HONG KONG (SE): The global popularity of meditation is soaring. However, most popular meditation apps are not religious. While secular mindfulness has undoubted benefits for many, one study of at the University of Buffalo, in the United States [US], found that meditation—when uprooted from its sacred origins—can actually increase selfishness in some people.
Of the most popular apps, only Insight Timer appears to make efforts to offer religious content. But a search of its 100,000-plus guided meditations turns up just 4,288 that are explicitly religious. Less than half of those are Christian and only a very small number are Catholic.
This is why an app like Hallow is so welcome.
Billing itself as the “#1 Catholic app,” Hallow delivers recorded content through a poppy, breezy user experience and highly navigable interface.
Daily Gospels and Rosaries? Check. Nighttime Examens? Check. Bible stories, Marian devotions, prayers of the saints, morning offerings, Holy Hours, chaplets, talks and choral hymns? They are here in high quality audio, available with a couple of quick taps and a modest subscription [currently less than HK$470 a year].
I’ve been using Hallow for several days now and have never felt so connected to my faith.
From the Angelus that accompanies my morning lemon water and honey, to the gospel expositions I play on my daily walk, the Minute Meditations that punctuate my afternoons at work, or the Sleep Lectio I drift off to after a long day, Hallow comes with me everywhere and cloaks me in effortless devotions, beautifully recited by talented voices.
Hallow’s founder, Alex Jones, says on the app’s website [hallow.com] that he launched the app in 2018 after his experiences with popular meditation apps. “[I] felt like I was trying to force-fit my Christian faith into an agnostic or Buddhist box,” he writes.
Jones hasn’t simply created a Catholic version of guided meditation apps like Headspace or Meditopia, he has fashioned a dazzling delivery vehicle for Catholics; one perfectly suited to these accelerated times.
In the US alone, the market for meditation classes, books and instruction is expected to be worth more than US$ two billion [$15.5 billion] next year. Globally, consumers spent a combined US$195 million on the 10 highest-earning meditation apps in 2019—50 per cent more than in 2018.
The explosion of interest in secular meditation shows that people are hungry for the kind of meaning that Catholicism can provide, if the Church can communicate it in a form suited to modern sensibilities. Hallow is a giant leap in the right direction.
They say that God meets you where you are—and these days, most people are browsing the App Store, or Google Play.
Aidyn Austin | Twitter: @AidynAustin
