{"id":765,"date":"2009-01-07T04:15:13","date_gmt":"2009-01-07T09:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=765"},"modified":"2009-01-07T16:01:32","modified_gmt":"2009-01-07T21:01:32","slug":"running-as-a-sacrament-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/running-as-a-sacrament-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Running as a Sacrament – What?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/a><\/dt>\n
Image via Wikipedia<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So far in this series<\/a> on the spiritual side of running we’ve talked about a lot of issues that are pretty forthright.\u00a0 The next topic in Running the Sacred Art<\/em> is a little harder to talk about because it has more theological underpinnings and isn’t as widely acknowledged across religious groups – sacraments.<\/p>\n

First, lets look at Warren Kay’s definition of the sacramental thinking which occurs during a “sacramental run.”<\/p>\n

An experiential kind of knowing that involves your heart, your emotions, even your instincts and intuition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sacramental runs occur when you have an intimate experience of God.\u00a0 Kay’s definition of sacramental is:<\/p>\n

When God is revealed and <\/em>when we are ready and waiting the sign is received. Experiences like that are called sacramental. They are possible not only because the Divine reaches out to us, but also because we have been given the capacity – the grace, if you will – to respond. (pg 91)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I told you this was a little harder to grasp! The Christian tradition has two major sacraments – baptism and communion or the Lord’s Supper.\u00a0 The Catholic church has 5 sacraments. Kay quotes St Augustine<\/a>, a 5th century scholar, who defines sacraments as a “visible sign of an invisible reality.”<\/p>\n

So what does this have to do with running?<\/strong> Excellent question. I think what Kay is getting at is that through running when can get a glimpse of the divine presence around us. He talks about the runner’s high and how it is something “magical” that sometimes happens while running.\u00a0 It can’t be forced but it happens.<\/p>\n

One thing he suggests is to ensure that you live a balanced life.\u00a0 More than just making sure to balance work and family commitments, Kay suggests we seek balance between the spiritual and material – the body and soul.\u00a0 He believes, and I think it makes sense, that when we are running we are expressing our bodies in a physical way that can open our heart and mind to the spiritual realm.<\/p>\n

I feel this is the hardest section for me personally to grasp – what do you think? I’ve been a Christian most of my life, even attending a Christian university and the idea of the sacrament is still not something I completely understand. Let alone the connection to running. Do you have any insights??<\/p>\n

[tags] Warren Kay, Spiritual, Sacred Art of Running, Sacraments [\/tags]<\/p>\n

\"Reblog<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image via Wikipedia So far in this series on the spiritual side of running we’ve talked about a lot of issues that are pretty forthright.\u00a0 The next topic in Running the Sacred Art is a little harder to talk about because it has more theological underpinnings and isn’t as widely acknowledged across religious groups – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,323],"tags":[318,314,319],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-spiritual","tag-religion","tag-religion-and-spirituality","tag-sacrament"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4iaAv-cl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/spirituality-a-running-definition\/","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":0},"title":"Spirituality: A Running Definition","author":"crossn81","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I had hoped we were ready to move past the point of defining terms and such, but I guess we had forgotten the most important term.\u00a0 This term is actually in title, no it isn't running or art.\u00a0 Confused? Well it is actually in the series title - Spirituality.\u00a0 Keeping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A sadhu performing namaste in Madurai, India.","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/6\/6b\/Indian_sadhu_performing_namaste.jpg\/202px-Indian_sadhu_performing_namaste.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":284,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/foundations-of-a-spiritual-runner\/","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":1},"title":"Foundations of a Spiritual Runner","author":"crossn81","date":"November 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For the next few weeks I'm going to take an in depth look at a book I stumbled upon while on a \"Barnes and Nobles date\" with my wife. Running - the Sacred Art written by Warren Kay looked like an intriguing book that would capture my Christian spirituality and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=crossinator-20&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":767,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/running-for-pilgrimage\/","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":2},"title":"Running for Pilgrimage","author":"crossn81","date":"January 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tibetans on Pilgrimage to Lhasa; they are kow-towing every few steps. Image via Wikipedia I think pretty much every major religion requires some type of sacrifice. We are familiar with some of them - giving our time in service or our money as alms or charity. But for most of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tibetans on a pilgrimage to Lhasa; they are ko...","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/5\/53\/Pilgrimage_to_Lhasa.jpg\/202px-Pilgrimage_to_Lhasa.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/contemplating-while-running\/","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":3},"title":"Contemplating While Running","author":"crossn81","date":"December 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So you are out for your daily run and \"bam\" God decides to run alongside you.\u00a0 What would you talk about? Or you are running along and you see God cross the trail in front of you?\u00a0 While I don't think that would happen in a literal sense, I do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/running\/images\/crashboats.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/meditation-during-a-run\/","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":4},"title":"Meditation During a Run?","author":"crossn81","date":"December 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Image via Wikipedia When I say meditation what comes to mind? Yoga? Monks? Probably not Christianity though.\u00a0 For whatever reason meditation conjures up negative ideas and feelings for many people.\u00a0 But Warren Kay is willing to take a deeper look at it in his Running the Sacred Art book. Kay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A large statue in Bangalore depicting Shiva me...","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/f\/fc\/Sivakempfort.jpg\/202px-Sivakempfort.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":774,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/finding-your-running-life-balance\/","url_meta":{"origin":765,"position":5},"title":"Finding Your Running Life Balance","author":"crossn81","date":"January 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In the final chapter of Running - the Sacred Art we come full circle to the concepts laid down at the onset of this book.\u00a0 I really like this George Sheehan quote Warren Kay uses to open the chapter: Don't be concerned if running or exercise will add years to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}