Brown and White Publisher Has Published Second Poems About the Gospel by Patrick McCaskey

 Poems About the Gospel II, now available from Amazon, features another 150 short works written by Patrick McCaskey. Like our Poems About the Gospel (published in 2020), each poem provides the author's own take on an individual passage of one of the Evangelists that are often read at Mass and other Christian services. The poems reveal the thoughts and feelings of a modern man responding to the Gospel with faith, humility, and humor. The author’s poems remind us that the Christian faith is just as alive today as ever, and the inspired writings live alongside all our foibles and culture. The author’s sense of reality rushes in at unexpected times with a “time out” for humor. Readers are struck with all the author’s variety of thoughts that fall as they might, but never take away from the faith distilled. A 45+ year veteran and Vice President of the Chicago Bears, Patrick McCaskey is the grandson of founder George Halas. McCaskey has written many books on sports and faith. He serves as Chairman of Sports Faith International an initiative which recognizes people who are successful in sports while leading exemplary lives. The author also chairs WSFI Catholic Radio that broadcasts to northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin.

Four New Books from Sporting Chance Press

Four New Books from Sporting Chance Press

Available at sportingchancepress.com and Amazon.com.

Baseball’s Winning Ways is written for enjoyment, inspiration, and information by the author of The 10 Commandments of Baseball, J. D. Thorne. Baseball’s Winning Ways examines baseball eras and their backgrounds, along with profiles of great current and past players. The drama of the game, its history, baseball superstitions, statistics, and the story of trading cards are presented clearly for readers from age 12 on up. The central theme of the book is baseball’s principles that are essential to the best baseball programs. The author points out that baseball promotes certain virtues that are so important today. These are the values that parents, grandparents, teachers, and coaches want to pass down to the next generation. $20, ISBN: 978-1-7345863-3-6 (Pub. 11/2020)

Papa Bear and the Chicago Bears’ Winning Ways by Patrick McCaskey tells the dramatic story of George Halas and his crucial role in professional football–all written for middle grades readers. Papa Bear’s leadership took professional football from its beginning into the modern age. In Papa Bear and the Chicago Bears’ Winning Ways, highlights of history are presented with vintage photographs so readers are not only exposed to the story of football, but they get American history as well. Halas’s important words of wisdom, his winning ways, are also explored and are tied into Ben Franklin’s self-help methods for young people. $12, ISBN: 978-1-7345863-1-2 (Pub. 8/2020)

Poems About the Gospel feature 150 short works written by Patrick McCaskey. Each poem provides the author’s own take on an individual passage of one of the Evangelists that are often read at Mass and other Christian services. The poems reveal the thoughts and feelings of a modern man responding to the Gospel with faith, humility, and humor. The author’s poems remind us that the Christian faith is just as alive today as ever, and the inspired writings live alongside all our foibles and culture. The author’s sense of reality rushes in at unexpected times with a “time out” for humor. Readers are struck with all the author’s variety of thoughts that fall as they might, but never take away from the faith distilled. A 45+ year veteran and Vice President of the Chicago Bears, Patrick McCaskey is the grandson of founder George Halas. $20, ISBN: 978-1-7345863-2-9 (Pub. 11/2020)

Sportsmanship is the most ambitious book in Patrick McCaskey’s popular Sports and Faith Series. First, readers are treated to a Chicago Bears Calendar of historical events that celebrate Bears’ history for each day of the year. Next, chapters feature interesting stories, sports segments, personal reminiscences, faith experiences, and the author’s humorous musings. Reflecting the practice of classic sports journalist memoirs, McCaskey has frequently written about his favorite athletes and coaches. In Sportsmanship, the author adds a new twist to this practice by including a chapter on favorite writers who have inspired him.  Towards the end of the volume are McCaskey’s speeches that have been used at social and civil events, presentations to churches and schools, and all types of occasions relating to his passion, the Chicago Bears. $20 ISBN: 978-0-9819342-4-2 (Pub. 2/2020)

Biblical Poem for October 20, 2021: Jesus Explained the Steward Parable by Patrick McCaskey

 

Poems About the Gospel,
Patrick McCaskey

Jesus Explained the Steward Parable

 

Luke 12:39-48

 

Christ talked about responsibility.

The faithful souls and the ignorant would

Be judged differently from the lazy,

The calculating, the noncompliant.

 

Duties of life can lead to holiness.

The Spirit of God leads to sanctity.

Let’s worship God in spirit and in truth.

Jesus was poor, humble, and cross-bearing.

 

Everyone has different chores and gifts.

Charity arouses hope and good works.

Let’s act with courage and humility.

Jesus Christ washed the feet of His apostles.

 

My grandfather overslept and missed the

Eastland.  Sometimes it’s okay to be late.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series.  The Sports and Faith include stories of athletes and others who live exemplary lives like George "Papa Bear" Halas, Pat's grandfather. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel is Patrick's first book of poems where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every one. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake.

 

Copyright 2021, Sporting Chance Press

Biblical Poem for November 19, 2021: Responding to the Word of Jesus Christ by Patrick McCaskey

 

Poems About the Gospel, 
Patrick McCaskey

Responding to the Word of Jesus Christ

 

Luke 11:27-28

 

From the “Navarre Bible” commentary,

We know that “The Tradition of the Church

Has always read these words as great praise for

The Blessed Virgin.”  She believed God’s word.

