What would Prayer Olympics look like? The question occurred to me while biking this morning (NunCam). Would there be a Team Rosary event? Maybe a Centering Prayer balance beam event? A Pool of Bethesda swim event? The possibilities seemed endless!
I imagined that the Prayer Olympics wouldn’t be competitive, with judges, winners, losers, and huge advertising dollars. The Prayer Olympics would be collaborative and oriented to a deeper relationship with God.
The question of Prayer Olympics also made me wonder what the faith communities in the United Kingdom are doing during the Olympics. I found an answer on the website More Than Gold. The site is sponsored by more than 60 Christian organizations in the U.K., including the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.
They have a ton of resources on the website. My favorite was Section 5 of the Prayer Guide: Praying for Social Justice Issues. The section includes prayer suggestions, and it opens with these words:
Experience shows that a vast event like the 2012 Games is likely to create significant social issues. As the result of consultation, More Than Gold’s Social Justice Team has highlighted the following as significant issues:
• Homelessness
• Human Trafficking and Prostitution
• Fair Trade
• The Environment
• 100 days of peaceWhere there are major social issues at stake, there are also major opportunities for God’s Spirit to intervene. When so many nations gather for an event like the Games, we have an unparalleled opportunity to impact global issues and change
the world, if only we are ready and active in prayer.
During the remainder of the Olympics and beyond, I will keep in prayer the people whose lives are most affect by the five issues that the Social Justice Team highlighted. Today, on the Feast of St. Alphonsus, who suffered greatly in life, I pray especially for women and men forced into prostitution, and for a conversion of heart and mind for human traffickers.
What is your Olympic Prayer for today?
