Scales Of Success Podcast

#54 - Convent to Competition: 72-Year-Old Powerlifting Nun with Sister Pat Farrell

• Marcus Arredondo

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What if the path to spiritual strength began with a barbell? In this episode, Marcus connects with Sister Pat Farrell, who turned faith into physical power, proving it’s never too late to redefine what strength means. From corporate life to convent life to competitive powerlifting, she reveals how discipline, purpose, and belief can transform both body and soul. Press play and witness what happens when grace meets grit and strength becomes a form of prayer.

Sister Pat Farrell, O.P., is a Dominican Sister of San Rafael and a 72-year-old powerlifting champion redefining faith and strength. Once a finance professional in Santa Monica, she followed her calling to a life of faith and leadership. Today, she inspires thousands through her ministry and her message: transformation never stops. Whether in prayer or at the gym, Sister Pat lives with discipline, gratitude, and purpose in motion.

Learn more about Sister Pat Farrell:
🌐 Website: https://sanrafaelop.org/2025/08/08/sr-pat-farrell-lifting-more-than-spirits/

Episode highlights:
(3:25) Life before the convent & turning vegan
(5:38) Discipline over motivation: The real secret
(11:27) Starting strength training at 72  
(18:22) Facing fear and finding empowerment  
(25:54) How lifting healed her body and spirit  
(33:13) Faith, purpose, and the power of community  
(41:46) The pillars of the Dominican Sisters
(49:30) Merging Buddhism and Catholic wisdom  
(54:57) Forgiveness, faith, and letting go  
(1:00:55) Choosing strength and purpose every day
(1:02:32) Outro

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Note: The transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.

Sister Pat Farrell

(0:00) So whenever you do these complex weightlifts like deadlift, bench press, and squat, you're working everything. (0:10) And you don't need to do those, I mean, I would have trouble with my back and I'd go to the doctor, she'd send me to PT, they'd give me these exercises that I hated doing, that I found to be boring, and I couldn't find the motivation nor the discipline to do on a regular basis, but I'll go lift those weights and they strengthen my core.

Marcus Arredondo

(0:32) Today's guest is Sister Pat Farrell, a Dominican sister and 72-year-old powerlifter whose story proves that discipline outlasts motivation. (0:39) At her heaviest, she weighed 213 pounds. (0:42) Today, she's down 70 pounds from her peak, deadlifting more than her body weight and living stronger than ever.(0:47) What struck me most is that her transformation didn't begin with inspiration. (0:50) It began with showing up. (0:51) We talk about how faith and fitness intertwine, how Buddhist mindfulness deepened her Catholic practice, and why forgiveness and self-compassion are as essential as strength.(0:59) Her journey reminds us that it's never too late to start over, that showing up again and again can be its own form of prayer. (1:05) Let's start the show. (1:07) Sister Pat, welcome.

Sister Pat Farrell

(1:09) Thank you. (1:09) Thank you for asking me. (1:10) This is an honor.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:11) I'm really excited to have you because I, well, a couple of firsts. (1:15) The first member of the clergy that I've had on, so I'm excited to have a conversation about the non-physical world. (1:24) But no less respect-warranting being the first powerlifting competitor winner I've ever had on the show, no less at 72.(1:36) I hope you don't mind me saying that.

Sister Pat Farrell

(1:37) No problem. (1:38) No, I advertise it because I'm strong and healthy.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:41) I love it. (1:42) I love it. (1:42) So I want to kick it off there.(1:44) First of all, did you get your did you get your lift in today?

Sister Pat Farrell

(1:48) Oh, I did. (1:49) I worked out this morning. (1:51) I go every other day, so you hit me on workout day.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:54) Okay. (1:54) But you're like first thing in the morning typically, right?

Sister Pat Farrell

(1:58) Pretty much. (2:00) The way it works is I get there at 830.

Marcus Arredondo

(2:02) Okay. (2:03) Well, I mean, you're there. (2:05) That's 99% of the purpose here.(2:08) So I read, and I could be wrong, but in my research, I think you deadlifted 160, which is more than your weight. (2:16) Right. (2:17) Considering, I think at your peak, you were 40, 53 pounds above that, something like that?

Sister Pat Farrell

(2:25) Yeah. (2:26) Right now I weigh anywhere between 145 and 147 because you know, it always fluctuates. (2:32) And at my, the top of where I measured my weight, you know, cause you know, it's like, you think I probably went over this at one point, but at the top that I measured was 213 pounds.

Marcus Arredondo

(2:45) So, and so you still are a vegan. (2:48) Yes. (2:48) Right.(2:49) Yes. (2:50) Which I actually found interesting in some of the research that this may or may not be right, but you were, you've not, you have not always been a sister. (2:59) You were in the private sector.(3:01) In fact, in Santa Monica, if I, if I recall in finance, and I want to talk a little bit about that maybe later in the conversation, but I did find it interesting that, but when you found yourself going through the process of becoming a sister, uh, they were not necessarily amenable to acquiescing to the, uh, vegan preference. (3:21) And so you adapted the non-vegan diet for a while, but then you went back when they became a little bit more open.

Sister Pat Farrell

(3:28) Well, and you know, you kind of also have to look at the time, the time of when it was, because that would have been, uh, I entered the convent in 1993. (3:39) And so I was looking, I was discerning, you know, starting in 1991 and vegan really wasn't a thing.

Marcus Arredondo

(3:47) Right.

Sister Pat Farrell

(3:48) Vegetarian was, but even then, I mean, people back it, it seems so much has happened in the last five, 10 years. (3:58) Uh, but, but, you know, it wasn't a thing to have food preferences.

Marcus Arredondo

(4:04) Yeah. (4:05) And you were, I mean, vegans are not necessarily commonplace now, but they're far less uncommon than they once were. (4:10) So, uh, you, you, you were a standout.(4:12) I'm sure the reason I bring this up because you, I read a quote that you mentioned, what got you there was cheese, cheese, cheese.

Sister Pat Farrell

(4:19) 213 pounds. (4:20) Yeah. (4:20) It was cheese.(4:21) Yep. (4:21) Yep. (4:22) I could go face down to the cheese.

Marcus Arredondo

(4:23) So this is where I want to kick this off. (4:25) What was the motivation? (4:26) What, what point, what was the turning point where you said, I want to turn back the clock a little bit and start to dial in what, where did that come from?(4:35) I mean, it's easy to say I wanted to be healthier. (4:38) I wanted to live longer. (4:39) Those are all very clear ideas, but typically, you know, not to go to the Simon Sinek route of the why, but like we all need to have, we need to have a strong enough why to justify the consistent workout schedule.(4:57) And then I want to get into this, but your own nutrition plan, especially as a vegan, in order to eat the protein that you need to consume the appropriate number of calories, you don't get from 213 to 145 and be able to deadlift 160 without conscientious measurement and managing how you're going about that. (5:17) And because I want to talk a little bit about the discipline within the convent and the uniqueness within the Dominican sisters, because I think that's the specific area of religion that I think is stand out that I think is worth mentioning, but I use that as a teaser for maybe later in the conversation. (5:33) Back to the question, what got you, what was that motivator?(5:36) What triggered it?

