutive nights, because at 74 you need a little bit of rest. Yeah, so he played Pittsburgh on Thursday and then he played again on Sunday and we went to the Sunday show and he opened with Candy's Room, which is off Darkness on the Edge of Town, and then went into the deep cuts that night and he did the same thing second night in Philly. So I think this is what he does First night in the town he plays a lot of the hits that you would expect and then second night goes into the deep cuts. Interesting he played I'm on Fire from Born in the USA. Love that song and he played, if I Were the Priest, which I had never heard live before.
Speaker 1:So that was a lot of fun. I was going to say I don't think I've heard that live either. I've been to a couple of Springsteen concerts myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think for the first time in Europe this summer. And so when he pulled that one out I was like yeah, my friends who were with me like yeah, if I was a priest. So anyway, it's an interesting song. It's fairly absurd, but I was glad to hear it. And I went with a friend who I've known since I was five years old at Incarnate Word, and another younger friend who goes to a lot of concerts but who had never seen Springsteen live. And let's just say, when you're a Zoomer and you're going to shows that are 90 minutes in length and then Mr Springsteen, the band plays for three hours and five minutes, you get rocked to the ground, yeah, and so that was really good. And then the Philly show was also good. But what was nice?
Speaker 2:When my buddy flew in from Cleveland, I picked him up at the airport that morning and we had the day to explore. So we decided well, let's drive to Jersey, because it's not that far, it's about an hour away. And we drove to Freehold, which is where Springsteen grew up, and visited his home parish, st Rose of Lima, and it's one of these parishes kind of like Martin Atour's, terry Yeoman's parish in Valley City, where the original church was small and then they built a big church next to it, but they did not tear down the original church because they can still use it for funerals, weddings and daily masses. So my buddy and I are there Rich McCarthy, by the way, who's got shout outs on this show before and he's like I wonder if we'll get a third one. Okay, you just got it. So he goes into the church while I'm doing a little Insta video and then he doesn't come out for a little bit and I'm like, oh, he must be really liking the church. And then he comes out and says there was a funeral going on in there. And so then after that we went to brunch in Freehold, which is a very Springsteenian thing to do, and then we drove about 25 minutes east to Asbury Park, which is the name of Springsteen's first album is Greetings from Asbury Park, new Jersey. And everything's there, like Kingsley Avenue, the palace where the Hemi Power Drone screamed down the boulevard, the old image of Tilly Madame Marie's and Rich and I were there in 1998 when we were both seniors in college and did a little pilgrimage.
Speaker 2:So here we are, walking along the Asbury Park boardwalk and he pulls out this holy card. He's like dude, what do I do with this? And I said what is it? And he's like when I went in. So he went in to go check out the church and he realizes it's a funeral and the undertaker's like here, come on in and gave him a holy card. So Rich kneels down, you know to save face says a couple of prayers for the deceased and comes out and had this holy card in his pocket and I said, all right, I got an idea. This is perfect. This is how providence works.
Speaker 2:I have mass every day, even when I'm on vacation, and a lot of times it's a private mass in my hotel room. And that's what I had the next day. I said I'm going to offer mass for the deceased and then when I get back home I'm going to write the pastor and tell him what happened to you and put this holy card inside my little note card and I'm going to send it to the pastor and say the guy who the mass was for the deceased was born in the same year Springsteen was born, and so who knows how all this works out, but I offered a mass for this guy. That's right. So that was cool. So that went out in the mail on Saturday. This guy I never met, so that was cool, so that went out in the mail on Saturday.
Speaker 2:And then we went to the show that night and actually with a friend who I met through, maria Wancata, who was in town at the Behold Retreat, who had been to like nine Springsteen shows before I only ever met her once and then twice at Eucharistic Congress, but it's just fun to connect with people over good music. And then and then stayed with friends all along the way and in in Pittsburgh and Philly, philly, steubenville and I. It was fun, it was good for me, I, you could tell I lost my voice a little bit, um, but I enjoyed it. And so on my vacations, what you, what you ask for, is like, what do I need? Well, I pray and exercise every day. That doesn't change, change. But I love seeing my friends, a good meal, um, just talking, quality time, just being with people.
Speaker 1:You love that's, that's good for me, yeah, yeah, same here, yeah, and so I like to be active, and so I like cities, number one. So I like to go to a city that I've been to, um, or that I've been to and really, you know, haven't seen certain things in, and so, uh, that's what the evening will be like, and when we're doing those things, I tend, like you, to try to get some folks who I haven't seen for a while and say oh who do I know in this city, in Chicago, in San Francisco, in Los Angeles, whatever, and then go around.
