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By Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
One of the new beginnings I’m making this year (along with losing 20 pounds and writing the great American novel) is to spend a few minutes every day reflecting on Scripture and its application to my life.
Now, like many of you I’m sure, I’ve started this adventure many times and after about a week I can’t find my bible, have misplaced my missal and generally don’t follow through. I must have an entire boulevard to hell paved three feet thick with all my good intentions.
Recently, however, I found a website that is ideal for people like me whose intent is better than their follow-through.--http://www.sacredspace.ie
Provided by the Irish Jesuits, this website invites readers to “make a 'Sacred Space' in your day, and spend ten minutes, praying here and now, as you sit at your computer, with the help of on-screen guidance and scripture chosen specially every day.”
Available in an impressive 18 languages, including Latvian and Bahasa Indonesian, Sacred Space is the ideal prayer oasis for those of us who spend our workdays tethered to computers.
As the site admits, “It might seem strange to pray at your computer, in front of a screen, especially if there are other people around you, or distracting noises. But God is everywhere, all around us, constantly reaching out to us, even in the most unlikely situations. When we know this, and with a bit of practice, we can pray anywhere!”
The prayer session consists of six stages, including preparing body and mind and ending with a reflection on Scripture. They are created to help you “get in touch with God, and God's presence in your life” by doing, rather than just reading.
If I have enough time, I light a candle, turn off the phone and focus on each of the exercises in their “full version” which contains more graphic elements (and thus is slower to load.) However, even when I’m feeling rushed and pressed by deadlines, using the “basic version” which is text-only provides a sense of peace and order. (There’s even a printer friendly version.)
The insights are crisp and to the point—ideal for busy workers. For example, today’s Scripture reading was on the Parable of the Talents and the commentary states:
What can I take from your story, Lord? The cards you dealt me, the talents with which I grew up, are different from other people's: more than some, less than others. Am I to take risks with them? Try out different paths, with the danger of failing? And then learn from my failures? You are telling me not to bury my gifts, not to curl up in safe inertia, but to take risks and use them to the full.
When it comes to introducing a little more prayer into the workday, Sacred Space is one of the best ways I’ve found.
Originally in The Journalist, the official newspaper of the Catholic Press Association.
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