Sister Pat Farrell

(5:38) That's a great question, but if I try to put myself back into that time, I think I was just feeling lousy, and I was not good on my feet, and I could fall easily, and you'd notice, I mean, I knew I was getting bigger and bigger and needing larger and larger clothes. (6:01) So I can't exactly, I went to Weight Watchers at the time. (6:08) That was the first thing that I did was go to Weight Watchers.(6:10) And we can talk about motivation as much as we want, and certainly we do need some spark, some motivator, but what we really need is discipline. (6:24) And so somehow I was able to muster up the discipline going to Weight Watchers every week and following those points. (6:35) And I started to lose weight, and then I felt successful, and then I noticed that the way that the points worked was that vegetables, not much points, cheese, lots of points, and things that had fiber, things that I knew that were healthy for me, because I had eaten healthy before, things that we know what to do.(7:03) And so I figured, oh, well, why don't I just try being vegan again? (7:07) And then I hardly had to... (7:09) I stayed with Weight Watchers for quite a while, but then I lost the weight.(7:13) And then comes the real struggle, Marcus, because you reach a goal, and you've reached the goal. (7:24) And then I kept it off for probably a year, and then it started to creep up.

Marcus Arredondo

(7:29) How many years ago was this that you went down?

Sister Pat Farrell

(7:31) That would have been in 2001.

Marcus Arredondo

(7:34) Okay, so at that point you were in your late 30s.

Sister Pat Farrell

(7:39) No, late 50s, 50s.

Marcus Arredondo

(7:41) Late 50s, sorry.

Sister Pat Farrell

(7:42) Yeah, okay. (7:44) But it was... (7:46) And so then I had some yo-yo that we're familiar with over some years.(7:51) I never went back up as high as I had been.

Marcus Arredondo

(7:55) Sure.

Sister Pat Farrell

(7:56) It would be like I'd get to 170 or 180, and I'd go, whoops. (8:02) And that happened a few times over the years. (8:06) And I have been steady at this weight for probably three plus years now.(8:12) So I mean, I'm good now. (8:14) But for a while I fought the battle. (8:17) And one of the things, again, going back to discipline, one of the things that I learned was when I...(8:23) I used to keep a chart of my weight. (8:26) When I stopped getting on the scale, as much as people say, oh, I don't want to get on the scale. (8:32) If I don't get on the scale, and if I don't write down that number, it starts to creep.

Marcus Arredondo

(8:38) I cannot agree more. (8:40) It's very similar in that, in my experience, I've taken on... (8:46) I've always been an athlete, but I had a son three years ago.(8:51) And there's a number of things. (8:53) I was working from home a lot longer. (8:55) Needless to say, I started to...(8:57) I continued to lift weights. (8:58) I was relatively active, but not like in the way I used to be. (9:02) And I realized that there were some aches and pains here and there.(9:06) And I never accepted... (9:07) I'm 44, but I've never accepted... (9:10) You'll never hear me say I'm old, or I feel old.(9:13) Now, there are areas, right, where I feel like it takes me longer to recover. (9:19) I do take more time to warm up, these types of things. (9:22) But in general, I feel as strong as I've ever been.(9:25) But there was a turning point where I said I never had to worry about it. (9:30) So I never really got on the scale. (9:32) But I've gotten more...(9:33) I've gotten on the scale more times in the last three or four years than I have in the prior 40 years combined. (9:38) And there is a monumental difference when you start to manage it. (9:42) And it's not just the discipline.(9:44) It's the recognition and the connection. (9:47) So when you mentioned Weight Watchers, there was a period of a couple of months at the beginning of this year, as a matter of fact, where I was weighing every single thing I was eating. (9:57) So I could ascribe what is the protein content.(10:01) I would also take a photo. (10:02) I do research. (10:03) And so I was keeping all those macros.(10:06) And not surprisingly, there was the greatest, most immediate result during the timeframe I was doing that. (10:12) But to your point about Weight Watchers, what I think is it really allows for is the on-ramp for success. (10:19) So somebody once told me that motivation comes after the event, not before.(10:24) People wait for the motivation to go do it. (10:27) But the motivation comes not at the beginning of my run. (10:30) It's at the end of the run when I come home and I feel terrific, but I do not feel motivated the second I start running.(10:38) It's at the end of it that I want to come back and get that taste. (10:41) So I only mention all these things because at what point did that success, which you had been able to garner in sequence, translate to, okay, I want to start getting into strength training? (10:54) Because I'm asking this on behalf of, there are a few members of the audience, including some family members who are older than you and younger than you, who feel incredibly lost at the prospect of going into a gym and starting to do resistance training.(11:12) And I just love the idea that you found this late in life and have maintained the consistency and enjoyment by way of doing it. (11:21) What was the turning point and how has that manifested into making it so sustainable?