Speaker 1:I always tend to go to a place that has a Major League Baseball park.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask that.
Speaker 1:Yes, we usually tend to go to a Major League city and take in a game if we can, and this time we're going back to New York in the middle of September this year and we're actually not going to see a ball game. We have a wedding that weekend, so it's just not going to work out. And then I'm doing a mass Thanksgiving at St Paul the Apostle, which is the church. Marion and I were married in a home parish, so it'll be fun.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we tend to do those kinds of things A ball game, a play if there's theater in the city or what's the city known for, and go around.
Speaker 1:Like you said, a good meal. We'll try to find a couple good restaurants. The best vacation I think I ever had, though, was we went to Ireland for about 12 days, and I was the first person in my family in 53 years to return to Ireland, because my father's from there. His sister remained in Ireland, and and I never met her. She was she was dead before I can get there, and but her son lives there, and he, him and his wife, had honeymooned in new york and in san francisco, so I met them when they came to new york and uh.
Speaker 1:So we went and visited them for for a little while and saw the rest of the country as well. Um, but that man took me everywhere my father ever walked. That's cool, it was so cool and like I'm just like walking through and he goes, oh yeah, and this and he goes and this is where the monks are. And he took me up to this monastery and I was like, oh my God, my father talked about this all the time he goes. Yeah, your father used to trim those hedges over there, and so it was really, really cool to see all the places that my father had talked about.
Speaker 1:I took tons of pictures so I'd bring them back. And then I sat with my dad and was like, where's this, where's this? And he goes. Oh my God, they built this all up over here. This was never here, and it was cool for him to see. I always wanted to take him back, but he would never go. He was like, nope, I'm with your mother, I'm not going anywhere. And she was yeah, she was like your mom. She was ill. You know, my parents were for both 41.
Speaker 1:We're a lot alike, you know, my, my parents, both 41 when they had me um, and so for family vacations for us, I don't ever remember taking one coney island no, not even.
Speaker 1:Um, that would have been, that would have been cool. My mother was really a homebody, like. She didn't really travel, like and you know, and she was sick. A homebody, she didn't really travel and she was sick too. I don't remember her really being well, and so I used to say a trip from Yonkers to, let's just say, new York City. That's familiar to everybody, but even White Plains, which is the next town in. It might as well have been Beirut. Right, she's packing bags.
Speaker 1:She's figuring out how to get there, and I'm like Mom it's literally 10 minutes up the block.
Speaker 2:Springsteen will say, even being in Asbury Park, an hour away from Manhattan, that was not everyone went there.
Speaker 1:A lot of people who never visited the city.
Speaker 2:It's just too big and too far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, marion tells me that she knows older people who lived in Brooklyn who never went to Manhattan in New York City.
Speaker 2:Older people who lived in.
Speaker 1:Brooklyn, who never went to Manhattan in New York City, which is really great. I mean, it's a few subway stops, but yeah, there are people who do that. I love that in the Springsteen's Broadway thing he goes because, I lived in the boondocks, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it was great, that whole tri-state area of New Jersey, pennsylvania and New York, that's where he started.
Speaker 2:Obviously he broke actually nationally first here in Cleveland because of a DJ named Kid Leo, who used to be on WMMS, eventually went to New York City but he broke Rush playing Working man in Cleveland because we're a Working man town and David Bowie and Springsteen he broke them nationally, here in Cleveland, and he got born to run before the album came out and he started playing it every Friday at 5 pm and I think MMS still does that to tribute him.
Speaker 1:I think that's correct, yeah.
Speaker 2:But when he's out there you know that there's competition, because he's always teasing about New Jersey and New York and he played the song Wrecking Ball in Ph Giant Stadium. What?
Speaker 1:was it called the Meadowlands?
