Schola Affectus: 'Olympic Opening Ceremony or Liturgy'

I was blown away by Friday Night's Opening Ceremony. It was beautiful, absorbing and emotional at times. More than once it struck me as transcending mere ceremony to having a liturgical quality to it. Whether it was the children’s choir hymn singing at the start, or the moving memorial to the 7/7 victims in the middle – with its reflective change of pace, beautiful rendition of Abide with Me, or the powerful and symbolic lighting of the Olympic Flame at the end – ‘Easter Vigilesque’ followed by the angel/bird like cyclist rising towards heaven.

These spiritual elements would have pleased Baron De Coubertin, the Jesuit educated founder of the modern Olympics who once said: "I tried from the beginning to awaken religious feelings by the renewal of Olympic movement … The sport-religious thought has entered only slowly into the awareness of the sports men and women … But little by little it will be taken quite seriously by them‘. I think that invoking of the power of the transcendent is when the ceremony moved into liturgical territory. To read more ofthis blog by Schola Affectus see:

http://sjsa.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/olympic-ceremony-or-liturgy/

Schola Affectus is a Jesuit priest in Liverpool