“Even in the winter, it is important to get out and get moving,” she said.

One of the skaters, Auravelia Colomer, 25, said she appreciated the fact that Skate and Prayer allowed her to combine meditative, reflective time with recreational time.

“I enjoy skating,” said Colomer.  “It’s nice to have the opportunity to do it in a group setting in a faith-filled environment.”  

The prayer component of the event came into play before the participants started skating. Bourke led the group of young adults through a reflection focused on movement as prayer. The reflection expressed how prayer and skating can be related.

“What if prayer can be more than words?” Bourke asked the group.

“What if skating was prayer? Today we free ourselves to be with God and each other in the great outdoors and allow our movement... to be a prayer to God — a prayer that expresses so deeply and fully who we truly are right now.”

This pre-skating reflection concluded with the participants saying the Lord’s Prayer in unison along with hand motions and simple gestures.

For instance, the participants knelt down as they said, “Forgive us our trespasses,” and they waved their hands in the air for the closing words of the doxology, “For the glory and power are yours now and forever.”

The reflective atmosphere did not end once the skaters got on the ice.

With regard to the prayer component of the event, Bourke said it doesn’t mean a person skating along is in a constant state of prayer.

“Movement becomes prayer,” she said.


Bourke noted that one can use the imagery and symbolism of the skating trail itself, which is roughly in the shape of a figure-eight, to reflect on life journeys.  

To learn more about Faith Connections and its upcoming events, see www.faithconnections.ca.

(Gagliano, 20, is a life sciences student at the University of Toronto.)