Sister Pat Farrell

(11:27) Well, there was a time, it would have been probably around 2010 or 11, when I was living, I live in San Francisco now, but I lived in San Rafael where most of our sisters live and it's on the same campus where the university that we founded, we don't run it anymore. (11:51) We're separate from them, but we're still connected in ways, Dominican University of California. (11:57) So they're around us and there's a gym across the street that is the Dominican University's gym.(12:03) And so I thought I'd go over there and I felt a little lost in there, didn't know what to do, didn't really like the treadmills and stuff like that. (12:16) And so there was, but there was a little note on the board, a little card or something or other of this guy who offered coaching. (12:25) And so I contacted him, he was an older fellow, and I had a few meetings with him and he helped orient me to the gym.(12:37) He oriented me to the machines, to the cable machines, and to some dumbbells too, so that I was able to do dumbbell rows and bicep curls and overhead presses with dumbbells. (12:54) And it was a real simple way of doing 15 reps, then 12 reps, then 10 reps. (12:59) And then eventually I might add, what, two pounds, because those dumbbells are smaller and they go up in smaller increments.(13:09) And I found that I enjoyed doing it, but I didn't really grow in it in a way. (13:15) And then I kind of fell off. (13:18) I know I ended up moving and then losing that gym.(13:22) And it's easy to fall off. (13:25) It is so easy to fall off of stuff and it's hard to get back on. (13:31) But the next time I probably went to the gym after that would have been sometime after 2014.(13:38) So around 2015, 16, I was living in the Chicago area. (13:43) I had taken a position as the executive director of an organization called the Dominican Sisters Conference, which unites different congregations of Dominican sisters across the country. (13:55) So I moved to Chicago to be more centrally located because it's just easier to get places there.(14:02) And there was a gym that I thought, I mean, and I'd started putting on weight again. (14:09) And also I didn't feel as mobile and as strong as I wanted to be. (14:14) So I got a membership at a gym there and started to do the same thing that I'd learned before.(14:21) So at this point, I wasn't a stranger to the gym, but I probably was the only woman in the weight room, but occasionally there might be somebody in those days, there weren't as many women. (14:32) And I knew I enjoyed it, but I just didn't take it very far. (14:36) And then along came COVID.(14:39) And then I ended up coming home back to California in 2020, in May during COVID. (14:47) And so it took me a while then again to get back to it because there's these blocks of time when I get distracted and I'm doing other things, then maybe it's a new position and other things are overwhelming. (15:02) Even though when you do exercise, the overwhelm gets managed better.(15:07) But when that's going on, it's hard to manage yourself. (15:11) So it would have been in 2024 in April, I thought, I really need to get back to this. (15:19) At that point, I found an online coach and I used that for about three months.(15:26) And it was working out with stuff that I had where I live. (15:30) So I have some dumbbells, I have a bench, and I had gotten one of those adjustable things where you put all of the things together and make your own funny looking barbell. (15:40) But the chemistry just wasn't right.(15:42) Maybe the timing wasn't right. (15:44) I have no idea. (15:46) But in March of this year, I was kind of like enough already, I need to do something.(15:52) And so I went to the congregation, we have a wellness coordinator who works with our senior sisters. (16:00) And I would be one of the senior sisters, although I'm one of the younger senior sisters. (16:04) And I went to her and said that I really wanted to work out again, but I thought I should have a trainer.(16:10) And she said, great, we'll support that. (16:12) So I found another online trainer, she's vegan, and she lives in Russia. (16:17) But she used to be here in the States.(16:20) And so I connected with her. (16:23) And I had in the back of my mind that I thought I'd like to compete at something at this. (16:29) And part of the reason that she attracted me was she had done competitions and could help someone with that.(16:35) And so again, I started in my apartment. (16:37) And before long, I'm outgrowing these weights in my apartment. (16:41) And I went to one of the big box gyms, where good luck finding a bench, good luck finding a barbell, good luck finding anything, and really good luck finding anybody to help spot for you.(16:53) So I went back to our wellness person, and she agreed that I could find another gym, which see the other one, the box gym, Medicare paid for, but this one we had to pay for. (17:02) So yeah, anyway, so and, and the gym that I ended up going to had a group that was going to go to a competition. (17:10) So it was like, so I had company to go with me.

Marcus Arredondo

(17:13) Sure.

Sister Pat Farrell

(17:13) First time. (17:14) I mean, I'm gonna I've signed up for another competition, and nobody from the gym is going, but I don't care. (17:20) Now I've been before.(17:22) I'm not a stranger. (17:23) And besides, by the time I walked in there, there'd been television programs, I walked in, and they said, Oh, your sister. (17:31) Anyway, there's a lot of people make friends.(17:35) It's a really strong, the body, not the bodybuilding, maybe the powerlifting community is very supportive. (17:43) So yeah, and I've just really, I've enjoyed it. (17:48) There is something very empowering.(17:51) I would say this for women. (17:53) There's something very empowering about picking up a barbell with these big weights on the end of it that make you feel like Wonder Woman.

Marcus Arredondo

(18:01) Yeah, there's so much here that I want to unpack. (18:04) First, where do you think the competition thing came from? (18:06) Has that always you wanted to compete in something?(18:09) Was it just that weights happen to be it at that moment? (18:13) Or has it always been related to weights? (18:16) Or did you want to compete in something else you wanted to find some area to compete in?

Sister Pat Farrell

(18:22) I don't know where that came from. (18:24) Honestly, it was like, this could be fun. (18:27) And you know what, there's, I think part of it is, I'd never compete in running.(18:32) I don't like it. (18:33) And number two, I'm not good at it.

Marcus Arredondo

(18:36) Yeah.

Sister Pat Farrell

(18:36) And I think even if I worked at it, I wouldn't be a competitor in it. (18:42) I don't think I'm built for it. (18:43) But there was something about, I think I had actually, I had been encouraged by some women that I had seen online who were working out with weights in their 70s.(19:00) They didn't compete. (19:02) But watching them, I thought, you know, there's, and one of them had said, when you get this old, you're lifting more weights than other people, than anybody else. (19:13) Well, I mean, I know that there's women my age and older who have lifted way more than I can lift at this point.(19:19) So I'm not quite in their league yet. (19:23) But still, at the same time, it's not like you have, you're not competing against 20 people. (19:28) Not a good or bad, but it is kind of fun to be the only one on the stage at 72 years old lifting weights.

Marcus Arredondo

(19:36) No question. (19:37) What also strikes me is, (19:40) I don't know, maybe I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but I would imagine there's a lot (19:44) of courage in having to do what you're doing just by virtue of the intimidation factor, (19:48) going into a gym where there are very few, if any, women, let alone women above a certain age, (19:54) and to continue to do it and actually find a support network that's, you know, valuable, (20:01) that allows you to actually embrace it. (20:04) I just started taking jujitsu at 44. (20:07) And like I said, I've been an athletic person, but I've never done martial arts.(20:11) And walking into that place, I was reminded of how my three-year-old son must have been switching schools, going to preschool, and it's like, oh, wow. (20:23) This is a muscle I had, for the worse of me, let fall dormant. (20:30) And anyway, it was just really, it was sort of special to re-embrace that fear in a way that was, I get reacquaint myself with that comfort within the fear, the repetitiveness of the fear.(20:48) And I'm just curious if you had that, like going back into an environment, like going to a competition to me seems like an intimidating prospect. (20:57) Was it not for you?

Sister Pat Farrell

(20:59) I know I felt anxious. (21:01) Yeah. (21:01) I did have, I was kind of like nervous, anxious about doing that, but you know what?(21:08) There was a ton of women in the group. (21:12) I may have been the oldest, but there were others that were masters, maybe a woman in her sixties, a few women in their fifties. (21:23) So courageous, it's an interesting word.(21:26) I mean, I don't think of myself as a courageous person, but then somebody will tell me that I am, but fearful, because I think of courage and fear, and I really wasn't fearful. (21:36) Anxious would have been the word. (21:38) And I do know that I've just received so much encouragement that I can do this, both from my coach and from the guys at the gym, it's a small, kind of like a boutique place almost, it's called The Yard.(21:54) And you make a reservation for your pod and everything is in the pod that you need. (22:01) There's the bench, there's the rack, there's the barbell, there's all of the weights for it. (22:07) And you have your period of time.(22:10) I usually get, I make a reservation for two hours. (22:13) I don't use all two. (22:14) I usually use about an hour and a half, but everything is there and they will help.(22:20) Now, I remember feeling like I would watch the guys do their lifting and here they are deadlifting 400 pounds. (22:29) And I'm like, I'm saying, here I am with my, and they would like immediately don't do that. (22:38) You are doing great.(22:39) You're crushing it. (22:40) Yeah.

