An online Lenten prayer campaign by the Archdiocese of Southwark is proving a roaring success and was seen by over 1.5 million social media users in its first week.
Launched on Ash Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Southwark is releasing a prayer video across social media platforms each day during Lent, promoting well known prayers within the Catholic Church. The campaign’s aim is simple, states the Archdiocese’s website, which is to help people connect with Christ through prayer by providing content which enables them to do that in their everyday life.
“The extraordinary reach of this simple prayer campaign underlines how much people do desire a relationship with Christ, but sometimes just need a little support in lifting their hearts and minds to Him,” says the Most Rev. John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark.
“Prayer is a gift from God, it’s his way of revealing his desire to have a meaningful and lasting relationship with each of us. But too often, with the busyness of life, people put up barriers between themselves and God. Too often people find it hard to take a moment to lift their hearts and mind to God.
“I want people to rejoice in the wonder of prayer and that is why I’m encouraging people to give prayer a go. Christ thirsts for us and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.”
The campaign’s success is “entirely organic”, theArchdiocese notes, as no money has been spent on advertising of the videos or advertising the campaign itself. The prayers being used for the campaign include those that feature in the Catholic liturgy and those written by Saints of the Catholic Church.
“Many of the prayers are much beloved by Christians, while some are lesser known and aim to help people connect with Christ in their prayers,” the Archdiocese says.
Prayers released so far include the Act of Contrition, the “stillness of my soul” prayer by St John of the Cross and the Nicene Creed, the last of which has proved the most popular prayer so far, followed closely by a prayer attributed to Saint Padre Pio.
The “reach” of the top five videos released on Facebook so far – Facebook defines “reach” as the number of “unique users” who have seen a post – is as follows:
The prayers campaign can be seen across the Archdiocese’s social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, as well as on the Archdiocese’s website.
The Archdiocese of Southwark reports that this new approach of online evangelisation is part of its wider prayer initiative called Give Prayer a Go that began on the 1 January 2024 and is being run to support the Year of Prayer designated by Pope Francis ahead of the upcoming 2025 Jubilee – a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation in the Catholic Church, occurring every 25 years .
The wider prayer campaign will also be highlighting ways to enrich prayer life, including features on Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – the devotional prayer of the Eucharist – as well as encouraging children and families to pray the rosary.
Under the leadership of Archbishop Wilson, there has been “a firm focus on evangelisation and leading people to Christ” in the Archdiocese’s ministry, the impact of which “has been profound”.
Increasing numbers of people are completing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) – the process to become a Catholic as an adult – and the numbers of people attending Mass are also increasing since the impact of the pandemic.
Such encouraging trends are helping elsewhere in the Church in the UK. The Oxford Oratory recently noted an uptick in adults being received into Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese of Southwark’s prayer video campaign will continue throughout Lent and will finish on Easter Sunday.
Photo: Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea with ten men and a text of the Nicean Creed in Greek. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.)
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.