Today’s “Digital Prayer Chain” — Chime in and Win!

In preparation for my weekly radio segment this week on the Sonrise Morning Show with Brian Patrick, I need your input. The topic we plan to discuss is “creative ways to use social media as a modern prayer chain”. I must give credit where it’s due: this theme is the brainchild of the ever-awesome Matt Swaim, author of the phenomenal book Prayer in the Digital Age (stay tuned to learn how you can win that!)

What Matt and I have been mulling over is the very real ways in which we pray together these days, involving our social media connections in our intentions. To share just a few examples:

• I join Matt and countless others in tweeting a #gratefultweet prayer of thanksgiving as my first social media interaction of the day
• Thousands of friends have connected to pray for little Fulton Poppe, a recent burn victim. Love for this family and prayers for Fulton’s healing are coming from literally around the world.
• One of our Facebook friends routinely invites invitations each week prior to heading out for his shift in his perpetual adoration chapel. He carries this intentions with him before the Blessed Sacrament and prays for his online friends.

Today, I ask you to chime in below with your thoughts on how you use social media in your prayers. And let me just say that it’s also fair game to say, “I don’t!” To entice you to participate, I am going to randomly select one commenter to win a copy of Prayer in the Digital Age by Matt Swaim. Here’s a blueprint of this awesome resource:

The digital age is an age of information overload. In this noisy, technology-driven world, full of important news and urgent messages, spending silent time in prayer can seem impossible.

In his second book, Matt Swaim brings to light the obstacles to prayer inherent in our digitally-connected culture and explores both the challenges and benefits of living a Christian life in the 21st century. Drawing on the spiritual wisdom of such masters as St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Therese of Lisieux, and Venerable Pope John Paul II, Swaim provides practical suggestions for learning how to “unplug” and incorporate prayer into one’s daily life.

To enter to win Matt’s book, leave a comment by midnight Pacific time on Wednesday, January 30th. One winner will be randomly selected. I hope we’ll all learn something from this conversation!

Update: Thanks to all who participated and congratulations to Mary T., our winner. Be on the lookout for another contest very soon!