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Pray as you go: technology and prayer
By Rosie Perera | April 22, 2008 at 1:34 am
I recently learned about a great website from a friend who has it set as her home page in her browser. Jesuit Media Initiatives has created pray-as-you-go, a daily podcast for a guided prayer time of about ten minutes. I’ve bookmarked it and now am trying to develop the habit of taking a prayer break from the computer every day. I wish there were an hourly one available!
The Jesuits are good at integrating new media with Christian spirituality. As the JMI website explains:
In many parts of the world…the development of new media is changing not only the way we communicate, not only our way of life, but the nature of society itself. An often-cited decline in church attendance is, to some extent, part of a decline in attendance in general – at clubs, concert halls, cinemas, political meetings, elections and even football matches and shopping centres. Fewer and fewer people go out to participate in these activities, as more and more entertainment, services – and even interaction with others – becomes accessible via television, internet, cable, CD, DVD, etc. in the home.
Desirable or not – and irreversible or not – this trend is, for Jesuits, not something to be afraid of, but an opportunity to be grasped. “We ought to use these things to the extent that they help us towards our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it.” (Principle & Foundation, Sp Ex 23). Ignatius was alive to the cultural changes of his time and oriented the Society to meet the challenges of the age using all the media at its disposal. Jesuits in [the] 21st century…must make the most of the opportunities provided by these new media and become, in the words of GC34, not just “critical consumers” but “critical practitioners of social communication,” at the service of the Church.
Maybe we can learn something from the Jesuits about how to live well with technology.
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