Pray As You Go?
Ged Clapson tells us of a new service pioneered by Fr Peter Scally of Jesuit Media Initiatives of the British Province.
Jesuit Media Initiatives - a new project of the British Province masterminded by Fr Peter Scally - launched its first major project at the beginning of Lent, entitled pray-as-you-go.
The idea of pray-as-you-go is to offer daily prayer for the millions of commuters - worldwide - who are listening to music or other audio material through their headphones on the bus, train or underground. It is available in the MP3 audio format, enabling people to pray using an MP3 player such as an iPod, or an MP3-enabled mobile phone or palmtop computer.
Peter Scally, Director of Jesuit Media Initiatives, explains, ‘Until a few years ago, if you wanted to give people something they could listen to, that used to mean making tapes or CDs, with all the work and all the cost of recording, copying and distributing them. But with the MP3 format, ten minutes of sound is now just a file on your computer, like a Word document, something you can create - and share over the internet - very easily and cheaply. It is a huge apostolic opportunity.
Many will be familiar with the web site, Sacred Space, which Peter helped to develop with the Irish Province and which has helped thousands of people to make meaningful prayer a regular part of their lives. He sees pray-as-you-go as the next step. ‘Think of the millions of people who travel to work every day on bus, train or tube. Many of these people are already carrying an MP3 device - before long it will be more than half of them and would be only too happy to spend that ‘dead time’ more profitably, being gently led into prayer.’
The prayer sessions focus on one of the readings from the Missal for that day, and offer a few questions for personal reflection. A number of people in the spirituality sector have already been enlisted to write the reflection material, and more will be called upon if pray-as-you-go becomes permanent. As with Sacred Space, the idea is not to offer a mini-homily or a Thought for the Day, but to offer the user space for their own prayer and reflection.
Users get the MP3 files free, by downloading them from the internet at www.pray-as-you-go.org - either singly or a whole week at a time. They can then be transferred to an MP3 player from the computer (a process with which all MP3 users are familiar).
The trail site became operational on Ash Wednesday, 1st March, at www.pray-as-you-go.org with an online questionnaire for feedback. Within three weeks the site had had over 2 million hits and more than 70,000 prayer sessions downloaded.
Jesuit Media Initiatives - a new project of the British Province masterminded by Fr Peter Scally - launched its first major project at the beginning of Lent, entitled pray-as-you-go.
The idea of pray-as-you-go is to offer daily prayer for the millions of commuters - worldwide - who are listening to music or other audio material through their headphones on the bus, train or underground. It is available in the MP3 audio format, enabling people to pray using an MP3 player such as an iPod, or an MP3-enabled mobile phone or palmtop computer.
Peter Scally, Director of Jesuit Media Initiatives, explains, ‘Until a few years ago, if you wanted to give people something they could listen to, that used to mean making tapes or CDs, with all the work and all the cost of recording, copying and distributing them. But with the MP3 format, ten minutes of sound is now just a file on your computer, like a Word document, something you can create - and share over the internet - very easily and cheaply. It is a huge apostolic opportunity.
Many will be familiar with the web site, Sacred Space, which Peter helped to develop with the Irish Province and which has helped thousands of people to make meaningful prayer a regular part of their lives. He sees pray-as-you-go as the next step. ‘Think of the millions of people who travel to work every day on bus, train or tube. Many of these people are already carrying an MP3 device - before long it will be more than half of them and would be only too happy to spend that ‘dead time’ more profitably, being gently led into prayer.’
The prayer sessions focus on one of the readings from the Missal for that day, and offer a few questions for personal reflection. A number of people in the spirituality sector have already been enlisted to write the reflection material, and more will be called upon if pray-as-you-go becomes permanent. As with Sacred Space, the idea is not to offer a mini-homily or a Thought for the Day, but to offer the user space for their own prayer and reflection.
Users get the MP3 files free, by downloading them from the internet at www.pray-as-you-go.org - either singly or a whole week at a time. They can then be transferred to an MP3 player from the computer (a process with which all MP3 users are familiar).
The trail site became operational on Ash Wednesday, 1st March, at www.pray-as-you-go.org with an online questionnaire for feedback. Within three weeks the site had had over 2 million hits and more than 70,000 prayer sessions downloaded.