This is what a Subaru looks like after it contacts a concrete wall at roughly 80 mph. The resolution isn’t all that great, but you can still see enough detail to know that it wasn’t much fun. What you can’t see is that the back end was smashed up, too. It wasn’t damaged nearly as bad as the front; mainly because the front impacted first, then the car spun around and hit again with the rear, shooting me back out on track.

The fascinating part of this picture to me is the windshield. You’ll note that it isn’t even cracked. Not even a hairline crack. Based on that and the aftermath of the wreckage of the car owner’s first off-course excusrion, I feel rather confident in saying that Subarus in particular earn their 5-star crash safety rating. I’m not sure I survive that same impact in the MR2.

Saint Titus (for whom one of Saint Paul’s epistles is named) had a tough job. He was converted by Saint Paul and became one of Paul’s chosen companions in his journeys. One of Titus’ more unenviable tasks was to deliver a letter to the Christians in Corinth. This wasn’t just any letter, however. It was Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. In this letter, he calls them to task in no uncertain terms for not adhering to their faith. Titus had to deliver this rebuke and bring the people back in conformity with Church teaching, but he had to do so while displaying the great virue of Christian charity. He succeeded in this task and was eventually named bishop of Crete.

We can all take a lesson from Saint Titus’ example. All of us know people who lay claim to the name of Christian, but are not living in accord with the teachings of Jesus. It may not make us popular, but we are called to correct these people. Like Titus, however, we must do this with charity. Berating people will not bring them to the conversion that is needed. This task is actually even more difficult these days with all the divisions present within Christianity. Who gets to define what is orthodox Christianity and what isn’t? I have an answer for this, but in the interest of time I’ll save that for another post. For now, let us pray:

Almighty God,

you endowed Saint Timothy and Saint Titus with power to preach your word.

Grant that, living a life of integrity and holiness in this world,

  we may, through their prayers, come to our true home in heaven.

[We make our prayer] through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

  who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

  God for ever and ever.

Amen.

 

O God, who taught the whole world through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul, draw us, we pray, nearer to you through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today, and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This is the concluding prayer from today’s Liturgy of the Hours. I found it to be quite beautiful and inspiring so I thought I’d share it.

St Francis taught that we can all attain a devout and spiritual life, whatever our position in society: holiness is not reserved for monks and hermits alone. He wrote that “religious devotion does not destroy: it perfects,” and his spiritual counsel is dedicated to making people more holy by making them more themselves.

I think this ties in very nicely with the piece I wrote a while back on the necessity of prayer. We could all take a pointer from the great Saint Francis and dedicate ourselves daily to growing more in holiness.

Or is that just what the world wants you to believe? I submit to you an idea: that not only is it possible, but it is actually manageable regardless of who you are or what your time constraints happen to be. It’s quite simple, really. The whole thing boils down to creating habits. In this case, we’re creating positive habits; habits that are of benefit to our spiritual lives. The first part of this process is to carve out some time each day and set it aside for prayer. It doesn’t have to be much – 15 minutes at most. This time also can be crammed in anywhere in your day. It could be your morning commute, your lunch break, just after you wake up in the morning or just before bed. Personally, I recommend using the time just before bed for prayer, at least in part because our goal is to create a habit and since habits are at least partially based on activities, you’ll be associating your prayer time with an activity that isn’t dependent on the day of the week.

I’ve recently begun praying the Litugy of the Hours, which is a series of prayers and psalms designed to offer a set structure to your prayer life.Typically the Liturgy is prayed by priests, deacons, and members of religious orders, but it is referred to as the prayer of the Church because it is available for anyone to use and pray. The structure is such that there are set prayers for morning, mid-morning, midday, mid-afternoon, evening, and night. Looking at that, you might be inclined to dismiss it as too much to fit into your schedule, but there are very few people who actually pray all of the hours every day. Personally, I pray morning and evening prayers from the Liturgy. If I feel the need and have time, I may add one of the hours during the day. The point is that you can use as much or as little as you want from it. It’s not for everybody, though, so you may find it doesn’t work for you. If it doesn’t, try the rosary. Or maybe just spend time reading scripture in a prayerful manner. The idea is to devote time on a daily basis to prayer. Once you start doing so, I assure you that you will find yourself drawing closer to God. The closer you draw to God, the more you will want to draw closer to God, and the easier this type of devotion becomes. I firmly believe that this is one of the key elements in a healthy spiritual life, and should be pursued by anyone who wants to increase their devotion to God. May you find it as spiritually rewarding as I have. God bless you.

But I didn’t begin this post to complain about lack of respect for the sacrifice of the Mass. I began it to tell you about the love that was displayed during the ordination of my friend. Sadly it is rare these days, but the Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and all of the Mass setting was sung in Latin. It’s amazing how much more reverent you feel just with a change of language. The incensing of the gospel and altar added to the atmosphere. The presence of the Holy Spirit was almost palpable during the ordination ceremony. The last time I recall feeling the presence of God that profoundly was when I attended Mass for the first time as an adult. And even then, this was different. I had seen Bishop Jugis celebrate Mass before, but this was something else entirely. I truly look forward to his being ordained to the priesthood next year. It’s something that I definitely won’t miss.

I stayed in DE1 for this event even though I had been signed off for DE2 in part because of the fact that I’d never been to Road Atlanta before and I wanted to have someone show me the track and partly because I signed up back in July after the Charlotte event, well before I was signed off. Interestingly enough, I was assigned the same instructor I had for the October event. That made things a lot easier, as I didn’t have to run through my previous experience with him.

