Running for a Higher Purpose: 8 Steps to Spiritual and Physical Fitness

What if you could improve your physical health while deepening your spiritual life? In Running for a Higher Purpose, Most Rev. Thomas John Paprocki, Catholic bishop of Springfield—a marathon runner and hockey player—shares how the simple discipline of running can help you unlock profound spiritual benefits.

Paprocki took up running as a teenager for his health; he ran his first marathon in his forties. Along the way he discovered that improving your physical health through running is a way to honor God and grow deeper in your spiritual life.

Perfect for those who want to try running for the first time as well as for more experienced runners who want to set goals for a new challenge, Running for a Higher Purpose offers eight steps to reach spiritual and physical fitness.

1. Review – Review where you are.
2. Reform – Identify how to improve.
3. Resolve – Resolve to put change into effect.
4. Repeat – Don’t quit.
5. Renew – Renew your physical and spiritual wellness.
6. Relax – Balance physical and spiritual exercise with the need to rest.
7. Reward – Feel personal satisfaction and reward by achieving your goals.
8. Rejoice – Integrating a sound mind in a sound body leads to eternal happiness.

Each chapter includes an inspirational quotation, a personal promise statement, and a prayer.

Most Rev. Thomas J. Paprocki is the bishop of Springfield. A Chicago native, he was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1978. He served as auxiliary bishop of Chicago from 2003 to 2010.

After ordination, Paprocki studied law at DePaul University and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1981. He cofounded the South Chicago Legal Clinic to help the poor with legal services. In 2014, he was named president and of-counsel for the organization, which is now called the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic. Paprocki completed his doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1991 and his MBA from the University of Notre Dame in 2013. He served in a variety of pastoral and administrative roles in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He was an adjunct professor of law at Loyola University Chicago from 1999 to 2015 and has served in the same capacity at Notre Dame since 2016.

The connection between sports and faith is a focus of Paprocki’s ministry. He is an avid hockey player and runner, having run twenty-four marathons throughout the world and raised about $500,000 for charity. Paprocki is the chairman of the Episcopal Advisory Board of Catholic Athletes for Christ. He is the author of Holy Goals for Body and Soul: Eight Steps to Connect Sports with God and Faith.