KDM: Vince Lombardi and The Superior Ideal

Among the ways we have just let Coach Vince Lombardi inspire us, I want to focus on the most important one: He went to Mass and received Communion everyday of his life. Pope John Paul II said the Holy Eucharist “contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia).

Precisely during a time when our culture was becoming disconnected from their True Source – Vince Lombardi remained firmly and wholly connected to his. No matter what Lombardi dedicated himself to, he never abandoned his true self as a child of God and devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. More than anything, he understood the necessity of receiving God’s Divine Life, as he brought himself, daily, to the altar of our Lord to receive Him – body, blood, soul, and divinity – as the real source of power in his life. This was where his energy, his very life came from.

Lombardi understood that all things converge in Christ – He is the way, the truth and the life. Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote: “To know Jesus, to hear Jesus, to love Jesus, to obey Jesus, to share His life in the deepest fiber of our being, and then to serve Him – this is our goal” (Called to be Holy). There is no other authentic way to strive for perfection. Lombardi recognized this as the superior ideal that must never be abandoned, but interwoven into all of our pursuits, whether it is a businessman or parent or professor or coach.

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