Apart from being stuck in a lot of traffic and languishing behind slow drivers (70mph on the back straight? Seriously?), Saturday was relatively uneventful. I was absolutely amazed by the course, however. It’s virtually impossible to describe how much the elevation changes on the course affect the way it drives. I liken it to a challenging golf course. There’s just something about it that intimidates you every time you play it.

Sunday was a lot better and, for the most part, I saw a lot of open track and was able to make some good passes and start trying to take corners off line. My instructor left around 3:30, so a friend (who is also an instructor) jumped in the car. Before he left, however, he told me that he didn’t ever want to see me registered for DE1 again. He said I’m way too fast for that group. Anyway, another friend jumped in the car for the last DE1 only session. He was impressed because I was running almost identical lap times as he was. I was also hitting the curbs in turn 3 a lot harder than he was.

The final session of the weekend was a combined DE1-DE2 session. I ran this solo, and was having a blast chasing down the DE2 drivers. Once the corvettes and really fast cars screamed by me, I was pretty much just running my line. Everything was going well and then it happened. I jumped the gators in three as I had done every time through. The rear of the car stepped out to the left. Again, nothing unusual. It did that every time. However, when I turned in for turn four, the rear of the car snapped around to the right and the car shot off course to the left. This would’ve been fine except for two facts: 1) there wasn’t much run-off on the outside of the track there and 2) the track is ringed by reinforced concrete barriers there. No tire barriers, no gravel, just a patch of grass and then a concrete wall. I was traveling between 80 and 85 mph when the car smashed into the wall head first. I hit so hard that the wall was pushed back about 18 inches and it cracked the wall. I spun around and came to rest pointing back up the track on race line.

My friend that owns the car was working turn three and got to watch all of this unfold. Because of the angle at which I was stopped, he couldn’t tell if I was moving, and had to wonder if I was even alive. Amazingly, as bad as the impact was, I only sustained minor bruising to my shins where I hit the dash. Needless to say, the car was a total loss. I found out later that I hit hard enough to pop a spark plug out of the engine. When the medics checked me out, my blood pressure was 150/110. Nobody in the room so much as raised an eyebrow at that number. Naturally, some people have asked me if I will continue to race. The answer is an emphatic yes. If I could, I would go back to that very same track next weekend. I will not let this keep me from utilizing the talents that God gave me. Speaking of God, I know that it is only because of His graces that I survived such a massive impact, so please offer a prayer or two of thanksgiving for keeping me safe.

Let me explain: I have a roughly 45 minute commute, so that leaves me with quite a bit of time on my hands each day. It also explains why those close to me receive rather frequent phone calls from me just after 5:00. But calling people to catch up at 7:00AM is typically frowned upon, so I have to use my time in other ways. I generally use my morning commute as a time of prayer. The rosary has become a kind of morning routine for me, and almost makes up for not being able to make daily Mass before work. Anyway, I’ve been feeling lately that I need to impress upon others the need for prayer in their lives. During my morning rosary today, I was reminded that this blog is, in fact, dedicated to Catholicism and racing. To date, I can’t remember posting anything (links aside) related to Catholicism or even religion in general. That will be changing. This won’t become anything like an apologetics site – I don’t have the skills or knowledge for that – but I will be providing some insights on various topics.

I will be at Road Atlanta this weekend, so i most likely won’t have much for you this weekend, but look for more updates starting next week. Feel free to drop me a line or a comment with your thoughts. God bless.

I was at Carolina Motorsports Park last weekend for a NASA track day. By the end of the say Saturday I was somewhat concerned about tire wear, so I decided to rotate my tires before hitting the track Sunday morning. While I had the tires off the car, I went ahead and swapped in new front brake pads. Due to the cold weather, cold tires, and a need to bed in the new pads, I took it easy the first session out. That would give my tires and the track time to warm up and actually grip and the brakes time to adjust. The second session I went out with more confidence. Roughly five minutes into the session, as I was coming in to the braking zone for turn 11, I heard a metallic rattling noise coming from behind me. That’s not a noise I’m used to hearing, so I made a quick check of the dash to see if anything was wrong. Nothing looked unusual, so I continued through 12 and 13 where the noise reappeared. Still nothing on the dash, and it went away as I accelerated down into 14. I was starting to get concerned, though, and when the noise came back in14, I decided to pull in the pit and see what was wrong. I hadn’t had the opportunity to let the brakes cool, so I just pushed the clutch in and coasted down pit lane. About the time I got behind the wall the engine just shut off. Fortunately I was paddocked close to pit lane and was able to coast the car back to my spot.

While in paddock one of my friend’s dad asked me to start it up so he could hear what was wrong. The car reluctantly fired up, knocked badly then died. Even though I had driven the car to the track, I decided to have the car towed to a shop. I called AAA and they sent a truck to get the car. Fortunately I was able to catch a ride with one of my autocross friends.

I’m still not sure what’s wrong with the car, but I do know this: the cost for me to rebuild the engine will be enough that it’s actually cheaper for me to buy a new engine. So that’s what I’ve done. I sourced a new engine from a Canadian company, and it just so happens that it’s a JDM supercharged corolla engine – the kind that makes 165 hp. That should be good for an additional 15 horsepower at the wheels.

While most people would probably see losing an engine as a bad thing, I’ve not felt that way in this case. The engine died while on track, being pushed to its limit. And I’m getting a much newer engine with more power out of the deal. While I don’t like having to shell out all this money, it’s going to be a much better and more reliable car for it. Here’s to an old friend. She gave everything she had for me.