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When Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Goebel skated off the Salt Lake City ice Feb. 14, the quick Sign of the Cross that he made didn’t go unnoticed.

“I remember I thought ‘There’s our boy,’” said Valerie Zemko, Goebel’s former physical education teacher and principal at St. Colette School in Rolling Meadows told the suburban Daily Herald. “You can tell he got a good Catholic school education.”

For the second week of the Games, David Anderson, music director at Ascension Parish in Oak Park, coordinated twice-daily sessions of Taizé prayer, an ecumenical style of prayer marked by simple chants, Scripture readings and silent reflection.

Organizers of the prayer experience for the Salt Lake City Games asked Anderson to participate because he has led Taizé prayer for 10 years at Ascension and travels extensively to promote use of the style.

“Catechesis is at the heart of the mission of the church, to pass on not only the truth of Christ’s teaching but the formation of disciples,” said Auxiliary Bishop Edwin M. Conway, who spearheaded the effort.