In his lecture, Fr. Kelly will provide an overview of the way Catholics have engaged in sport from the medieval period to the present and then develop a contemporary “spirituality of sport” by making use of the flow theory of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The flow theory is helpful for developing such a spirituality because of the close attention Csikszentmihalyi and his researchers have paid to the experiences of young people participating in games and sports over the years. That theory is also useful, because some of the basic characteristics of the flow experience – such as living fully in the present moment, a loss of consciousness of self, a sense of growth, a sense of being part of some greater entity, and an altered sense of time – are similar to the characteristics of the spiritual life as these have traditionally been described by spiritual writers. Using the flow experience as a starting point in this lecture, Fr. Kelly will propose several concrete ways the experiences of young people in sports are related to human growth and self-transcendence and can serve as preparation for the kind of spiritual life described by such figures as Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius of Loyola and Pope Francis.