Perhaps you have never thought about praying at a theme park. Or maybe, like when you go out to eat, you wonder if you should make the sign of the cross and say grace before eating at a theme park. St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, so we can even look for opportunities to pray at a theme park. It is part of the role of sanctifying the day and the places we go as Christians.
I would say that we should aim to pray just as much on a day at a theme park as any other day. At home, we try to get into the routine of saying grace before meals (and some people also do so after), so we should try to do that, too, at a theme park. As mature Christians, we should also have prayer time at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. We should be faithful to those times when we go to a theme park, too (even if we are tired at the end of the day, it’s good to thank God for the blessings of the day and also ask forgiveness for times when we were perhaps selfish). Perhaps praying a rosary on the way to the park will help your family be grounded in prayer before a day of excitement (and perhaps long lines). Now I’ll talk a little bit of what I’ve done for my prayer (especially my required Liturgy of the Hours prayers that I pray as a priest) at theme parks. First, I’ll describe what I do for prayer when I’m with others (like a friend). First of all, I’ll plan ahead to do most of my prayer time before I go to the park or after I return. A theme park is full of sights and sounds, so it is not an easy place to pray (although I think it can be done). I’m pretty low maintenance at a park; I really just need the occasional meal or bathroom break. So if I’m at the park with someone who has to take more frequent pauses, then I might take one of those breaks to do my Daytime prayer, for example. A few months ago, a friend and I were getting into a line that was over an hour long with social distancing outside. We decided to pray the rosary, only pausing when we had interact with the cast members or other guests. When I am at a theme park by myself, I have some greater flexibility as to how I can schedule my prayer time. If a queue is not too interesting, I can probably do one of my Liturgy of the Hours prayers. If a line is relatively long, I might pray my rosary (especially if I didn’t do it on the way to the park) or a Divine Mercy Chaplet. Something that I haven’t tried (and I have some hesitancy about doing it) is praying my Holy Hour at a theme park. A Holy Hour is best prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament before Mass, but sometimes I don’t have easy access to a church. In addition, the best times for being at a theme park (in terms of getting rides in without much of a line) is the beginning of the day and the end of the day. If I could be assured that I could find a quiet, out-of-the-way, shaded place in the park, I might choose to try that in the middle of the day. Hope this helps give you some perspective. I think some time I’ll have to write up my thoughts on wearing clerics to a theme park.
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