Marcus Arredondo

(22:41) Yeah. (22:41) I mean, I just, I mean, I guess I have firsthand knowledge of people who are far younger than you that say, I'm just too old to be doing this stuff. (22:49) And to me, it's, I mean, how much of that comes from your mind?

Sister Pat Farrell

(22:53) You, if you want, if you're in your forties and you want to pick up your grandchildren, when you are in your seventies, you should be dead lifting.

Marcus Arredondo

(23:01) Oh yeah.

Sister Pat Farrell

(23:02) If you are in your forties and you want to be able to get off of the toilet when you're in your eighties, you should be squatting.

Marcus Arredondo

(23:10) Well, if you look at like the, a lot of the blue zones, I guess I'm thinking more in Japan where there's more centenarians than in most other places. (23:18) One of the more common traits is that they do squat religiously consistently, both from a flexibility and a strength.

Sister Pat Farrell

(23:24) We lost our squat, our chair. (23:27) I'm sitting on a chair. (23:27) You're sitting on, you know, we're sitting on chairs.(23:29) We lost squatting when we were maybe five.

Marcus Arredondo

(23:34) Sure. (23:35) Sure. (23:36) What have you noticed about well, I won't even limit it.(23:40) What have you noticed change as a of this consistency? (23:44) Uh, I didn't realize you had just started competing six months ago.

Sister Pat Farrell

(23:47) That's July was the competition.

Marcus Arredondo

(23:50) Well, I guess you started training for the competition in April, right? (23:53) So yeah, so that's, that to me is incredible for you to have accelerated, to have been, I mean, look, maybe the courage wasn't facing the fear, but I think there's courage staring down the clock at eight o'clock knowing that you got to go into the gym and knowing this is your first of three days this week that you're going to have to go in and then repeating that week after week after week. (24:15) That's really, you know, people talk about what you're, what you want most as a way to determine value, but it's what you're willing to give up that really determines where your values lie.(24:28) And if you're willing to give up that hour and a half, two hours, by the way, most people at 30 would be happy to get 45 minutes in the gym. (24:35) But for you to sit to, to be suggesting you're spending an hour and a half in there is to me is spectacular. (24:41) I mean, I, I, I'm thinking if you were in the gym, just how I probably wouldn't be able to take my eyes off of you because of how inspiring it is to me to, to see.(24:49) I mean, I still see, I still, I see a lot of people. (24:52) I've seen people with physical disabilities in there and it's, it's just really a remarkable (24:57) thing to, to see like the, there's a respect to the process that I have for people that, that (25:05) share that discipline, that, that religiousness, forgive me for using that word if it comes out (25:11) of context, but I do think there's an element of that, that repetitive, persistent returning (25:18) to a focal point is, I think it's a, a learned skill.(25:25) Some might be easier than others to, to take it on. (25:29) But, you know, I, I really take issue with people saying, you know, I can't do that. (25:35) Or that's not me.(25:36) That's just a, that's just a really tough thing for me to hear. (25:38) I sort of droning on, but my, well, I want to go back to my original question. (25:41) What have you seen in your life change from, from being more consistent about this and your weight loss and your general stability and confidence?

Sister Pat Farrell

(25:53) Well, first of all, before, I mean, I do realize that there are folks that have situations where they can't squeeze one more thing into their lives and I see them, you know, and they have children working two jobs, maybe even a single parent. (26:08) I mean, they are just hanging on by their fingernails. (26:13) And so I feel especially blessed that I'm able at this point in my life with the type of work that I do, that I'm able to have flexibility that I'm able to determine to do this at this time.(26:25) So I'm blessed with that. (26:26) So, and I'm grateful. (26:28) And I also get in 10 to 12,000 steps a day.(26:31) So, so that's my movement. (26:34) But what have I noticed is well, from the time of my thirties, I've had lower back issues. (26:44) And ever since I put on weight, then whenever I had heavier weight, I noticed that I had knee issues and they told me that it was arthritis, but you know, they took some x-rays at some point and, and I'm gonna, and I was going to the chiropractor regularly and it kind of kept the back problems at bay so that it wasn't acute and bothering me.(27:11) So I haven't needed to go to the chiropractor since I've been doing this. (27:15) I have no lower back. (27:17) I mean, you know what, I'm going to tell you that deadlifting has got to be the best thing for a back.

Marcus Arredondo

(27:23) There's one person in particular. (27:25) I'm hoping, I know we'll listen to this and I hope he's listening to it because that's what I keep going back because a lot of people think dead lifting hurts your back. (27:34) Well, absolutely.(27:35) And that it's only helping your legs, but I it's, it's surprising how little people are understanding how important it is to your core, your stability, your psoas, your glutes, your everything that's like among the most critical and used muscles within your body.

Sister Pat Farrell

(27:51) The whole posterior chain. (27:53) Absolutely.

Marcus Arredondo

(27:53) Yes.

Sister Pat Farrell

(27:54) You know, from the back of the tendon, the Achilles tendons, I believe all the way up through my neck, it all gets worked. (28:00) I'm working on a, on squat because when I competed, I only competed in deadlift and bench press because I lost my squat, you know? (28:11) And so I have been working on trying to lower the depth of my squat.(28:15) And at this point I'm horizontal. (28:18) So my, you know, so I've gotten down to barely being able to squat a little bit to being horizontal. (28:23) And I need to drop my butt further down.(28:26) Cause you have to be at an angle to qualify with the squat, but that works everything as well for sure. (28:33) And, and so, and then of course the bench press may it's mostly doing upper body, but you can't, it's, it's not isolated like a machine is. (28:44) So whenever you do these complex weightlifts like deadlift, bench press and squat, you're working everything and you don't need to do those.(28:56) I mean, I had, I would have trouble with my back and I'd go to the doctor. (28:59) She'd send me to PT. (29:00) They'd give me these exercises that I hated doing that I found to be boring.(29:07) And I couldn't find the motivation nor the discipline to do on a regular basis, but I'll go lift those weights and they strengthen my core.

Marcus Arredondo

(29:16) Yeah. (29:17) What's your routine? (29:18) Like can you tell me like, what are you doing?(29:20) Something specific on Mondays versus Wednesdays versus Fridays? (29:23) Are you listening to certain music? (29:25) Tell me about what it's like being in that gym.

