Dear Friends,
Last Sunday, the world witnessed the conclusion of the HBO television series, The Game of Thrones. It was
a fantasy about the struggle for power in a land called Westeros and based upon the novels of George R. R. Martin. It
was quite popular over the eight seasons and introduced many people to what life may have been like during the late
Middle Ages. The novels were loosely based on the thirty-year War of Roses, which took place in England during the
fifteenth century between the Yorks and the Lancasters (Starks and Lannisters). However, there were no dragons in
England in 1422!
At a time when the world downplays the role of ritual in life, this series was full of rituals and clearly showed
the power of ritual. Anybody who watched the show knows the meaning of “to bend the knee” and what power the
gesture holds – for life and death. Viewers were moved when Jaime knighted Brienne of Tarth in a ritual gesture.
They saw the practiced ritual encounters between queen and subject and the greetings of “my Lord and my Lady” –
even the insistence of proper greetings as a theme throughout the show. Words and gestures done in ritual take on a
much greater power than a simple word in passing between strangers or friends. Game of Thrones also showed the
power of a chair (throne), the conflict between gods, and the lasting impact of a good story (history). It was an
amazingly popular series for our postmodern world.
One of the stubborn myths of our postmodern world is the notion that religion is something you believe rather
than something you do. Religion as a belief system was the invention of the Enlightenment that reduced Christianity
to a set of superstitious propositions in order to discard it. However, religion was never simply about a set of beliefs.
All major religions enfold believers in a way of life, teach them to be a part of a larger story shaped by a repetition of
rituals and so inscribe a posture held toward the world. Believing is something you do not just something you think.
As the Game of Thrones so clearly showed, we human beings are ritual animals. If you don’t think rituals
have power, I invite you to look at the national controversy that arose over those who chose to “take a knee” during
the playing of the national anthem at sporting events. That was a counter ritual gesture during a national ritual.
Rituals enable us to be human. They enfold us into something older and bigger than ourselves. They push
against our stubborn belief that we are autonomous individuals who can do whatever we want. They carry us beyond
ourselves into the realm of the transcendent. Rituals are never just something you do, they in turn do something to
you. They remind us that there is a kind of believing we do with our hands, on our knees, and on our faces.
A recent story in America magazine tells about how numerous evangelical megachurches throughout the
country are beginning to add liturgical rituals to their Sunday gatherings. They no longer simply entertain and hear
long talks when they gather, but now are reciting ancient prayers together, doing eucharist at an altar with prayers that
sound “catholic”, and wearing special robes. They are discovering that religion needs ritual for it to move from our
heads to our hearts.
Ritual is the way we learn to believe with our bodies. Philosophers of religion tell us that sometimes we
belong before we believe; we belong in order to believe; we practice our way of believing, and our practices sustain us
in the dark times when we find it hard to believe.
Athletic coaches speak about muscle memory. They encourage players to make the same actions over and
over again until the movement becomes second nature to them. The repeated rituals of our Catholic faith help us to do
the same with our spiritual lives. The ritual frees us to truly encounter God, it is the incarnation of devotion and adds
a deeply human enchantment to the journey to heaven.
We readily “bend the knee” before our king and offer our bodies to a deeper encounter with the divine.
Peace,
Fr. Damian