During December 2010, I visited Loyola Press to talk with the marketing and sales team about why, when and how to use social media. As part of my preparation, I hunkered down to take a more rigorous look at the Virtual Abbey, an online community offering the Daily Office via Twitter. This virtual monastery seems to engage new and active participants on a weekly basis.
People are hungry for prayer as well as engagement in community. Yearning to seek and find, they’re knocking on virtual doors that open into real experiences of faith lived out in the secular world. The Virtual Abbey uses online technologies and tools to provide prayer, as well as community, for people of faith–and those who yearn to be.
My experience with the Virtual Abbey plus participating in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be “church” these days, inspired me to create this contemporary take on Saint Teresa of Avila’s well-known prayer, Christ Has No Body. For your consideration and contemplation:
Christ Has No Online Presence but Yours
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world,
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,
Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed.
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours.
In my imagination? I see Saint Teresa winking her approval!
I love it! I tweet a message of sacred, spiritual or secular origin with a Christian message 365 days a year. This gives me beautiful affirmation and power to push on! Mighty take on a mighty woman. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Orla Walsh, Ireland ♥️💙
This is beautiful! Sometimes I sense an urging to post a Bible verse or share a faith experience through Facebook and then I catch myself because I might sound too preachy. Your post made me realize that maybe that urging was coming from the Spirit because someone probably needed to read it. I will listen more closely next time and not hesitate to share. Thank you for this wonderful post. God bless you, Meredith!
Great reminder for the youth and young adults in your church. I’ll be sharing it and teaching about it using Meredith’s book.
Thanks for making me laugh today! If Ignatius had had Internet access in his day, his thousands of letters would be on a disc, yeah?
Meredith,
Great message! Plus, your words are most timely, especially in light of Pope Benedict’s recently released message for World Communications Day, later this year, entitled “Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age†found here for those readers with an interest: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110124_45th-world-communications-day_en.html
Very contemporary and inspiring. I am sure the great saintly lady would approve.
Yes, she would SO approve. She would be all over social media . . .
Brilliant! Sharing this now…
That’s very cool! I’m inspired! Thanks for sharing that prayer.
Nice update. She would approve!