CV NEWS FEED // The Paris-based Catholic social prayer network Hozana Association has joined forces with the app Rosario to hold its own “Rosary Olympics” alongside the 2024 Olympic games.
“Inspired by the extraordinary feats of athletes,” the Rosary Olympics will encourage Catholics to mirror the intensity of Olympians in their prayer lives, Cassandre Verhelst, head of Hozana’s Anglophone edition, told CatholicVote in a July 26 interview.
“These athletes are giving their whole life and everything they’ve got to a cause,” Verhelst said, noting that Jesus is “the cause” closest to the hearts of all Christians. “The idea is that during the duration of the Olympic games, we challenge ourselves to get into the habit of praying the rosary daily.”
The Olympic games in Paris began Friday morning and will continue till August 11.
Participants start off the challenge by first downloading the app and then praying one decade of the rosary per day with a group of four other participants. “You know, we always talk about the communion of saints and praying together,” Verhelst said of the social component to the challenge. “This just makes it so concrete.”
Gradually, as the games continue, the number of decades will increase to two, three, four, and five, with participants joining a new group for each decade. “So you have your group with your first decade and your group with your second decade, and then third and then fourth, and then fifth,” Verhelst explained.
Connecting the rosary challenge further to the Olympic games, Verhelst reflected that all athletes have a coach, who often repeats the same advice and is a constant encouraging presence. Similarly, she said, “we have a coach as well” in the Virgin Mary:
Our lady in each one of her apparitions, she tells us my dear children, pray, pray the rosary, pray more intensely, pray for peace, pray for the end of the war, pray for the end of wars.
And she’s there, she’s constantly reminding us—so maybe it’s time to listen to our coach, and put into action what she’s asking us to do.
For those visiting Paris during the games, Verhelst shared that Catholic churches throughout the city are also hosting their own “Holy Games,” which began with a Mass on July 25. Throughout the Olympics, churches in Paris will host various concerts, speaking events, and opportunities for people to pray for athletes.
Verhelst says the “Holy Games,” which have not been done in the country before, signify for France “a desire to let Catholicism be known again and make it part of the environment.” She also credits young Catholics in France with kindling a resurgence of similar initiatives in Paris and throughout the country.
“What’s impressive, I think, among the French youth is that everyone is committed and has a real way of testifying their faith,” Verhelst told CV.
