Sacred Space provides computer users with their own virtual 10-minute monastery

By Kathleen T. Choi

Things are crazy at work. Tom needs a break to collect his thoughts. If he could just find someplace quiet and private for a few minutes, he’d feel better and work better. Fortunately, he knows where to turn. To his computer.

Harriet loves being a stay-at-home mom, but sometimes the kids drive her crazy. She prays each morning for patience. By midday, though, she’s running dry. That’s when she heads for the Internet.

Dick wants this Lent to be different. He wants to move beyond the standard prayers, into something deeper. He’s not sure he has the time, though. Plus, whenever he tries, his mind jumps all over the place. He decides to check out this website he’s heard about.

Tom, Dick, and Harriet have all discovered something special in cyberspace. They’ve found their own 10-minute monastery, a place and time where they can pause and be still with God. It’s called Sacred Space.

Sacred Space (www.sacredspace.ie) is a website designed and maintained by the Society of Jesus in Ireland. The Jesuits are old pros at helping folks pray. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuit order) have guided and inspired Christians for nearly 500 years. Not everyone, however, has the time, ability, or inclination to make a five-week retreat. Nor does everyone have his or her own spiritual director.

Enter the observant Jesuit Father Alan McGuckian. Millions use the Internet for commerce, education, communication and personal pleasure, he noted. Something about computers makes it possible for us to concentrate even in a busy office or noisy home. Focused on the screen, we can find a place of privacy and intimacy. Could this also be a place of prayer? A place open any time, day or night?

Father McGuckian and Father Peter Scally formed a team and began an experiment. They created a six-stage online prayer visit using the prayer model of St. Ignatius. The first screen invites visitors to be present to the moment and aware of God’s presence. When you’re ready, you click and move on. Asking the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts, you can engage in a brief examination of spiritual health. Then a Scripture passage appears, followed by a suggestion on how to respond to God’s word and a concluding prayer.

The design of the stages encourages slow reflection. Mouse clicks don’t quickly produce the next page. Instead, designers used the slow dissolve of computer animation. Each page is a quiet uncluttered screen the color of old parchment. Each screen also offers a “prayer guide,” a side road with more insights into the process of prayer and meditation.

Each day there is a new Scriptural passage, which encourages visitors to make Sacred Space part of their daily routine. The “home” page offers additional information and resources. You can read Father Frank Doyle’s Scripture reflections or a behind-the-scenes newsletter, leave prayer requests, or investigate more than 50 related sites, such as “Praying with the Pope.” During Advent, Father Doyle offered an online retreat. In November, visitors could leave names at the Chapel of Remembrance.

Global prayer community

A particularly popular link is the Feedback Page. There visitors discover they are part of a large international community. Since its beginning in Lent of 1999, Sacred Space has been visited over 12 million times. There are about 12,000 visits each weekday and 8,000 on weekends. Sacred Space appears in 18 languages including Chinese, Latvian, and Maltese. Visitors come from Europe, the Americas, Asia, India and Africa. They discover that “more unites us than divides us.” They offer thanks, prayers, and encouragement to the “webfathers” and each other.

A narcotics cop reports that Sacred Space clears his mind and calms his heart at the end of a hard day. A teacher fills up on peace before class begins. Someone in Kuwait pauses here in the middle of the day. A lapsed Catholics considers returning to the church. A Filipina living in Indonesia says it makes her feel connected and less lonely. Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, and Baptists drop in and return. An Irish woman told her boss that visiting Sacred Space was definitely a business use of her computer — stress management.

So popular has Sacred Space become that it is now in print as well. Sacred Space — The Prayer Book 2005 is available at your local bookstore. The Jesuits hope the book will draw new visitors. Never shy about evangelization, they urge the Internet community to include links to Sacred Space on their own websites and in emails.