Speaker 2:Meadowlands and how it got knocked down and he said and where giants play their games, people are like boo, and then he smiles and he's like eagles. But yeah, it was great. Actually, let me say something about wrecking ball, because this is interesting. So Rich and I went into Freehold and Springsteen's Parish is there. It's called St Rose of Lima and it's on. The mailing address is a different. It's a street that begins with a C but the church faces Randolph Street and that's where Springsteen grew up 87 Randolph Street. And so we were looking for his house and we knew it wasn't there anymore. But we saw 88 Randolph Street. 88 Randolph Street he is as close to the cathedral as Al's is right across the street from Superior. So probably two I don't know 200, maybe 500 feet or I don't know a football field, less than a football field, and his home, his childhood home, was torn down. To do what? To expand the parking lot, because the church got a lot bigger, the big Hispanic community there now. And so I told Rich, I said, dude, I always thought Wrecking Ball was about the Meadowlands and knocking it down, but somewhere in Springsteen's mind it must've also been his childhood home which was torn down. And then it occurred to me that night that so much of his set since he is 74, since he's lost Clarence Clemens, danny Federici and then the original band that he was with when he was 14 years old I forget the name of the band, but they survived for two years. He's the last man standing in that band. So death is on his mind.
Speaker 2:He opened the show with Atlantic City, where they blew up the Chicken man in Philly last night. And then the refrain of that song is everything dies, baby. That's a fact. Maybe everything that dies someday comes back. So put your makeup on, fix your hair pretty, meet me tonight, atlantic City. So death is coming. It is imminent. No one gets out of here alive.
Speaker 2:What's Wrecking Ball about? Bring on the Wrecking Ball. Like you can take down my house, you could take down Meadowlands, but life is going to continue after this. There's a belief that life continues. I don't know if it's a fully developed belief in the bodily resurrection, as the church teaches, but it's there, it's within him. And then, right after that, he played the Rising. Oh yeah, come on up for the Rising. And then the last song at every show on this tour is from Letter to you. It's the final track and it's called See you in my Dreams and the last line is for death is not the end and I'll see you in my dreams, but death is not the end, and that was a constant theme. I mean I got teary-eyed driving home listening to that, reflecting back on the show. So I guess, vacation. I want my heart to rest and my soul to rest, but I want it to rest in truth and meaning and good things and beauty and music and friendship and even good car rides.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a meaningful vacation, yeah, I don't want to go numb.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, you know what I mean. Yeah me either. You're right.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's why I think I want to go numb. Ah, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? Yeah, me either. You're right, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's why I think I want it to be. I want to have some experience that I could take back with me and reflect on for a long time, Like when Mary and I talk about where we've gone on vacations, we're always like oh, do you remember when this happened? Do you remember when that happened? Do you remember if we were just resting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want to. I mean, I certainly want my soul and my heart to have rest, and so it's different kind of thing that I'm doing when I'm here, you know, at work and ministry. But I don't want to veg out, I don't want to put my mind or my heart or my soul on hold. I want to go deeper there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. It seems like there's a difference for you between vacation and retreat.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh yeah.
Speaker 1:Because when you describe your retreat, that's more of the veg out, right.
Speaker 2:And I literally turn my phone off. For five days I do a holy hour, at least 40 minutes of quiet prayer every day if I'm not close to the Blessed Sacrament. But yeah, retreat is very intentional and I'm not talking to anybody except my retreat director and even then it's still deep meaning. It's never just like I'm checking out. You know, life is short and I want to be ready when I die to meet my maker and answer for my life. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for me, like retreat is more of a time for writing. For me it's like I'll sit back and do a lot of journaling and retreat and then bring that journal with me to my director and say well, here are some of the things I wrote about you know, and they'll go over it with me and good stuff for you know.
Speaker 1:Further reflection for me too, like that stuff will be the fodder for homiletic stuff for me for a long time if I just sit and really look at it afterwards. So that's retreat for me as well. That's cool. Hey, you got back from vacation and came right out to the softball fields.
Speaker 2:I did Well. I came back on Friday, yeah, and then I had, we had that mass with the bishop and all the delegates and then Lino Rulli's crew on. Saturday, which was nice.
Speaker 1:How was that thing with Lino?
Speaker 2:It was cool, I love that he used the Agora as home base because that's an old opera theater. Now it's kind of a rock place, but it's been recently renovated, air-conditioned and they were very kind to Lino and his crew and it was good to have them there. But yes, after this 5 o'clock mass at St Mary of the Falls yesterday, I came out. I caught the tail end of the championship game and then I saw part of the All-Star game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was great A lot of people two tents up.
Speaker 2:The league is growing, so congratulations to you and your crew for getting that thing out.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks, yeah, and Archangel Outfitters who gave us our uniforms and they were out there selling their stuff, which was great, and he loves being out there Is his name Mike, mike, yes, and then over with Veranovo brings the whole family.
