"Back then, terrorism was a foreign concept," explains Gisela Manger of Munich, Germany. "It would not have occurred to us to pray in preparation for the Olympics." The atmosphere leading up to the 1972 Games in Munich, she says, was celebratory, festive. So when eight armed Palestinians broke into the athletes' village and killed 11 members of the Israeli team, the shock was overwhelming.
Munich was a turning point. On the one hand, it alerted people to the fact that the Olympics could be a target for terrorism. Yet on the other hand—and perhaps more significantly—it said to the world: Your prayers are needed.
That was certainly the case for Manger, who is actively praying about the Olympic Games in Athens. "I believe that you can't measure the power of prayer," says this Christian Science practitioner, who is still based in Munich. "It goes beyond borders and distances. It's universal. I've seen this time and again in my own life."
