How I Wanted to be Rudy Ruettiger

Growing up as a football kid from Indiana, I probably watched "Rudy" 4,000 times.  I teared up at the end for all 4,000 viewings as Rudy was carried off the field by his Notre Dame teammates.  My goal through high school, and even college, was to get carried off the football field for doing something great athletically.

The goal for me for most of my childhood and even into my twenties

It never happened.

Getting carried off a football field is not a dream of mine anymore.  I have a new dream, but it still involves being carried off the field.

We read today in the reading for St. Cyprian:

"In this way the blessed Cyprian suffered, and his body was laid out at a nearby place to satisfy the curiosity of the pagans.  During the night Cyprian's body was triumphantly borne away in a procession of Christians who, praying and bearing tapers and torches, carried the body to the cemetery."

Now THAT is being carried off the field!  I pray that if it be God's Will, I get carried off the field of this life in the same way.