National Prayer Vigil

I’m writing on Monday night. It was this time last week that I received a text from a parishioner asking if I was watching the Buffalo Bills football game to which I said no. She said a player collapsed and they did CPR on the field. I’ve never heard of or seen that in a football game. I immediately turned on the game which had been delayed (and ultimately postponed). Within seconds of turning on the TV, I heard the first mention of praying for this young man, Damar Hamlin. Like everyone else around the country, I heard that refrain repeatedly for the next few hours and began to pray for him.

While it was the sports channel, ESPN, and many mentions of tweets and messages from secular media, you’d think you were watching EWTN or the 700 Club. There were no qualifications about “however you pray” or “whatever God you believe in”. It was just straight up “pray for Damar” every time. And, that mantra has continued to this point. We are still fundamentally a Christian country, so the implication I made was ‘pray to Jesus’.

I went to bed after midnight thinking I had just witnessed a National Prayer Vigil. It was awesome. At that point, I was encouraged that he was in critical condition which meant still alive. He is doing much better with his heart and mind which is so amazingly good. The power of prayer, people! It was a super serious and scary situation that people everywhere had only place to go: God. He’s the only person or thing in this world bigger than death.