Prayer on the web

In the article in the Winter edition of ‘In Touch’ I mentioned the site www.sacredspace.ie. The site offers a short time of guided prayer and reflection for each day, with questions to help you if you get stuck. If it is not convenient or appropriate to sit at your computer to pray, try instead www.pray-as-you-go.com, also maintained by the Jesuits (Jesuit Media Initiatives). There is a prayer session for each weekday (though not weekends, but there many requests to extend to Saturday and Sunday), lasting 10 – 13 minutes, together with a separate session to review the day. Each session combines music, scripture and some questions for reflection and is designed for use on MP3 players, to help you pray wherever you are. It is also possible to download a zip file containing the sessions for a whole week, but the files are large so is best with a broadband connection.

Did you watch either of the BBC2 programs ‘The Monastery’ or ‘The Convent’? Worth Abbey, the location for ‘The Monastery’, has a web site www.worthabbey.net with lots of information about the Abbey and Benedictine life, but at www.worthabbey.net/bbc you will find much more about the series, some guidance for meditation and the story of some of the participants. The link to Tony’s story is well worth following, and the ‘Prayer of Journeying’ at www.worthabbey.net/bbc/tony6.htm is a beautiful Celtic prayer. The site www.findingsanctuary.org (maintained , I think, by the publishers) relates to the book Abbot Christopher Jamison wrote after the series, but also contains a link to more guidance for meditation. The Poor Clares at www.poorclaresarundel.org similarly include some details of the participants in ‘The Convent’ and their experiences, together with many views of the convent and the life of the Poor Clares at Arundel.

Have any of you tried any of these sites? Did you find them helpful? Do you have your own favourites? Perhaps you could write a letter telling us about them or, better still, write a short article for ‘In Touch’

Christine Waring

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