The Sacred Space team,
Jesuit Communication Centre,
36 Lower Leeson
Street,
Dublin 2, Ireland
Latest
Space
Welcome
to this second issue of LATEST
SPACE. The first was sent out before Christmas, and this,
we hope, will reach you before Easter. It brings best wishes and
prayers for the joyful season from the Sacred Space Team. Added to
the Good News of the Resurrection, we are happy to share with you some of the
many good things that have happened since last we
wrote.
I'm
Gerry Bourke. In managing the correspondence and feedback, I am
inspired and encouraged each morning as I read the comments and reflections that
come in day after day from all over the world. It is very consoling to
know that so many from such different backgrounds are being helped in Sacred
Space to pray and live in peace and joy. And, although some of you may read
the feedback pages regularly, we thought we would add some snippets
that have come in from many parts of the world during the past two or three
weeks. They indicate that the users of our site feel a sense
of oneness in a world-wide community of prayer.
Thank you for
your prayerful support at all times. Please continue to keep us in your
prayers. May the Lord make your Easter especially happy and
blessed.
Gerard J.
Bourke, S.J.
Sections within the
newsletter:
We received a terrific response to the first issue
of Latest Space, which we sent out in November. One of the main topics
in that edition was the development of the language versions of Sacred
Space, and since then we received offers of translations from various parts
of the world, and the Dutch, Korean and Latvian sites have all gone live.
The German, Polish and Catalan versions are being compiled
at the moment, all by willing volunteers. Woo-Bae Sohn is a Korean Jesuit, going for
ordination this year, who had the site already online, but we didn't know about
it until another Korean told us that it existed! And Marzena Frolow contacted Róisín
from Poland saying that she was part of a CLC group - Christian Life Community -
and they were thinking of taking on the translation. She is currently
working on it, to be ready for Easter, and the site will be hosted by the
Polish Jesuits in Krakow. Our appreciation and thanks go to all
who help make Sacred Space available to so many different people around the
world.
YouthFront is an evangelical group in Kansas City
who work with young people in the area of evangelisation. They contacted
the team back in November about offering the prayer material in Sacred
Space to the young people they minister to. Mike King and Gorman Stanley
then came over to visit us in December, and we had a lovely couple of days
getting to know them, hearing their experience of ministry and their vision for
the future and sharing ours. As a result, they are designing a version of
Sacred Space to suit their audience, and will offer daily prayer, in the
Ignatian style of Sacred Space. We are delighted at the possibility of
Sacred Space reaching a wider audience, and hope that it can only bring in
more visitors to our community. The site will be called Sacred
Gateway, and will be launched soon after Easter - we will have a link, so keep
your eyes peeled!
With some fanfare
of trumpets and a bottle of champagne, www.catholicireland.net was launched here at the JCC just before St Patrick's
Day. (Well, perhaps the trumpets are an exaggeration!) In the
first 5 days, it received 5000 visitors, and the work is only begun!
Catholic Ireland is the portal site for the Catholic Church in Ireland, with
Archbishop Seán Brady as patron, and it features parish mass times
throughout the island, national and international Catholic news, links to the
best of the Church online and a host of interesting stories and
information. It also features Monastic Ireland, a subsite devoted to the
saints in Ireland, their stories and the sites around Ireland connected to
them.
Catholic Ireland
is the culmination of a few months of hard work, and two of the hard workers
featured here are Peter Cabocky, a young Hungarian designer on
the team, and David Birchall sj, a member of the British
Province working here on the JCC team. They would like to point out that
if you have prayer requests, Catholic Ireland has a prayer request section in
which you can submit your intentions. Just log on to www.catholicireland.net and cast your request out to the wider community for
prayer.
Peter Scally sj, who
designed Sacred Space with a HTML book in one hand and the keyboard in the
other, has been ordained deacon, and will be ordained priest on the feast
of St Ignatius, 31st July. Alan McGuckian sj and David Birchall sj
were present at his ordination to the diaconate in London, which was a great
celebration, and at the end of the day, Peter spoke of how his time
here working on Sacred Space and living in Ireland was a happy memory,
and will always be a highlight of his ministry. To add to that, it was a real gift to have the talented Peter
working with us, and we will always look back on that time with a smile - his
endless store of jokes (good and bad!) would be enough to keep the laughter
going! We wish him all the best for the future.
In "Latest Space" last
November, and again at the beginning of Lent, we asked for your support in
publicising the site, in your local newpaper, radio station, parish bulletin,
and other media. Thank you for your response. In November, the
counter was averaging 6,500 visits a day. It has grown steadily since
then, and Ash Wednesday saw a record of 11,500 people logging in. In the
last month Sacred Space has been averaging 9,000 visits a day - that includes
Spanish, Portuguese and Irish versions. So, our thanks for your support
and enthusiasm to spread the word - it is the main way people hear of
Sacred Space.
Your recent
feedback:
The idea that others are clicking 'amen' when I am is a
rich one, and I will in future be aware of that silent global community of
prayer. Dublin, Ireland
It is so uplifting to be praying with thousands of others
around the world each day. God bless all who work on this site and all who pray
here. South East England
We're all sitting in Ireland, the
Phillipines, parts of America, parts of England, Australia, who knows where
else...all like friends, in God. Adelaide,
Australia
Today I opened for the first time your
sacred space. I'm living in the desert of Jordan and I needed such help.
Yes, Jesus came to call me, a sinner too, and I'm very grateful. Thanks
for your help. Jordan
I thank the Holy Spirit who inspired you to
bring the WORD through the net to pierce the hearts of multitudes in every
corner of the world. Thanks to your site, I learnt how to meditate better on the
Word of God. Lebanon
What a difference this has made for
me. It is now part of my morning routine to pray and connect with God in a
way I have never been able to do before. Mason, Ohio,
USA
Working in the IT industry in a very stressed
job, it's often difficult to get away to pray. This site gives me that bit of
quiet space with God in a difficult environment. Thank you. I am a 47 year old
Anglican. North Wales
Thank you very much for the guided prayer
in the sacred space. I have found it very useful and hope to continue using
it. Kenya
I am moved by the sacred simplicity
of this site. I am touched profoundly by the deep level of
empathy and the indepth knowledge of the human experience the authors of this
site portray. May Christ bless and enrich your ministry. British
Columbia, Canada
I found the prayer experience very
fruitful and beneficial. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless your work and may
you prosper in whatever you do for the sake of the Gospel. Mumbai,
India
God bless,
Alan,
Gerry & Róisín