Sister Pat Farrell

(29:27) Okay. (29:28) So I put in my earbuds and I have sometimes, you know, I have started, sometimes I might be listening when I walk, I get to walk there, it's four blocks away. (29:39) So I might listen to a podcast or a book on the way there.(29:43) But you know, I have some playlists that have driving music that I'll listen to that maybe have music from pirates of the Caribbean and you know, stuff like that, that kind of get me emotionally pumped up that I'll listen to. (30:00) And I often on with it. (30:02) Cause you know, then I'm talking to the guys at the gym.(30:04) Could you, you know, and in terms of the routine, my coach, she didn't start this way. (30:11) She used to have a different kind of app at the beginning, but since I got serious about power lifting, she does what she says power lifters do. (30:18) They use spreadsheets.(30:19) So if we use Google sheets and she'll fill in week this week with a day one, day two, day three, day four, and on and on and on. (30:28) And sometimes she puts the weight she wants me to do. (30:31) Sometimes she puts RPE, which is the Oh God, I can't think of it now, but it's basically how many reps do you have in the tank?(30:40) How many reps can you do before you run out of gas?

Marcus Arredondo

(30:43) Right.

Sister Pat Farrell

(30:43) And so if it's RPE eight, that means I probably could do two more and perceived exertion. (30:50) Thank you. (30:50) There you go.(30:51) So, um, and maybe I'm maybe so a lot, but lots of times she gives me the rate. (30:56) So, uh, weights. (30:57) So today, uh, was, uh, I did deadlift today and so, and I'm not lift the, uh, my best at this point is 165 pounds.

Marcus Arredondo

(31:08) Right.

Sister Pat Farrell

(31:08) So, but you don't lift that regularly. (31:11) What you do is it gets broken up into pieces and you do volume. (31:15) I didn't understand that first, but I'm getting it.(31:18) And so I did three sets of a hundred and was it 120 or 130 pounds today. (31:25) So, um, and three sets of 10, eight, no, there are three sets. (31:31) They were probably four.(31:32) Yeah. (31:32) So when your power lifting is lower reps, if you were doing bodybuilding, as I understand it, you wouldn't be lifting as heavy, but you'd be doing more reps and, and they don't necessarily do the complex ones.

Marcus Arredondo

(31:48) Right.

Sister Pat Farrell

(31:49) Um, and so then after that I did, um, um, she's also got me working on things so that I can do a pull up at some point. (31:56) So I did something that's called an Australian chin up today, which is setting the bar lower so that my feet are actually on the ground and I'm sitting kind of sitting and pulling myself up. (32:06) So I would have done 12 of those.(32:09) And then after that, I think it was after that I did, um, dumbbell, uh, barbell rows today. (32:16) I had done dumbbell rows earlier this week. (32:18) So today it was barbell rows.(32:21) And so that was 55 pounds. (32:23) And then I did, uh, then she had me doing, um, curls. (32:29) So barbell curls and dumbbell curls.(32:32) And, uh, so that was today's variety. (32:35) Other days, it could be, um, I might be doing flies. (32:39) I might be, those are the accessories, but there's usually on deadlift days.(32:45) That's the main lift.

Marcus Arredondo

(32:47) Yeah.

Sister Pat Farrell

(32:47) On other days, I'm doing usually a combination of bench and squat.

Marcus Arredondo

(32:52) Okay. (32:53) With some accessories. (32:54) I love this conversation.(32:56) I love having this conversation. (32:58) I just never thought I'd be having it with a 72 year old. (33:00) None, which is, this is, it's, uh, this is so special.(33:05) So I'm really appreciating like the detail that you're providing. (33:09) How have your sisters responded to this?

Sister Pat Farrell

(33:12) Well, they've been very supportive. (33:14) I mean, I think in the beginning they were a little like, huh?

Marcus Arredondo

(33:18) Right.

Sister Pat Farrell

(33:19) And, uh, and even when the first thing came, when, uh, the local TV show wanted to do an interview, there was a little bit of, is this okay? (33:28) You know, and then our, we have a PR person who said, no, this is all good news. (33:31) This is all happy news.(33:32) This is all feel good stuff. (33:34) This is not a gotcha moment. (33:36) And, uh, then what was amazing was how the whole thing took off and the sisters are delighted.(33:42) You know, it, it brings a, a little, you know, there've been a couple of them that point to more of my life as a sister, not just as somebody lifting weight, who's old. (33:51) That's just, I'm not just a novelty, but how, how did this all, what's your life like? (33:56) And, um, and so I think there, and, and, you know, my congregation is not, this is not the first time we've had an athlete.(34:06) So was it a week ago, a week ago, Sunday, we buried, uh, our dear sister of ours. (34:13) Her name was Marion Irvine. (34:15) She was 95 years old and she is a famous marathoner.(34:19) And she started running cause she was overweight and she smoked and her niece came to her and said, Marion, you got to stop this. (34:27) You've got to get healthy. (34:28) And so she got her to start running.(34:31) And now Marion discovered that she was good at it. (34:34) So she ended up being, uh, one of the, she went to the qualifying for the Olympics when she was 54.

Marcus Arredondo

(34:42) Wow. (34:43) I'm glad that you brought her up. (34:44) I wanted to ask about her.(34:46) I mean, you guys, that's, it's a nice thing to have someone who shares a very unique experience, something that, I mean, the altitude is very thin for, I would imagine, sisters, certainly sisters above 70 who are partaking in competitive physical regimens. (35:05) You had to value at the very least the sense that there was somebody else facing similar challenges?

Sister Pat Farrell

(35:14) Yeah, well, I think so. (35:16) I mean, you know, that she did this, she did this when she was not in her twenties and thirties. (35:20) And even though she didn't compete when she was my age, because I think running is another, well, she probably could have, but I think she had injuries that kept her from, you know, competition, but she never stopped moving.(35:32) Uh, three months before she died. (35:34) Now she's been using a walker for years. (35:36) I don't think she hasn't had any Achilles tendons anymore.(35:39) You know, uh, she, she's used a walker for years and three weeks before she, three months before she died, she was still walking three miles a day with her walker. (35:48) She couldn't see, she'd be walking up the street, not seeing where she was going. (35:52) And she had her floppy hat and people knew her.(35:55) So I think they, nobody, nobody hit her. (35:57) Uh, but you know, she was, she was amazing. (36:00) She was dogged, she was determined and she was that way about everything in her life, about her work, her ministry about social justice, about whatever it is.(36:12) You know, um, I was able to deliver, uh, some remarks about her at her funeral. (36:17) And, uh, what I, I ended up quoting a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might. (36:29) And that was how she lived her life.(36:31) And so she encouraged other people. (36:34) She was always encouraging other sisters to walk or run or do something. (36:38) And so she had encouraged me along the way.(36:41) And she came to the competition. (36:42) She and about five other sisters came to the competition and some, everybody left early and she stayed until I got my medal.