 

From the “Catechism of the Catho-

lic Church,” 149, we know that “Throughout

Her life and until her last ordeal when

Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary’s

Faith never wavered.  She never ceased to

Believe in the fulfillment of God’s word.

And so the Church venerates in Mary

The purest realization of faith.”

 

Mary was not the least bit contrary.

She helped everyone, even the most wary.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series.  The Sports and Faith include stories of athletes and others who live exemplary lives like George "Papa Bear" Halas, Pat's grandfather. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel is Patrick's first book of poems where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every one. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake.

 

Copyright 2020, Sporting Chance Press

Biblical Poem for October 18, 2021: Seventy Disciples Have a Mission by Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey,
Author of Poems About the Gospel

Seventy Disciples Have a Mission

 

          Luke 10:1-19

 

Jesus Christ sent seventy disciples,

Two by two, to places where He would preach.

They were chosen to be the advance men.

They were taught to say, “Peace be to this house.”

 

The Navarre Bible notes are instructive.

“Our Lord…requires of them detachment and

Abandonment to divine providence.”

 

“The actions and words of the disciples

Are, like those of Jesus, a call from God

To repentance, which must come from the heart.”

 

Saint Josemaria Escriva wrote,

“Don’t doubt it: your vocation is the greatest

Grace our Lord could have given you.  Thank Him

For it.”  I thank God for my vocation.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series. He is also a grandson of George "Papa Bear" Halas. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel is a book for all seasons where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every poem. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake.

 

Copyright 2020, Sporting Chance Press

 

Thinking of Willa Cather

I was thinking of Willa Cather lately. For me, she came highly recommended by an English teacher I had, Sister Faith Schuster. Sister Faith came from a large Catholic farm family in Pilot Grove Missouri. Willa Cather spent much of her childhood in Red Cloud, Missouri. I would imagine, Sister Faith would have felt a kinship with Cather. I have written before about Sister Faith and how proud she was of her parents who had lived long and faithfully on the farm.  Faith was all about faith, all about literature, and all about truth and beauty. 

I read a few of Cather's books in college and recently picked up her novel, O Pioneers, once again. I watch Peter J Rea's video blog about books in which he briefly mentioned it. I thought I would have another look. I am not going to pontificate on the book, but I will say that Cather says a great deal in few words. I have come to appreciate writing that kick starts your brain rather than fills you with details. 

One other things that I want to mention about the book is just how different we are becoming from people like those described in Cather's work. The Swedes, Bohemians, and French Canadians that Cather writes about in O Pioneers are far different than modern people today. If you are one of those who want to chase young readers away from such writing to the "more exotic" or more diverse, I don't think you need to bother. 

Cather's personal life is a bit of a mystery, although that was not thought particularly relevant when I was in college. But she had a Catholic background and that was in keeping with much of our reading in those days. She eventually moved to New York and did much of her writing from that urban setting, but reflecting more or her rural experiences than city life. 

A Friend Called Me to Talk About the Brown and White

 A friend of mine called me from his new home out west where it is much warmer than Illinois. He wanted to congratulate me on my book The Brown and White. He recently bought a copy without any arm twisting. It was good to have his kind words because one of the main characters in this fictionalized biography passed away about a year ago. Like a lot of other people, I am coping with the loss as we approach Christmas. I feel good that I got to tell a little of his story along with mine and I know he liked the book. The Brown and White tells our story about high school life on the south side of Chicago in the late 1960s. It's a funny story with a dose of lost love and drama. I suppose I can say it is "based on fact." 

Of course, when I wrote the book we thought we lived through some tough times, but kids today have lived through some unimaginable horrors. But my story is my story and it is about times as they were back then. 

My friend is a marketing/sales guy who said I really soft pedaled the book to the extreme. I suppose my sales efforts have been understated, but at the same time true to myself.  I have this idea in the back of my head that some day someone from the movies will give me a call and ask if I am interested in selling the story. I've joked about this for a few years now. 

It's hard to be too confident in promoting your work these days. I am just an average guy who wrote my story over 40 years and then published my book. I had plenty of time to make it better. In good conscience I can't brag about a 200 page work that I took four decades to write. In my publishing career I once had an academic with a rough manuscript on a hot topic that he would send my way only if I could produce it as a textbook in six months. I got his book done as required.  I worked on another book that once came in a few thousand pages with hundreds of very difficult formulas and reams  of pages on government programs and regulatory materials. I was lucky to get a lot of help from a great editor with a math degree and we got it out several months later. I think we sold a dozen or so editions. 

It's tough to sell a personal story because everyone has their own. What made mine more interesting than most is the times and my school characters. My add copy  reads: 

The Brown and White tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School. Collin is a white boy who is living in turbulent times in a changing city. He clings to his neighborhood and his family as he heads out each day with his classmates on the Brown and White, the ancient school bus driven by free-spirited Willie. Memorable characters abound as this story unfolds. Collin's loveable family, especially his Irish Catholic policeman father and his Irish immigrant mother face life together. Collin and classmates blaze their own humorous and passionate trail through the late 1960s. A unique cast of terrific teachers are there to see the boys through. Laughs and life meet readers head on as they travel on the Brown and White.

If you read this and are intrigued by story, take a chance on a copy, it's $12.50. A few of my kids spend that on side trip to Starbucks when they buy a few of those gigantic flavored coffees. That is about as strong a pitch as I can make! 

Lawrence Norris 

sportingchancepress.com