Have You Tried "Hallow"?
07-23-2023Pastor's LetterVery Rev. Richard C. Wilson, VF, PastorDear Friends in Christ,
From July 10th to July 13th, I was privileged to attend the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology Conference in Wheeling, WV. The theme for our week was “Journey to Holiness.” Our speakers included Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. John Bergsma, Dr. Ralph Martin, Dr. Lawrence Feingold, and others. About 250 priests attended from 38 states. There was also a U.S. priest who came from Vladivostok, Russia, and a British priest from the Diocese of Leeds. It is always so very special to be with brother priests and to learn from sound Biblical theology. There’s no doubt but this conference will help me to be a better priest.
One day as I shopped in Publix one of our parishioners stopped and talked with me. As we talked, she asked if I was familiar with an app called Hallow. I told her that I had never used it. She shared with me briefly some of its features and talked of how it had blessed her prayer life immensely. Then when I got to the conference one of our presenters was one of the founders of the Hallow app, Erich Kerekes. So, a few words about Hallow:
Hallow is the number one Catholic prayer app in the world. It was founded 5 years ago by three young men who were working lucrative jobs in management consulting and private equity. After a profound experience exploring Catholic contemplative prayer for the first time, these men chose to quit their jobs and follow God's call to start a mobile app that would help bring these life-changing prayers to others around the world.
Today, Hallow has been downloaded more than 10 million times, is used daily in over 150 countries, and almost 3 billion minutes of prayer have been prayed through the app. It features over 5,000 audio-guided prayers, including the daily Rosary, daily Gospel reflections by Biblical scholar, Jeff Cavins, and even the Rosary and meditations from Mark Wahlberg, and Jonathan Roumie who plays Jesus in the show, The Chosen. The app also features Father Mike Schmitz's daily homilies, Bible in a Year, and Catechism in a Year series.
Prayer is one of the most important aspects of our faith lives and there are so many ways to connect with Christ. After you've explored the many prayers in the app, you can set a daily “routine” right in the app to commit to praying at the same time each day. Connecting with God is such a personal experience and there are so many ways to do it. The goal of Hallow is simply to help you find what works best for you. I hope you give it a try!
So may we, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving;” (Col 4:2)
All the best…in Christ,
Father Wilson
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