"Citius, Altius, Fortius"

When I said in this weekend's homily that I was excited about the Summer Olympics, I wasn't kidding. . . On Friday evening, to celebrate the opening of the 29th Olympiad, the Noems and I shared a Chinese take-out dinner as we awaited NBC's coverage of the Opening Ceremonies. Josh set a lovely table for our evening together:

(Admittedly we took some liberties with the Chinese theme . . . our beverage of choice was sake, which is of course Japanese, not Chinese . . . and I'm not sure about the Buddha Board

that served as our interactive entertainment, but I think that is sufficiently Chinese and Japanese.)

Never one to make getting food into my mouth any harder than it needs to be, I left the chopsticks on the plate and used my fork. But the lady of the house decided that I was wimping out . . . so she insisted I borrow her sons' kiddie chopsticks: 

Sufficiently loaded down with MSG we retired to the living room for the Opening Ceremonies. Jim Gallaher, who is back in Portland for the week to celebrate two weddings, joined us for the viewing

From start to finish we were all blown away by the ceremonies.  (Okay . . . Josh, Stacey, Oscar and I were blown away . . . ever the cynic, Jim slowly worked his way toward excitement.) I simply can't ever remember being so impressed by an Olympic ceremony.

Beyond the obvious technical and artistic achievements that were on display, I couldn't help but think of some of the historical and cultural implications: Will these Games inspire a new interest in China among young Westerners, and a deeper internationalism among young Chinese? Was the ceremony's appreciation for China's history and diversity typical for the People's Republic or was this something new? Might these Games just prove to be the catalyst for freedom in China that the world has hoped for?

Let's hope and pray this is the case. As we celebrate the Olympic ideals by cheering these athletes on, let's pray in a particular way for the Church in China - that our brothers and sisters there will have the freedom necessary to practice the faith.