“Prayer is the oxygen of the soul.” – Padre Pio
A strong prayer life is an ongoing, personal conversation with God that acts as a daily, consistent lifeline. The creators of Hallow, the No. 1 Catholic prayer app, hope to help the faithful grow closer to God through developing a simple prayer life that works for them. On May 1, a representative from Hallow spoke to juniors and seniors at Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond and Marquette High School in Michigan City about the impact of prayer.
Josh Danis, who works for Hallow as the Head of Parish and Diocesan Partnerships, graduated from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, with degrees in theology and philosophy. In an effort to relate to the students, Danis shared several stories from his own life before he arrived at Hallow during his conversation about prayer.
As a young adult, Danis lived for the weekends because he would travel back to Steubenville to see his girlfriend. One weekend, he stopped along the way and got her a little pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. To his surprise, she did not like the “Vermonty Python” flavor he purchased, which featured coffee liqueur ice cream with a chocolate cookie crumb swirl and fudge.
A week later, Danis returned to the campus to visit her. When he looked for the ice cream in the freezer, it was nowhere to be found. He asked his girlfriend what had happened to it, and she explained that she had gradually come around to liking the mocha and coffee flavor.
“I think sometimes when we try something for the first time, we don't have the proper disposition to fully appreciate what an amazing thing it can be for us,” he said. “And this is true for a lot of us about the life of prayer. This is true for a lot of us about developing this concept of relationship with Jesus.”
Danis asked the students, by a raise of hands, “Has anybody ever felt bored during prayer?” Thanking them for answering honestly, he noted: “Everybody sometimes feels bored during prayer, and that's okay.”
“I think sometimes we need the right context to really appreciate the power of prayer,” he said.
Danis then asked them to consider what it would look like for them to have a richer and deeper prayer life. He went on to share some of the good things that happen as a result of prayer.
The first thing that happens as a result of prayer, Danis said, is something that actually surprises a lot of people. He stated that when people pray, God answers those prayers.
He recalled when he was about 10 years old, his family took a road trip from New Jersey to New York. The seven-hour trip, he explained, felt like a 24-hour drive in the car. He and his siblings were fighting. His parents were angry. The air conditioning in the car was not working. The family arrived at his grandparents’ house and had a great time. However, toward the end of their visit, he started to worry about the trip home. He decided to pray, asking the assistance of saints, to make the journey back not be miserable.
“This crazy thing happened,” he said. “My dad was this big military guy, Air Force guy, very regimented. Something changed in him that day. We stopped at every single McDonald's on the way home so that we could try all the different Happy Meals and get all the different toys that they had. It took way longer to get home, and yet, it was way more fun.”
“It worked,” he continued. “We pray, and God answers our prayers, not always the way we might expect, not always in the way we might want, not always in the time that we might want, but I've seen it happen again and again.”
Danis acknowledged that as one grows older, prayer requests can become more challenging. At one of his first jobs, at a law firm, he stumbled into what he called an ethical conundrum. He reflected on every option but was unsure what to do. Feeling there was no good course of action, he just waited until he became overwhelmed by the situation. He asked God to help him resolve the problem, and that day, his boss actually solved the problem for him.
“It wasn't actually my boss, I don't think,” Danis said. “Yes, my boss is the person who solved it, but I genuinely believe that God was showing me his faithfulness that very day. I said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and I begged him constantly, non-stop, to please resolve this. God brought me out of it, and he set me free from it.”
The second thing that happens when we pray, according to Danis, is that God draws our hearts close to His. As an example, he talked about his struggles while in college to remain in prayer during adoration. He kept returning for adoration and worked on the patience to stay in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament for the entire hour. By the time he was a senior, he had learned to appreciate time with the Lord.
“Instead of going to the front row, I actually just sat on the ground in the back, and I just looked up at the monstrance,” he recalled. “I just looked up at Jesus in Eucharist, and I felt these waves of grace. I just felt so much peace. I felt so much love. I didn't want to leave. That was the experience of love that God gave me at that time. It doesn't happen at first. It's not easy. It's something you have to stick with.”
Danis added that the best thing that can happen to our desires, those that we long for in our hearts, is for them to shift from the things we think we want to gradually become the things God wants for us.
He said, “If you spend time with Him asking for things and you spend time in prayer with him, and you start to fall more in love with Him, and your heart is drawn close to his heart, then your desires start to shift.”
The fourth thing, Danis noted, that happens when we pray is that God invites us to become intercessors. An intercessor is someone who participates with God in inviting His will to be accomplished in the world around us.
“God respects our freedom,” he said. “God allows us to determine how much he will come into our lives.”
Danis encouraged the students to invite God into their lives throughout the day: driving to school, studying for a test or dealing with something more difficult. He believes that by inviting God into the situation, those who do are able to have a closer, more intimate relationship with Him.
The last thing that happens when we pray, Danis said, is that God activates us for the work of His kingdom. He noted that the last thing Jesus did before ascending to heaven was give The Great Commission, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
“I would encourage and invite you to begin asking God for two things,” he told the students. “One, ask Him for intimacy. Ask Him to draw close to you. And two, ask Him to reveal to you the thing that you can do that only you can do to build a kingdom.”
Before ending his lecture, Danis offered a gift to the high school students. He provided them with a code that would allow them to sign up and use the Hallow app for free for the next three months. He admitted to the students that they do not need an app to pray, “but it might be helpful.”
BNI student Kenny Armenta enjoyed the stories shared by the presenter and how he connected those themes to the Hallow app. He said the discussion made him interested in trying the app.
“I think the app could help people who don't use a prayer guide or who are new to the Catholic faith,” he said.
Another senior, Paulina Dorrejon, also liked the presentation. She said it gave her a different perspective, a different way of thinking about prayer. She admitted that at times she finds prayer can be boring, and feels that using an app may be helpful for some youth and young adults.
“I think it's a good thing,” she said. “Most teenagers are on social media anyway, so it's a pretty good idea.”
For more information about the partnership between the Diocese of Gary and Hallow, visit https://dcgary.org/Hallow.