Marcus Arredondo

(36:51) I love that. (36:52) That's special.

Sister Pat Farrell

(36:53) Yeah. (36:54) And then two weeks before she died, she said, when's your next competition?

Marcus Arredondo

(37:00) Yeah.

Sister Pat Farrell

(37:00) And then she said, are you working on your squat?

Marcus Arredondo

(37:06) Oh, that's so good. (37:07) So, uh, we can start, I, I, I don't want to drone on too much because I, I am not sure if everybody values the discussions about the weightlifting as much as you and I might. (37:17) But, um, have you found the fact that the competitions create a new light post that you find yourself, maybe it becomes a little bit easier, the grooves are greased a little bit more to be consistent about that workout, knowing you have this destination that you are working toward.

Sister Pat Farrell

(37:35) Yeah. (37:36) I think it feels a little more possible now than it did the first time. (37:39) I think if you, there was what, what took courage perhaps was registering in the first place.(37:44) Sure. (37:45) Okay. (37:45) Then it's like, then you work towards it.(37:48) Okay. (37:48) Uh, but I think it becomes at the beginning, it was like, I could really do this. (37:53) Is it, can I compete in these two things?(37:55) And, and I could. (37:57) And so now my big stretch is to, I want to be able to squat to depth come January. (38:06) So can I do this?(38:07) Well, we'll see. (38:08) I'm working at it the best I can.

Marcus Arredondo

(38:11) Well, what I love about this is that there's a revelatory aspect to it is sort of the, the more you, you get into it, you find something, some new nuance to, to push yourself a little bit further to expand your skillset. (38:23) Um, and I think this is something, I don't know. (38:26) I think it's really easy for all of us to fall off of.(38:29) I, I, I see the value in a three-year-old learning this, but I'm realizing how valuable it is even at my age to identify this and how it fell off, but how has your life changed as a result of the media attention? (38:42) You've been on a, you've been on sort of a whirlwind tour. (38:46) Um, you've been on network TV and local television.(38:50) Tamron Hall show is the latest. (38:52) It was wild. (38:53) Yeah.(38:53) Yeah. (38:54) I can only imagine. (38:55) So how has, how has that impacted you in your, in your congregation?

Sister Pat Farrell

(39:01) Well, I mean, the sisters have enjoyed it. (39:03) Uh, we, they, I went to a watch party at the convent with all the sisters, uh, and they, they loved it. (39:10) They enjoyed it.(39:11) And I think it's a, it's a boost for morale in a lot of ways because it is, it is about life. (39:18) And you know, it's not, I mean, I don't expect people to the sisters at 80 some years old to go over to the gym and start lifting heavy weights, but some of them were saying they're trying to walk more. (39:28) This is good, you know?(39:30) Um, and, um, I mean, it's just, it's another one of those things where you just learn to, we have more in us available to us than we have any idea. (39:43) And it isn't about weightlifting. (39:46) It's just about everything.(39:49) I mean, I think back, I can't think back to long before I became a sister and, you know, I had some plumber came and needed to do some, we need to put some tiling somewhere. (39:58) And I watched him do it. (39:59) And I thought, I can do that.

Marcus Arredondo

(40:01) Yeah.

Sister Pat Farrell

(40:01) I mean, so it's kind of like, uh, that we can do stuff.

Marcus Arredondo

(40:06) Sure. (40:07) Well, honestly, that's why I wanted to have you on. (40:09) I mean, the weightlifting to me is, uh, a proxy for really what's underneath, which is the exploration on what you're truly capable of, what, what's lies underneath.(40:20) And I don't think we do push ourselves enough, but one thing I wanted to highlight is, um, I was raised Catholic. (40:26) I I'm, I'm not Catholic now. (40:27) I'm not a practice practicing, but I didn't know much about the Dominican sister of San Rafael.(40:32) So I looked them up and I want to just open this up for you. (40:35) But the one thing that caught me, and I found a lot of, um, I might be reading too much into it, but there's through lines in sort of both how you express yourself, but certainly within the, uh, attention and desire, uh, within, um, weight, weightlifting itself. (40:52) But the four pillars I identified are prayer, study, community, and ministry.(40:57) Um, the thing that took me, um, that stood out was the study component. (41:02) All of these are, are disciplinary in a, in a number of respects, including prayer. (41:07) But the study to me stood out in, um, I don't know, is it St. Thomas Aquinas, sort of a pursuit of knowledge of an openness to how everything sort of contextualized itself within God's work. (41:23) And I don't want to be putting words in your mouth, but I I'm asking you if you can share a little bit more about the Dominican sisterhood, because I, um, I do think it seems dissimilar to maybe other conventional ways to get into, uh, becoming a nun. (41:43) Am I, am I incorrect in that assumption?

Sister Pat Farrell

(41:46) Well, I think we look at, uh, the Dominican sisters, you know, I don't know if you, if people know this, but, you know, sisters put letters after their names, which represent the congregation that they belong to. (41:59) So I, as a Dominican sister, sister put the letters O P after my name, which stands for order of preachers. (42:08) So all Dominicans, whether they are the friars, the priests, the brothers, the sisters, the nuns, all of us use that O P after our names.(42:16) And I think we look at that as a charism, a gift. (42:21) And that charism is built around in a manner of speaking. (42:27) I'm glad you mentioned the pillars because I think they're, they're kind of a structure that holds something and they hold that charism in a way.(42:37) So there's community or common life community is what glues our lives together and connects us. (42:44) And it's a, you know, our relationship and relationships, it's relationships with one another, but it's, it's relationships that go beyond just even us because we're interrelated with everything and everyone and with, you know, God through us in us and around. (43:01) So I think the community is bigger.(43:04) I mean, there is, so I am supported by my community when I go to an event like this, or if I were to go to, um, Oh, any kind of event I would, we had a, you know, when we were, um, during the time when Iraq was being bombed. (43:24) Um, so this is history. (43:26) Now we have Dominican sisters, Dominican sisters had these, we had the, wore these buttons that said, I have family in Iraq and it had our shield on it, but I, there's Dominican sisters and Dominican priests and Dominican there's we're all over.(43:41) So I have family everywhere. (43:42) And there's a sense in when, when that part of the family suffers, I do too, in a way. (43:49) And when a member of the family succeeds, I do too.(43:55) You know, we, we share in all of the joys and the sorrow through community and then a common life, common prayer. (44:01) So part of our life is that we pray together. (44:03) So this evening before dinner, I'll be praying with the sisters.(44:09) Uh, um, and tomorrow morning again, I'll go to morning prayer with the sisters. (44:13) So this is part of the, the, the pulse of our keeps the pulse of our life, this connection, but that is also part of community. (44:20) Can I pray by myself?(44:22) Sure I can, but there's something that knits us together differently when we pray together. (44:27) Yeah. (44:29) Uh, sir, uh, ministry or service.(44:32) Uh, we're, we're not doing this just to be sisters. (44:36) We're doing this to be of service to others, to have some sort of ministry that matters. (44:42) I mean, um, that, that makes a difference in people's lives and we support one another in that.(44:49) And so, um, during those years when I was overweight and going to Weight Watchers, uh, actually I have where I live, it's across the street from the school where I used to be principal. (44:59) So, you know, I was serving those families, those kids, those teachers, and then study. (45:06) I think study is important because, you know, you talked first off about a why think study kind of like helps us with our wise, you know, um, helps us.(45:20) Um, and study means that we may, even it could be studying the paper. (45:25) It could be listening to a person's opinion about something that doesn't agree with me so that I can learn more about where that person is coming from. (45:35) So there's all kinds of ways of study.(45:37) Some of it is book learning, but some of it is, uh, uh, studying nature, studying, um, people. (45:44) And so now with weightlifting, I mean, I'm not satisfied with just picking up the weights and doing the routine that my, that my coach gives me, but I'm reading stuff and learning stuff and listening to stuff and trying to understand. (45:59) Some of these people are really crazy out there too.(46:02) Uh, but, uh, so I'm trying to get as much as I can because it helps me.