Speaker 1:And 200 hot dogs and 200 hot dogs and hamburgers and fruit and everything else. They were out there as well, so thanks to our sponsors for coming on out and making it a great day. We had a number of people just coming out to watch this weekend. I think that was the biggest crowd we've had, so it was nice. I mean championship, it should be right, yeah come on.
Speaker 1:It's like a Springsteen show. It was fun. And then I sort of switched roles. I did PA announcing and official scoring all day and then Logan Feltkamp was playing in the first round, so he didn't have to do any umpire and we hired an umpire for the day. He was great. And then we decided for the All-Star game that Logan would manage one team and I would manage the other. So Mary's Mantles was Logan's team.
Speaker 2:Blue.
Speaker 1:Blue, yep and Mantle. You know, mickey Mantle.
Speaker 2:Right, I caught the play. It was very good.
Speaker 1:And then the St Lawrence Flames was my team Deacon yes, deacon-al thing, and also sort of like the patron saint of comedians, since he was on the grill and he said turn me over on this side I'm done.
Speaker 1:So I kind of like that and, um, logan's team prevailed in the end. But, uh, it was nice to kind of be in a different role. You know it's the first time I was in that role all year, so it was fun kind of getting to know the team a little bit differently. And, um, it was fun, they gave me a uniform too, so I got to put that on and I was like, oh, this is kind of fun to be out here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it looked like you lost weight too.
Speaker 1:I have 17 pounds Good for you. So there we go. Good for you. Slow and steady wins the race, absolutely. That's the way it works, right? We're starting to challenge. Now. My trainer said okay, we're going to up the intensity of some of the workouts that you're doing. So I was like all right here we go.
Speaker 1:It was a fun day. Congratulations to Big League Chew, who are the winners. We'll have a full softball update in a second with all the details. Big League Chew are the winner of the softball league this year. They were heavy favorites last year and they fumbled in the first round of the playoffs last year. Much like the Westside Whitecaps this year, they were the heavy favorites going into the playoffs and they couldn't get it done Now.
Speaker 1:They had two of their best players unable to join them this Sunday so that rain out last week was not kind to the Whitecaps because they couldn't have a full team this week.
Speaker 2:Do you remember as kids they had candy cigarettes. Yeah, sure, just like white sugar and they put a little red dot at the end. Absolutely yeah, and I think they got banned because they encouraged childhood smoking. That's correct. The same is true with Big League Chew. Big League Chew because?
Speaker 1:I chewed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was in a pouch and it was shredded pink gum, you could still get it somewhere, but yeah. You're in the big leagues when you make a perfect slide. You're in the big leagues when you keep your team alive. You're in the big leagues. You're in the big league chew.
Speaker 1:I remember the commercial as a kid, that's really good.
Speaker 2:And guess what I started doing when I was 17 or 18? Chewing tobacco.
Speaker 1:Did you really yeah?
Speaker 2:I played baseball, and that's what we did I read them in Golden Blend, but then it started to really stain my teeth.
Speaker 1:I'm like man, I don't need this. Yeah, my friend Joe Favarito, who's the sports information director at Fordham and now has his own PR firm somewhere. He discouraged me from ever doing that because he said the first time that he did it, he swallowed it. Yeah, Same.
Speaker 2:Actually it was with dip, it was Kodiak, kodiak. You know, it's in that little tin, oh yeah, yeah, and I put it in my lip. I'm like, wow, this is kind of I feel lightheaded. And then it started to break up and then, before you knew it, I swallowed it and then I puked, yeah. So I don't why anyone ever would think to chew tobacco or put it in their lip. I don't know, but it took off and it's not that good for you. So if you want to avoid puking, avoid putting tobacco products in your mouth.
Speaker 1:How's that All right? So no time like the present Softball year has ended. A little tear ran down my face. It's the year came to a conclusion. It was a lot of fun and so let's have this week's final softball update, a crazy final week of softball sponsored by Veranova Health and Archangel Outfitters.
Speaker 1:It all started back on Tuesday and Wednesday. Young Vitus comes away with the final playoff spot by beating the Ite Project 19-6 and then upsetting the Chosen Ones 9-4 during the week. That got them to Sunday's games. But their Cinderella story came to a close as Catching Flamingos beat them in Sunday's opener 12-5. Zach Hammerhuber three hits, three RBIs. Jimmy Ludwig with a homer that got them to the championship round.
