Prayer Room

Just came out of the prayer room, after saying the Divine Mercy chaplet and praying a bit for various intentions, located near dayrooms, where I checked in after wandering aimlessly, tired and unfresh after all night flight from Dar es Salaam and trouble at the airport here in Zurich, having missed my connecting flight to Warsaw and being forced to stay the whole day and night till tomorrow morning when I will hopefully conclude my air travel to Poland...

Whenever I happen to stay overnight in Zurich (usually on the return leg of my trip to Europe and back to Tanzania, I go to the prayer room to calm down, to meditate and pray a bit. I like the simplicity of the prayer room, though it is a far cry from the chapel at Warsaw Okecie Airport... The chaplaincy website in Zurich airport can be found here, if you wish to see some pictures and get more info on religious activities at this airport.

What saddens me a lot is that I never ever found anyone praying in the Christian part of the prayer room, just always being there myself on all occasions I went in there to pray. But usually in the Muslim part, behind a semi-curtain, at the times of Muslim prayers, there are always people praying on the carpet, with the direction of Macca shown on the floor. Maybe the situation is different in the main chapel as shown in this video clip, but here, in the prayer room, I never found any Christian praying inside...Maybe again, I had bad luck, but it has been already several times throughout the last few years...

I never found a Jewish people there either, as they have also a place in that prayer room, between Christian part and Muslim part of it, with direction of Jerusalem shown on the floor as well...

This situation speaks volumes about the actual state of the religiosity in Europe and elsewhere in the world. We, Christians and Jews, seem to have lost a bit the need to worship, and to worship in public in particular. But our Muslim brothers are not ashamed of their faith and practice it strongly as I can witness here at this small room in the back of the Zurich airport....

I was moved by the gentleness of two young Muslim ladies, I found in their part of the prayer room, who were praying aloud, but when I entered the room, they lowered their voices to the level of a whisper, out of respect to my presence, and my place in the room, in the Christian part of it.

May God bless all who enter this holy space in Zurich airport and grant their prayers...and those who lost their faith or a need to worship in public or to maintain close contact with the Living God in daily life and travel, may be brought back to Him and taste the sweetness of His love and mercy...