Sacred space on the web – The Irish Times – Wed, May 27, 2009

Sacredspace.ie, the Jesuit prayer site, was set up 10 years ago by Fr Alan McGuckian. It asks you to find “sacred space”, 10 minutes for prayer, in your day. This avenue to the soul has users responding with delight, as a recent American [sic] post reads: “What a wonderful, inspirational site. To be able to break off from work and reflect is such a gift.” Its success lies in the fact that you don’t have to move physically to engage spiritually.

The Catholic Register – The history of Lent

Sacred Space, an online prayer web site based in Dublin, Ireland, will be launching a special Lent page which coincides with its 10th year anniversary on Ash Wednesday. The site will provide online prayers for a Lenten retreat. For more information, visit www.sacredspace.ie.

Virtual prayer book expected to gain popularity during Lent | Irish Examiner

THOUSANDS of people are expected to go online to pray today — Ash Wednesday — as the computer gains in popularity as a virtual prayer book.

Today, the start of Lent, is also the 10th anniversary of Sacred Space, the prayer website established by Irish Jesuits in their communications centre in Dublin.

The site, which guides the visitor through prayer, is available in almost 20 languages, with up to 20,000 visitors worldwide logging on every day.

ENN.ie – In The Papers 25 February

The Irish Examiner reports that thousands of Catholics are expected to go online on Ash Wednesday to pray, as www.sacredspace.ie, a prayer website established by the Jesuits in Dublin, celebrates its 10th anniversary. The site, which guides the visitor through prayer, is available in almost 20 languages, and gets up to 20,000 visitors worldwide logging on every day. Site editor Fr Piaras Jackson is expecting a big increase in visitors on Wednesday. The website has developed beyond daily prayer to include scripture commentaries, areas to write and send prayers, e-mail greeting cards, novenas and audio.

Anna Mogensen wrote in Danish on religion in cyberspace on http://www.kristendom.dk

I 2000 oprettede den katolske jesuitterorden i Irland hjemmesiden www.sacredspace.ie. Her klikker man sig ind på en såkaldt online-bøn, og på 10 minutter bliver man guidet igennem fem trin i en kristen bøn foran computerskærmen. Formålet med at oprette siden var oprindeligt at udnytte internettets muligheder til at udbrede evangeliet.
– Hjemmesiden var en naturlig konsekvens af, at vi eksperimenterede med forskellige medieformer som radio og magasiner, siger hjemmesidens redaktør, pater Piaras Jackson.
– Den grundlæggende idé er at sprede det gode budskab, men det, brugerne finder mest attraktivt, er, at de er med i et universelt fællesskab – de er ikke alene. Desuden værdsætter de, at der er en ny frihed. Brugerne er ikke tvunget ind i et bestemt tankemønster, siger han.

Cathleen Falsani offers seven things to do during the summer in the Chicago Sun-Times,

2) Pray, by yourself, with others, online

There are myriad Web sites where you can leave a prayer request, pick up someone else’s prayer request to pray for, be guided in prayer by clergy, or join in a prayer chain. Beliefnet.com has scads of different online prayer chat rooms where you pray with others for yourself, family and friends or strangers.

Among the more interesting Web-based prayer sites I found while killing some dog-day time earlier this week was Sacred Space, a site run by the Jesuit fathers in Ireland. At www.sacredspace.ie, the kind Irish priests will guide you through a 10-minute prayer session right at your computer, with on-screen cues and scripture passages chosen especially for each day. It’s free.

The Christian Science Monitor reviews religious use of technnology,

During the week, the pastor offers spiritual guidance by e-mail. Some members donate money through automatic bank withdrawals, which allows the church to avoid collections on Sunday morning. Many members worship daily by logging into sacredspace.ie, a website operated by Irish Jesuits.

A somewhat exaggerated estimate in the ;International Herald Tribune

“Text messages, e-mail and fax are wonderful means of communication for us,” said Josephine Siedlecka, a church spokeswoman.
A Web site called www.sacredspace.ie, started by the Jesuits in Ireland to help people set aside 10 minutes for prayer and meditation a day, also has been successful, receiving millions of hits a day, she said.

The 2004 edition of Jesuits, the yearbook of the Society of Jesus, carried an article about Sacred Space in which Gerry Bourke descibed the international apostolate that the site had become.

Sacred Space, a web site of the Irish Jesuit Communication Centre, went on line for Lent, 1999.

Crhistopher Howse writes about Sacred Space in <a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2003%2F01%2F18%2Fdo1806.xml” title=”Article”>The Telegraph</a>,
<blockquote>A recent experiment on the internet (which itself has a tendency to obsess and distract users) has proved unexpectedly successful in countering this difficulty. The site is www.sacredspace.ie. I found it by typing sacredspace (one word) into the Google search engine.</blockquote>