Commuters amongst others will have the opportunity to reflect on Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est over the Christmas period, courtesy of the British Jesuits.
Pray-as-you-go, the downloadable daily reflections for ipods, MP3 players and other portable audio devices, will be devoted each weekday during the run-up to Christmas to a theme from the Pope’s first encyclical, published in 2006.
The reflections were written by Father Damian Howard SJ, who is Chaplain to Birmingham City University.
Pray-as-you-go was launched at the beginning of Lent 2006, and since then 3½ million prayer sessions have been downloaded. It has become a worldwide phenomenon with people using it as a source of prayer and reflection in the midst of busy lifestyles.
“This is an exciting development for us,” says Fr Peter Scally SJ of Jesuit Media Initiatives. “Up until now, we have always used one of the Scripture readings for the day; but this initiative for Advent 2007, while still scripturally based, will give people the chance to think deeply about the messages contained in the Pope’s encyclical, which focuses so clearly on the love of God who sent his own Son into our world as our Saviour.”
The special Advent Pray-as-you-go sessions will be available from the Wednesday preceding each week, with the first reflection recorded for the first Monday of Advent, 3 December. The final prayer session in the series will be for Christmas Eve.