In Omnia Paratus

Duisburger Pater Tobias läuft einen 100 Kilometer-Ultramarathon, um Spenden ...

Duisburg (ots) – “Ein Ultramarathon ist mit großen Schmerzen verbunden. Das halten nicht viele aus”, erklärt der Mülheimer Sportmediziner Dr. med. Markus Becker. Doch Pater Tobias nimmt genau diese Qualen auf sich, um mit Leib und Seele gegen Armut zu kämpfen. Wenn es sein muss, läuft er dafür eben 100 Kilometer quer durch die Schweiz. 15 Stunden lang, denn jeder Kilometer bringt Spendengeld.

Das Ordensmitglied der Prämonstratenser Chorherren der Abtei Hamborn hat in den vergangenen fünf Jahren bereits viele Kilometer hinter sich gebracht – und jeder Schritt kam Obdachlosen und Hartz IV-Empfängern zugute.

Nichts jedoch im Vergleich zum aktuellen Ziel: die Bieler Lauftage (Schweiz) am 17. Juni, an denen Pater Tobias an seine persönlichen Grenzen geht. “Bei einem 100-Kilometer-Lauf hilft kein klassisches Training, da ist die Motivation, die Willensstärke ausschlaggebend”, so Becker, der den Pater bereits seit fünf Jahren medizinisch betreut. Und vielleicht hilft ja auch der Leitgedanke der Prämonstratenser, “Ad Omnia Paratus”, wonach der Mensch vollkommen und zu jedem guten Werke völlig ausgerüstet ist.

Auf einen Brief an den Papst, mit dem Pater Tobias auf die missliche Lage in seinem Heimatort – dem Duisburger Norden – und seine sozialen Projekte aufmerksam machte, bekam der Pater sogar ein Schreiben aus dem Vatikan, in welchem Papst Benedikt XVI. ihm den Apostolischen Segen erteilt. Ein unglaublicher Ansporn, genauso weiterzumachen.

Nullspace: In Omnia Paratus

On occasion I have pondered what I would compose for the last post here. I have never gotten around to writing whatever it would be, and this is not that post. However, circumstances are that content here will be quiescent here at least indefinitely. One of my many avocations will have me more than a few time zones away for the time being (my friend, the late Clarke T. explains ). For reasons both practical and otherwise I will not be posting until I return. In that this could be a relatively short period, we will have to save the long goodbye for another day. Just didn’t want anyone overly concerned if they find the content here becoming a bit stale and I hope nobody suffers any withdrawal. I suspect I will be a bit too busy to suffer withdrawal myself. This does give me an excuse to say what has been a latent thought for some time. I truly appreciate the readers that seem to have accumulated here over time. The unique daily user count here ranges between 250 and 500 depending on the mood of the blogosphere and the exogenous news cycle. I presume some more read via content aggregators of one form or another that do not get caught in my metrics. When I started, it really was not with much intention of building an audience. In fact when I began it was almost as a closed invitation-only type of blog. I really didn’t quite imagine more than a very small number of folks would want to read my musings on all things Pittsburgh. So now, 2,425 posts later, if I were to write it over again I don’t think I would change anything I put in Post Zero explaining my motivations here. What has changed is that I have been heartened many times by the realization that engaged folks do read here and it is possible to have a meaningful civil discourse that goes beyond the superficial. Or, as Potter once put a bit more eloquently, Discourse Without the Dis .

In omnia paratus, a study of the influence of the classics on two Balliol poets of the nineteenth century

The Classical outlook

The Western antiquary

The Western antiquary; or, Devon and Cornwall notebook

Fairbairns Crests of the families of Great Britain and Ireland, Text