The digital age of Faith

While the Christian message has traditionally been spread at Mass and passed on from generation to generation, one priest has decided to open up new evangelical frontiers.

Dublin-based priest Fr Justin Gillespie is making leaps and bounds in proclaiming the Faith to young adults both in Ireland and across international waters through the power of the internet. Inspired by the works of St Josemariá Escriva, he has created an online podcast called ‘Spiritual Batteries’ which attracts over 10,000 listeners weekly, and attempts to “guide people through a prayerful contemplation of the life of Jesus” for 30 minutes.

Reaching out to young adults specifically personally resonates with Fr Justin, given that it was during this period in his own life that he began to encounter Christ in a much deeper way.

Prayer

“I would have come from a Catholic family and we would have been Sunday Massgoers. My mother would have been very much involved in the pro-life movement in the US,” he says adding that when he attended the University of Dallas in his home state of Texas, he was inspired by “friends who took their Faith seriously” and began to understand prayer in a new way.

During this time, Fr Justin became involved in the activities of Opus Dei and, while teaching in a secondary school for a couple of years after college, realised there was a need for more vocations, and decided to become a priest.

“I had become part of the culture of Opus Dei at that point and there was a need – plus my desire to take my teaching and my talents of teaching and make that available in a different way through the ministry of priesthood. It’s a different way of serving basically,” he explains.

In 2001, he joined seminary and studied in Rome until 2007 where he completed his doctorate in Old Testament theology. While there, Fr Justin says his decision to join the priesthood was “solidified” following interactions with priests he “knew, admired and respected”, alongside a maturing of his own Faith as well. In 2007, he was ordained for the prelature of Opus Dei, and in 2011 he travelled to Ireland to minister.

“It was definitely a new challenge. First of all, it was great to speak English again, and at the same time to learn a different kind of English. It was coming to something that was very familiar in some ways but in a lot of ways was quite new, challenging to understand, and get on top of – but it has been very rewarding,” Fr Justin says.

While doing chaplaincy work at some of the residencies of Opus Dei in Dublin and Galway, Fr Justin decided to record the guided contemplation he was offering, leading to what is now ‘Spiritual Batteries’.

“So, someone suggested to me, one of the people who worked with me that we could start recording them. She actually gave me a little microphone and said why don’t you record these and then some of the people who aren’t there can listen to it on their own,” he says.

“So, we started doing that and we started posting them and then it just took on a life of its own in a sense. More and more people started using them. More and more people started finding them helpful.”

Reaching thousands of people every week, Fr Justin says the podcast allows people to deeply contemplate Christ wherever they are, whether “they’re driving or when they’re on the train or when they’re on their own”.

“It’s an opportunity for them to pray and be guided in that through different considerations. The other thing that I find interesting about the digital format is people telling me it’s been a helpful way for them to share things with their friends – maybe friends who would be reticent to come to a church or come to some kind of prayer meeting.”

While it’s certainly true that the internet can have harmful effects on young people, Fr Justin believes given how interwoven it is into society, it would be “naive” not to use it in a productive way.

“I think the internet and social media in particular have some really dark sides to it but I think at the same time it’s part of the fabric of our culture. It is part of the way, especially young people, understand themselves and relate to one another and I think to not engage with that and to help people discover Christ and pray through it would be silly – naive in a sense. Like anything it is a means that can be used for good, but it can also be a source of other problems,” he says.

Success

Following the success of the podcast, Fr Justin runs a ‘Spiritual Batteries Live’ event in Merrion Road’s Our Lady Queen of Peace Church where attendees can experience an evening of adoration, guided prayer, reconciliation and philosophical discussion. Through initiatives like these, Fr Justin hopes to bring young adults closer to the Faith and a “deeper thirst for who God is and who Jesus Christ is”, without being dissuaded by more complex teachings of the Church.

In this way ‘digital proselytisation’ becomes much more than just a verbose phrase, but a concrete reality that people can encounter.