A rosary CD featuring the voices of young people, brought out by the diocese of Armagh, has proved to be so popular that almost all the 3,000 copies of the CD have been sold, and Veritas now plans to reproduce the CD for sale all over Ireland. The CD was the brainchild of a diocesan pastoral planning group which recently launched a new website: www.prayerandspirituality.com, where the CD may be downloaded free of charge.
The Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries are each on separate tracks, with the young people leading the prayers, against a background of harp music. Between each decade there is a piece of scripture.
Fr Declan O’Loughlin, from Dromintee parish in Newry, said that the CD has proven to be so popular that there are only a few copies left.
He is part of the eight strong prayer and spirituality group that has been working to develop a new awareness in spirituality and a renewal in prayer in the diocese.
Initially the team worked on providing Lent and Advent Resources, and meditations for retreats for Eucharistic Ministers and Lay Readers etc. 18 months ago the team mounted an icon exhibition at the back of Armagh cathedral, which attracted over 600 people in three days.
Fr O’Loughlin was surprised by the reaction of children to the religious art. “The icons spoke to them,” he said.
The success of the exhibition, was an impetus to further action to develop ways to reach people and allow them come in contact with Catholic spirituality.
Fr O’Loughlin sees the new website, launched Tuesday night, as meeting this need.
The site itself features a great variety of material: scripture readings, links, articles on ways of meditating, pictorial meditations, prayers and a ‘cheer me up’ section with great jokes.
“My hope is that the website will be used by individuals as a way of developing their own prayer story, and hopefully it will keep people posted on projects, retreats and events happening in the diocese,” he said. “It is a channel of information, but it is also about formation,” he added.
Meanwhile the team is now working on a new project involving the collection of prayers written by young people.
Entitled ‘Phone-a-friend’, the compendium of prayers will covers such topics as relationships and family.
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