Marcus Arredondo

(46:08) Yeah. (46:09) How do you think that study plays into your relationship with God per se?

Sister Pat Farrell

(46:16) Well, I think, um, I'm not sure that I can say it helps me understand God better, uh, because God is the great mysterious something, you know? (46:28) Um, and in fact, perhaps studying helps me understand that God is not as definable as we'd like God to be. (46:39) Sure.(46:40) And it helps me understand myself better. (46:43) And when I do that, it understood, I understand my shortcomings, my feelings better, my, you know, my successes. (46:52) And then that makes me more open to other people and their feelings too.(46:57) And maybe that makes us more, a little more God-like when we can be more understanding of an entire situation as least as entire as we can know it.

Marcus Arredondo

(47:10) This is, so you're actually taking this in the direction that I was interested in going because I am, I am interested in, I recently had a guest who had fibrosarcoma, which is a cancer of skin tissue, which was in his face at when he was 20 years old and he had over 30 surgeries over seven years. (47:35) And, um, you know, he's got a facial difference, but something that I really enjoyed talking to him about was what identity was, because in a lot of ways he had to get reacquainted with who he was. (47:49) And in many respects, he alludes to maybe not having known who he really was prior to the event that caused him to actually find out.(47:59) And I'm, where is this related to you? (48:01) I'm curious how study, even the weight lift, I mean, in a lot of ways, to me, you are finding more and more about yourself. (48:10) You're, you're, you're observing the outside world to get a better understanding of what your own capabilities are, where your own parameters of understanding are, how you can influence other people, how you can help other people.(48:23) But what comes with that, and I might be misreading it, but there is an elimination of ego in all of these pillars. (48:32) There's a, there's a service orientation, a facilitator on behalf of God serving the community around you. (48:40) I guess, how do you reconcile sort of your own personhood, your, your own self, with that greater surrounding, how you serve other people, how you listen to them better?(48:53) You know, I'm throwing a lot at you, but I'm just curious what your perspective is, because your commitment for as long as you've been committed, I think, affords you a different intrinsic understanding of the philosophies around faith and what that means to people. (49:12) And that, I'm sort of scratching at that, is, is sort of, where does that faith come from? (49:19) And how does that relate to your own set of beliefs and battles and judiciousness relative to study, right?(49:26) You know, you know, like finding proofs and stuff like that.

Sister Pat Farrell

(49:30) Well, proofs, I don't know that they exist.

Marcus Arredondo

(49:33) Fair enough.

Sister Pat Farrell

(49:33) You know, we human beings like solid things that we can hang on to.

Marcus Arredondo

(49:44) Yeah.

Sister Pat Farrell

(49:45) And none of it's solid. (49:48) I'm not, you're not. (49:51) I am not who I was when I was 213 pounds.(49:57) I'm not who I was, actually, when I started powerlifting. (50:01) I'm not who I was when I became a sister, when I was playing in the backyard. (50:08) I'm not that person.(50:09) We are all, you know, it's kind of like that, you can't step into the same stream twice. (50:15) There's this continual change that happens to us. (50:19) I think one of the things that has helped me, and it hasn't taken me away from my Catholicism or my Christianity, but is exposure to Buddhism.

Marcus Arredondo

(50:29) Talk more about that.

Sister Pat Farrell

(50:31) So, well, you know, first off is meditating and learning as you meditate that these thoughts arise, where the heck do they come from? (50:42) I'm not manufacturing them. (50:44) They're not coming from me.(50:45) So a lot of those kinds of things of, why do I do this? (50:49) Or why do I think these things? (50:52) Becomes moot.(50:53) Doesn't matter. (50:55) They just are. (50:57) And, you know, it's kind of like you can use the throwaway expression of it is what it is.(51:01) And that does sound like a, you know, a throwaway expression. (51:05) But on the other hand, all we have is what is. (51:10) And we are busy making stories about what we thought it was and what we, who we think we are.(51:18) And we're not any of those things, you know, all we have is, and it isn't like you're just not doing nothing and living in the present moment and la, la, la, la, la. (51:30) But because, you know, we have to be, we have to be attentive to the things that we need to do. (51:38) We need to be kind to one another.(51:40) We need to be, we need to stay competent to the job at hand. (51:47) And, but there is so much, there's so much that we have no control over. (51:54) Absolutely no control over.(51:56) So how do we negotiate this life where stuff comes at us that we're trying to control? (52:04) We can't even control ourselves. (52:07) You know, we can't control our reactions.(52:10) And so I think what I've learned is to be a lot more welcoming to the me that arrives.

Marcus Arredondo

(52:24) That's, that's such a beautiful response to me. (52:27) And it tickles me a little bit because I just recently had Bob Roth, who is the CEO, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation. (52:35) I've been a transcendental meditator for many years.(52:38) And we talked about this. (52:40) And so I'm going to restate something for the audience who may have heard it already. (52:43) So it is a little bit repetitive, but what's interesting is that same process of, of you are not your thoughts in order to accept that, you know, one practice might be to observe that you're, you're observing your thought, but by virtue of acknowledging that you're observing the thought, there's also an observer observing the observer.(53:04) And it starts to go into this echo chamber all the way down. (53:08) And until you start to realize, you know, that is me, but I am nothing. (53:14) What's down there is sort of this nothingness and everythingness in the sense that it's consciousness that sort of flows.(53:22) I use this analogy from in fauna and trees. (53:25) They, you know, one side of the forest will start to protect itself against a threat that's happening on the other because it's being communicated through the soil. (53:33) There's some consciousness going on there.(53:35) And for the first time, I found a connection to God in a way that I hadn't found before. (53:42) And in that role, I found a portal into connecting with a lot of family members who are very religious that I had otherwise felt distant from. (53:52) I found a way to understand maybe something that they, that they implicitly sort of understood, or I just understood them in a new way, including their prayer, to be honest, the prayer, that discipline of the act of sort of going back.(54:09) So I really, I really value that you're reconciling the Buddhist sort of idea with a Catholic pursuit. (54:17) And I think that's incredibly valuable. (54:19) I'm curious, as you find that openness to people, what do you think you take away from how you've counseled those in your community in sort of, you alluded to, there are certain members of your community who cannot go to the gym because they are single parents or working multiple jobs, whatever the case may be.(54:40) How do you counsel them in terms of finding peace in the ability to mitigate some of those stresses that you allude to that powerlifting can help you with in terms of maybe metabolizing those anxieties?

