Veteran actor Liam Neeson will narrate a series of Advent reflections on a Catholic prayer and meditation app, it has been announced.
Neeson will read 22 meditations, inspired by the work of C.S Lewis, beginning on December 4, on the platform provided by the genre-leading Hallowapp.
In a video announcement, the esteemed actor smiled as he gently reminded viewers of his own and CS Lewis’s Northern Irish backgrounds.
Neeson then described how Lewis’s writings on “what it means to love” and “grow deeper in faith” is “pretty incredible” content which he suggested moved him deeply.
The actor particularly praised Lewis’ famous aphorism that “to love at all is to be vulnerable”. Sounding emotional, Neeson revealed that his meditations would contain a valuable lesson “that we’re called to learn to let go”.
Liam Neeson, who was named after a priest, lost his wife Natasha Richardson in 2009 in a skiing accident.
His relationship with the Catholic Faith, from his early childhood growing up in a country violently divided along sectarian lines, has not been a straightforward one.
While it is reported that he remains a practising Catholic, Neeson has not always been orthodox in his faith and has come under fire from Catholics and Christians alike for his actions and words in the past.
In 2010, with the release of the film adaptation of Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the third instalment of the successful Narnia franchise), in which he portrayed the lion Aslan, Neeson stated that his character could represent rival religious figures such as Mohammed or Buddha in equal measure.
He said: “Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries… That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.”
The statement stood in stark contrast to the Lewis’s own words about Aslan, whom he described as “an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, “What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?”’
Neeson was criticised for pandering to multiculturalist sentiment at the time by such figures as Walter Hooper, Lewis’ former secretary, who denied the tale or Aslan could be likened to Islam.
The actor also drew fire for narrating a 2015 Amnesty International advert calling for the legalisation of abortion.
A year later, in a 2016interview with RTE Radio One in Ireland, Neeson said that he didn’t accept all of the challenging doctrinal teachings which were imparted to him as a child.
“I just have trouble with it,” he confessed. “So I’m still questing it but I do dip into the Catholic faith every now and then.”
However, he added shortly thereafter: “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to leave it.”
It is unknown where Neeson currently stands in his faith journey since the 2016 interview, however he told audiences recently that it was his hope that his participation in the challenge would “help us to really grow deeper in our faith in this holy season”.
Some 180,000 users have subscribed to Hallow’s Advent Pray25 with C.S Lewis challenge and is the latest development of a successful initiative which the actor himself describes as a “great app” which “helps people build daily habits of prayer and find real peace in their lives.”
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