Here we are in the heart of Lent — and March Madness — focusing the Catholic Watchmen’s prayer intentions toward all aspects of leisure. We pray for spiritual guidance to not only retrieve and secure the sanctity of Sundays, but also incorporate recreation and sports to promote healthy participation and competition that contribute to developing the whole person.

With God, family and work-life in the balance, recreation and sports of all seasons can certainly be an essential part of an integrated Christian life. And a test of true character. As “good sports,” we are to ensure that leisurely enjoyment is to avoid any kind of reductionism that debases human dignity. We need to remember this when our NCAA roundball bracket bounces away, the Twins gets off to a poor start or our shot off the first tee goes awry. Yes indeed — as spiritual leaders of the faith — we are being called to serve as good examples for family, friends and colleagues in promoting healthy, leisurely competition.

Basketball

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There is no such thing as a dreadful day of fishing or a night at the rink, right? In all seriousness, the emphasis on leisurely activities is the use of free time for enjoyment. leisure rightly ordered — whether hiking with the family on Sunday, biking over a noon-hour work break, reading an enjoyable book or grabbing a nap to simply relax and garner some energy — is a good gift from our gracious God. That’s a gift we can receive while encouraging and prompting us to give more of ourselves to others. True enjoyment that can come from the graces of leisure.

No matter the time of year or the temperature, if my driveway is dry, I will get the basketball out and shoot some hoops. My wife and neighbors will attest to this obsession. Yet it truly is an effective leisurely activity that helps me relax and re-center myself — even though my agility, quickness and vertical may have suffered a bit over time. Funny thing, when I am shooting “around the world” I often recall the “BEEF” acronym learned at a father-son basketball camp years ago. Coaches acknowledge it as a short-form tool to teach the four major components of correct shooting. It stands for: Balance, Eyes, Elbow and Follow-through. Balance your feet, keep your eyes on the basket, elbow underneath the ball and don’t forget to follow through. Like anything else, practice and muscle memory make us better.

At times I sense God speaking to me through this activity. Yes, perhaps because I’m out there to relieve some stress, yet there is more to it. The first element of BEEF reminds me to live a balanced, undivided life; the second keeps my eyes focused on Christ in all things; the third straightens things out that are crooked; and furthermore, I must always follow through. The latter is imperative if we genuinely desire a consistent, reliable, habitual, winsome outcome. Follow through — “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’” (Mt 5:37).

Have a blessed Lent, suffer well, yet utilize the gift of leisure to ask God to help “make the crooked places straight” in your life and to “break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron” (Is 45:2) that distance yourself from the Divine. If you must rescue Sunday for family, friend or neighbor as a hallowed day of rest and rightly-ordered leisure, Godspeed in this endeavor!

Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville, and assists with the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen movement.