Sister Pat Farrell

(54:56) Well, I think the main thing that we need to do is forgive ourselves for not being perfect. (55:02) How do you do that? (55:06) That's a good question.(55:07) But I mean, I think, you know, it's a practice. (55:13) It's all a practice. (55:15) So if you're going to practice gratitude, you practice saying thank you.(55:21) There's a poem somewhere, say thank you until you mean it. (55:26) And I think the same thing is true with forgiving. (55:31) And maybe we start with forgiving others first, so that maybe we can start to forgive ourselves, because the person that we most need to forgive is ourselves.(55:41) Because once we can do that, we really can forgive almost everybody. (55:45) Maybe not immediately, but because what we do when we forgive other people, we set ourselves free. (55:56) And so then if we can realize that, because there's the quote about being vengeful or vengeful towards somebody, it's like drinking poison and hoping they'll die.(56:12) And so if we can actually, you can hear that and say, ha, ha, ha. (56:16) But if we can actually really rock that, get that, it can shift something inside of us. (56:24) And we can learn to start doing that with ourselves as well.(56:28) You know, if I see somebody who is beating themselves up for not doing enough, maybe they don't have time to go to church, or maybe they don't have time to play with their kid, or I don't know what you're doing. (56:42) Number one, stop shooting on yourself. (56:48) And you know what?(56:50) Do the little things that you can, and try to find some space in your life to be grateful for those things that you can do.

Marcus Arredondo

(57:00) Yeah. (57:01) How do you advise people who might be struggling with their faith? (57:04) As someone who, it seems like you had faith and maybe, I don't want to say lost it, but you were in the private sector, and at some point it turned to the point where you wanted to get back in it.(57:19) And maybe I'm wrong, but is that a fair assessment?

Sister Pat Farrell

(57:22) Yeah, that's fair. (57:23) Yeah, that's fair. (57:24) I think to realize that God, this is an interesting thing.(57:31) Something came up about this the other day, you know, wrestling with God. (57:34) You know, sometimes you might feel like you're wrestling with your faith, wrestling with, I don't believe this. (57:38) I can't believe, this is dumb.(57:39) How can anybody believe that? (57:42) I don't think that God is that worried about the things we believe, number one. (57:48) And number two, it's okay to wrestle with God and God's ideas because God is big enough to wrestle.(57:55) And number two, we got, there's a history of wrestlers. (57:59) Now, if you follow the, you know, in the Hebrew scriptures, so if you are of any of the Abrahamic faiths, you would have come across the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel who might've been God, and his hip comes out of joint, and then he names the place Bethel because God was in this place. (58:25) So the places where we wrestle, the places where we struggle, those are the places where God is.

Marcus Arredondo

(58:33) Wow. (58:35) Well, do you think, I might've been misreading, and maybe it's what I do read, but it seems like faith is having a resurgence in a way that I don't recall it being as prevalent. (58:48) And I think maybe coming post-pandemic, you know, I don't know if it's mental health or also within, you know, Catholicism seeing the first millennial canonization.(59:02) Yeah. (59:03) You know, I'm curious, do you see an influx or am I, you think I'm misreading that zeitgeist?

Sister Pat Farrell

(59:12) There could be, there could be. (59:13) I've wondered myself. (59:15) I mean, I don't know what kind of direction it's taking.(59:19) You know, it's hard to know whether, I think there's a lot of frustration, anger, uncertainty, worry, fear currently in our culture. (59:30) There's a lot of animosity. (59:33) There's all kinds.(59:34) So I think that people are looking for an anchor. (59:38) And so it's hard to know what direction that would take over time. (59:43) But I think that people naturally reach out for something beyond, I believe it's all within us.(59:51) And at the same time that we don't know that we're reaching out someplace else to find it someplace else. (59:57) And hopefully when we reach out in a faith journey, no matter which tradition it is, it ends up bringing us back to find out that it's been here all along.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:00:09) Yeah. (1:00:09) What a great way to end this. (1:00:12) You're an inspiration and I love talking to you.(1:00:15) I think I got a lot of value out of this conversation. (1:00:19) And I just want to commend you that it's great that you're getting into the gym. (1:00:24) It's great that you're doing this community service, but you putting yourself out there in this way and expanding the platform, I think is allowing people who wouldn't be otherwise introduced to these ideas.(1:00:41) You're doing an incredible service. (1:00:43) So I just want to thank you for doing that. (1:00:46) And this has a real joy and inspiration.(1:00:49) Do you have any closing thoughts or things you think we might have missed?

Sister Pat Farrell

(1:00:55) Well, I can't think of what we missed, Marcus, but I appreciate the time. (1:00:59) I think we need to try things we haven't tried, believe things we haven't believed, even trust people we haven't trusted. (1:01:10) Trust life.(1:01:12) We're all going to die anyway. (1:01:14) So do it. (1:01:19) I'll pass on that quote.(1:01:21) But you know what? (1:01:22) It's a wonderful life. (1:01:27) There's a book that I read several years ago.(1:01:30) It's written by Edith. (1:01:33) I can't think of her last name, but I know the book was called The Choice. (1:01:38) She lived through the Holocaust.(1:01:41) And she teaches in her book and whenever she talks that we always have the opportunity to choose. (1:01:48) We think that this is misery that somebody put upon us and it's just awful, but we can choose to go through it with dignity. (1:01:59) So no matter what faces us, you talked about your friend with the facial cancer and it sounds like he really got into it.(1:02:10) He took it by the horns. (1:02:12) He went in there and faced it and he's facing recreating himself. (1:02:17) And that's what we have to do with everything in life is to whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might.(1:02:24) So my hands right now are doing barbells.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:02:30) Sage advice. (1:02:32) Thank you, Sister Pat.

Sister Pat Farrell

(1:02:33) Okay, Marcus. (1:02:34) Thank you so much.

Marcus Arredondo

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