Speaker 1:Second Sunday game had the top-seeded Westside Whitecaps taking on Big League Chew. The Chew pulls off the upset 7-2. Three runs in the fourth on some errors by the Caps and a Matt Liberatore home run gave them the win. The Caps playing without big bats Brendan DeVinney and Bobby Bolin. Last week's rainout didn't help them for sure. No excuses though. Great win for the Chew, great season for the Whitecaps. Logan Feldkamp named Coach of the Year for the Whitecaps and Emily Allin also named the Most Improved Player of the Year, along with Michelle Nin of the Chew. In the championship game, the Chew kept riding that victory chain, sounding their trademark choo-choo whistle all afternoon as they beat the Flamingos 15-4. Matt Liberatore with his filthy jersey three hits, three RBIs. Aaron Linville with a triple as well to drive in three more. The choo-choo, led by manager Tom Craneses, brings home the Cathedral Cup to St Colmkill. Matt Liberatore, named MVP.
Speaker 1:We played an all-star game with Logan Feldkamp managing one team and me managing the other, and the Mary's Mantles beat my St Lawrence Flames 19-12. Congratulations to them. A lot of walks and big blows by Tyler Meador and Joe Vicario provided all the offense the Mantles would need. Matt Liberatore with a home run and a losing cause. Matt and Joel Garvin with triples, along with Greg Marciavicius to round things out for the Flames. A great year of softball. Thanks to everyone, especially Assistant Commissioner Logan Feldkamp and the other coaches all year long in this league who just made it so much fun. So I'm Deacon Mike Hayes, this is your softball update. Congrats again to Big League Chew. Congrats again to Mary's Mandels for winning the All-Star game. And, hey, congrats to Matt Liberatore, who was named the MVP of the final game, had a big day Three hits, three RBIs. He is a big hitter.
Speaker 2:I came in yesterday because his team was up first and they were jacking the ball out of the park. If there was a fence, he would have hit his over there at least once. Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:At least once. The other thing, too, is he gets dirty. I don't think he's washed his uniform all year.
Speaker 2:It was just filthy all year.
Speaker 1:And so I was doing PA announcer and I was like now batting Matt filthy jersey liberatore, like everyone laughed. And then he got up again. I said now batting Matt pig pen liberatore. He starts laughing, and every time I said something he got a hit. The one time I just said Matt liberatore, he flied out.
Speaker 2:He was like you got to give me a name every time. I think his brother, Dan Labrador, is a seminarian if I'm not mistaken, but that whole family is highly athletic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his sister Emma plays on big league. She wasn't able to be there yesterday, yeah they're great athletes. She was really good as well.
Speaker 2:He's a big dude too, isn't he? He is, he's kind of jacked, he's got like all the torque in his hips and drive the ball far. Yeah, a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:It's cool, yeah, so we'll do that league again next year.
Speaker 2:How about volleyball or bowling? That was a rumor yesterday when I was standing around the fence.
Speaker 1:We've been talking about that. We've got to talk about some budgeting. There are a lot of that already. Oh, okay, they do some volleyball out in Parma, I think, and then bowling is a good idea. I think we might be able to make that happen.
Speaker 2:Bowling's fun, yeah, and it's easy.
Speaker 1:There's not a lot of overhead on that, so we'll talk. Cool, logan and I will get together and talk a little bit. It's also my copious spare time as well as Logan's copious spare time. It's never really great. So, yeah, I started doctor of ministry studies, which I don't think we've talked about, so that started on Wednesday, so got to get cracking at the books again. It's fun though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is fun. You like school, I like school, I do yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we're finishing the masters on the way as well, the master and diaconal ministry, so I just have to do a final project. So good for you, yeah, so lots going on. It was in, by the way, st chris, my parish.
Speaker 1:We had our parish festival this weekend so I was so I was the mc friday and all day saturday, and then um sunday morning we had 11 30 mass followed by a full pancake breakfast. The folks who did the food they we took all the food like in-house this year and hired like a parishioner who has his own company, and so he did all the food. He did a pulled pork sandwich, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza.
Speaker 1:We just ordered the pizza, but you know, we did all those kinds of things, so that was a big deal all weekend long. There was a great band I think you would like that was there on Saturday night called Follow the Sun local Cleveland band. They were really good. They played covers but they were just really fun. My wife and I danced half the night. It was really fun. We're sort of known as the cute little couple at St Chris now because we were dancing together.
Speaker 2:No one was really dancing.
