Ryan Pageau-Sacred Place in Sports

I read Mark's post and I would have to agree with him as I also believe an ice rink can be considered a sacred place. As a teammate and friend of Mark's, I skate 3-4 times a week and spend hours on end in locker rooms and on the ice. Although I have not been playing hockey nearly as long as Mark, my experiences in and around the rink are ones that I will never forget. From the moment you step into an ice arena, a distinct aroma immediately hits your senses, and the smells are unlike any others I have encountered. People use all sorts of different methods to release energy, calm down, and meditate. Working out, running, reading books, or playing chess, etc are all examples; I do this on the ice. For me, an ice rink is the one place that I can go where nothing else matters. Every problem I have, every test I haven’t studied for, everything that could possibly be bothering me at the time is instantly washed away as soon as I step foot in an ice arena. Most people are appalled at the smell of a hockey player and their gear, but I love it. When you do something so frequently, you become accustomed to it, and without it the rancid smell of my hockey gear, it just wouldn’t feel authentic. When you play with a team of initially stranger’s day in a day out, those strangers become friends. Eventually the bond will grow stronger and a "family" is formed. The things we talk about in the locker room are funny, sad, insulting, embarrassing, humorous, and anything else one could imagine; they are conversations I wouldn’t dare let my mother hear. The feeling of slipping my bare foot into a soaking wet ice skate is one in which I would not trade for anything else. Stepping onto freshly cut ice on a 1/4 centimeter wide worth of steel is something that not all have experienced, but should. Sometimes, when the rink is cold enough, the glass and the ice become engulfed by a fog so thick you can hardly see. All of these experiences are why I agree with Mark and definitely believe that an ice rink is a sacred place, to me.

Mark Dungan- Sacred Place in Sports part 2

Continuing from my previous post, I do feel that any place can be come sacred in one way or another. I have been actively involved in ice hockey for the majority of my life and there are places that all hockey players (amature or professional) that are considered sacred and that everyone should visit atleast once in their life. Places such as the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto; Lake Placid where the 1980 Miralce on Ice occured; or the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. (if your a Capitals fan). Agreeing with Lane's axiom "sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary"; these places have turned from ordinary places to some of the biggest and most meaniful places in hockey. In the past couple seasons, the Verizon Center has been bringing in the largest crowds in the NHL in which everyone comes together to cheer for the Capitals. There is no other experience then watching one of the best teams in the league in a rink compact with a sea of red composed of hostile and passonate fans . Win or loss, when one leaves the Verizon Center they feel like they have just had an experience of a lifetime.

Mark Dungan- Sacred Place in Sports

When I first came into class, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was going to be more of learning about big named national parks such as Yellowstone; I wasn't expecting there to be such a religious side to the class. At first I believed a sacred place would be something such as Mecca for Muslims. After reading the first couple chapters in Lane's Sacred Place book, my belief of a sacred place has changed. When learning about the four axioms, I partially agree and also disagree with them. I feel that just about any place can be considered sacred just as long as it has some special meaning to someone. Sure the sterotypical sacred place would be somewhere that people come to have a religious expierence for but since I started playing hockey when I was 6 years old, I consider the ice rink to be my sacred place. For the past 14 years, I have spent atleast 3 to 5 days out of every week in the ice rink. For many families, every Saturday and Sunday, they were in the rink all day and night watching hockey games. I feel that any place can be transformed into a sacred place as long as it has a specific meaning.

Jack Soule - Axis Mundis

Is the concept of an axis mundis really a place where the "veil" between Heaven and Earth is thin? The concept, to me, seems like it would fit very well into the beliefs of some eastern spiritual traditions, but the examples used in relation to the Judeo-Christian tradition seem somewhat hazy. Certainly in the New Testament there is a shortage of actual physical places that could be considered axes mundis. But even in the Old Testament I think it's hard to classify places such as Solomon's Temple or Bethel (Jacob's Ladder) as a place where the veil is thin. Certainly, if we are going strictly by the definition of an axis mundis as "the center of the world," these places could be classified as such, but in the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is not limited to coming into the world in only specific places; He is both imminent and transcendent. These places are absolutely sacred place - they fit perfectly into Lane's four axioms - but I think they are sacred not because there is a mysterious thinning of the veil (which is, again, a concept more associated with the Far East (Buddhism and Taoism, etc.) - although certainly an interesting, archetypal one)) but rather because the Lord deemed it as such. Though it certainly could be argued the other way - I myself do not believe that there is a single limitation on God (which I see an axis mundis as being) - because there is evidence which could support such a conclusion. The Promised Land is where the Israelites settled in and saw God rule over them, it is where Jesus' ministry took place, and Mount Moriah (a mountain range in the Promised Land) is the location of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son, Isaac, the supposed location of Solomon's temple, and also where Bethel was located. So it could certainly be argued that there is a veil between the two worlds and that it is especially thin over this land, but it is also very possible that this is simply where God chose to do His greatest work.

Jenna Wall - Scared Place Chooses

In Lane's text it is stated that a sacred place is not chosen, it chooses. Before reading this, I always thought that a sacred place was where something spiritual had happened in the past. I didn't stop to think about how an ordinary place could be sacred. A scared place isn't a place man chooses, but I still don't think the place itself "chooses" to be sacred. In my opinion, the last statement Lane makes regarding the first axiom sums it up: "God Chooses to reveal himself only where he wills." It isn't man's choosing, but it isn't the location that chooses either. God reveals himself in that moment and God chooses to make that particular place scared to that particular individual. We each have different locations that we see as sacred because of what God chooses to reveal to us, not because of what we choose.