Speaker 1:And then my wife and I just were on the side and we just started dancing. Everybody's looking over at us like, oh, look at the deacon and his wife dancing. That's fun. It was fun, all right. So, by the way, church, church. This week, I guess Column Kill, since Catching Fire won, that's the parish that won the finals would have been St Column Kill against St Column Kill, because Catching Flamingos is also St Column Kill. So, no matter what, st Column Kill was going to take the trophy for the year.
Speaker 2:Well, that reminds me. Column Kill is very similar because just a few weeks ago Mary Kate Glow was sitting here and was talking about Christ, the King Chapel at Walsh and the church itself. St Colmcille was modern, I think, it was built in the 60s and it reminds me of Teil des Chardins. Everything that rises must converge, because the ceiling, the roof, comes up and converges like this and heads up toward Christ, who is the alpha point, the omega point in history. So if you've never been there and you're like, why is that that way? I think it was influenced by his thought. O'connor loved Théodée Chardin. She was suspicious of some things he had theologically that weren't right, and there's still like a warning on his work. But he has some good things to offer, especially in terms of poetry, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That was a good short story too. Oh yeah, that we'll be talking about as a staff. Poetry. Absolutely, that was a good short story too. Oh yeah, that we'll be talking about as a staff soon. Yeah, All right. So St Colm Killam-Parmick, check them out. And then readings for this coming Sunday. What Sunday is this?
Speaker 1:It's the 22nd 22nd there you go September 1st, Liked the Gospel this week, liked the last paragraph From within, like the last paragraph from within people. From their hearts come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly, gee, what else? All these evils come from within and they defile. I always think no one could really make you do anything. You've got some of these things in your heart already and then you have to dispense with those things. You know no one can do that for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your actions and your language reveal your heart. Yeah, absolutely. I want to focus on the beginning of the gospel, because St Mark says, when the Pharisees, with some scribes who had just come from Jerusalem, gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean that is, unwashed hands. And then they challenged Jesus. And so it's easy to say, yeah, those Pharisees and scribes, jesus loved them deeply, that's right.
Speaker 2:And when he offers a challenge to them or an admonition, it's not because he hates them. It's because he loves them and he's actually trying to wake up their own hearts. And I think that's really important to keep in mind, especially in this political season where we may have disagreements with other people, with other politicians, even within ourselves, like what do I do in this situation? I hate these. The Lord didn't hate anybody. He loved everyone, and that's got to be our approach too. It's too easy to scapegoat people, and the Lord didn't scapegoat people. He was constantly trying to bring people into his own heart and, depending upon where they were, he had different methods of doing that. But at the end of the day, we're not about hating anyone. We're actually about loving people and loving them into the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I've been preaching about that every once in a while this summer. Do we ever give anyone a really fair shake, or do we prejudge them Like do we finish someone's sentences because we know what they're about to say? Or do we not listen to someone who's like, oh well, I know what he's going to give this position's opinion and I'm not going to really listen to what he has to say or why he has to say it?
Speaker 1:How has he come to those conclusions? How has she come to believe what she believes? And so when we're a little more open, we let people talk and we let people hear what they have to say, we discover they might have good reasons for believing what they believe. They might not be right and we might not agree with them, but we can at least come to understand them a little bit more. Cool, cool Next vacation for you, next week.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'm going to see. It's a long weekend, so I have friends who live in Appalachia who I see every Labor Day weekend. They're a super active young couple four kids and it's competition a lot and they cook and we have a good time. But yeah, it's good to see them.
Speaker 1:How about you? Vacation for me won't come until I have a long weekend in New York in September to do Mass Thanksgiving. I'll see my sister for the first time in a while. She has not seen me as a deacon yet so she's come to my Mass at Thanksgiving because she wasn't able to come to ordination, and then I won't take vacation until Christmastime. Nice, that's a good time for us to kind of get away After Thanksgiving, I kind of wind it down a little bit in my office and take most of my vacation during the Christmas holiday.
Speaker 2:I remember that that's smart.
Speaker 1:It my vacation during the Christmas holiday. I remember that that's smart, it's good, yeah, because we get a little time off.
Speaker 2:The bishop graciously gives us a little time off, usually at the end of December, so I kind of I'm a little trip guy, although I do think moving forward I should take some longer things. But anyway, I'm doing what I do. At this point it's fine, we got time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Hopefully your vacation this summer was fruitful for you and hopefully this podcast has been as well. If you like this podcast, tell a friend and rate and review us here on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to our podcasts. We'll have this and a whole lot more next time here on Quest for Faith. I'm out.
