Praying It Forward Together: Fifteen Minutes at a Time
Every Wednesday afternoon, praying with and for others reminds me of the incredible power of prayer and the great blessing of virtual community.
In 2022, when I began participating in The Church in the 21st Century (C21) Center鈥檚 Pray It Forward weekly online prayer program, I never anticipated that connecting with others via Zoom to reflect and pray would profoundly enrich my faith. I also did not expect to write and share short Gospel-inspired prayers with a community I barely knew. Yet both these things happened, and I could not be more grateful.
Coming together online every week to reflect on the day鈥檚 Gospel and pray for personal intentions, family, friends, and a world that desperately needs healing is a sacred mission. These virtual encounters foster real-life relationships听and friendships that transcend the fifteen-minute online sessions. Holding others and being held in prayer offers lasting comfort, support, and hope that sustain and strengthen all of us.
Soon after attending my first Pray It Forward meeting, I offered to read the closing prayer. When the Center suggested that I select a prayer, I thought it might be fun to write one鈥攅ven though I had never written a prayer before! After reading, reflecting, and praying with the Gospel of the day, by the grace of the Holy Spirit the words flowed. Writing and sharing a weekly prayer is now a joyful spiritual practice and cornerstone of my week. It is an honor and gift I never take for granted.
Praying with and for otherspositively transforms us and how we experience the world. A very dear cousin听once shared with me that he sincerely believed we can all feel each other's hearts and know we are deeply loved. The Pray It Forward community reminds me every week that when we pray together our hearts are united with God and with each other. And that we are deeply loved.
Margie Sherlock is a writer and researcher, a long-serving OCIA sponsor and catechist, and author of Spirit of Love: Prayers for Hopeful Hearts, published by the C21 Center.
Drawing God: A Knot in the Network of God
Social media can be a great place to find innovative ideas and resources that help all of us to draw closer to God. I find the exchange of ideas, books, prayers, reflections, and artwork enhances the work I do daily. In my role as a diocesan advisor in the Diocese of Derry in the north of Ireland, I am always on the lookout for new ideas and resources to share at our annual Diocesan In-Service Day for Primary School Religious Education Coordinators. One day, I saw a post from the C21 Center on a children鈥檚 book, Drawing God, an innovative and creative tool for faith formation.
I immediately ordered the book and set about thinking how we might introduce this so we could get the children of the Derry Diocese drawing God too!
At our in-service, we decided the best way to engage teachers in the project was to ask them to draw God. And as primary school teachers do, faced with a creative challenge, they took to it brilliantly! We prayed together听first and then, in silence, they drew their own images of God. They drew hearts, sunrises, family members, and nature scenes鈥攖heir reflections on how God is everywhere and in everyone.
The response from schools to the C21 Center鈥檚 World Drawing God Day was and continues to be amazing. It is now an annual date in our diocesan schools鈥� diary. Before they begin drawing, the children talk about God, how God might look, where you might find God, and who you might find God in. Their drawings are really a prayer, acknowledging the presence of God in their lives, their families, their school, the world. Children have such an amazing gift of wonder. They are less inhibited by stereotypical images of God, and the freedom of their imagination and hearts is something I think we can all learn from.
Each year we create a Drawing God album on our Catechetical Centre Facebook page and the link is shared to our Instagram account. And of course,听the Drawing God Virtual Museum, displaying artwork from across the world, demonstrates the positive impact a digital project can have.
In a world where there is so much necessary concern over the use of social media and digital platforms, I have found the engagement with the Center has had a very positive impact on my ministry.
In his address to digital influencers and missionaries in July 2025, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the call of the disciples, by Jesus, "to go mend the nets." He said that Jesus asks the same of us today, that we are called 鈥渢o weave other nets; networks of relationship, of love, of gratuitous sharing where friendship is profound and authentic.鈥� Drawing God for me personally and for the schools in the Diocese of Derry has been a notable example of this "weaving" in action. Networks of relationship have been formed and are mutually life-giving. It has been a story of shared goodness and forms, I believe, in Pope Leo鈥檚 words, 鈥渁 knot in a single immense network: the network of networks, the network of God.鈥�
Th茅r猫se Ferry is the diocesan advisor for primary schools in the diocese of Derry in Northern Ireland.
Through Faith Feeds "You'll Never Walk Alone"
This is a quote on a T-shirt I have that is actually the slogan of the Liverpool Football Club. It was given to me by my brother-in-law, Jonathan, as a gift a few Christmases ago. He is a big fan of the soccer club in the Premier League, but I had previously told him I love the slogan for its spiritual implications. In sharing our faith, I told him the shirt reminds me that God assures us that He always walks with us.
I think of that assurance when I participate in Faith Feeds, a faith conversation program created by the C21 Center. The bimonthly online session lasts an hour and is always focused on a particular theme through discussion guides that include short articles and conversation questions. After the initial prayer and introductions, participants break out into small groups to share responses to questions raised by a moderator. For me, the best part of these breakout sessions in Faith Feeds comes down to two things: acceptance and diversity.
Faith Feeds has become a spiritual home because it has fostered connection, community, and acceptance for me and all who participate. I believe that connection is fostered because there is a total acceptance of all the participants by everyone there. Being directly present to each other through a computer screen in the comfort of one鈥檚 own abode actually helps to create this acceptance in a way that in-person collaboration sometimes has difficulty doing. Seeing an individual in their home/office setting reminds me that we all have God-given uniqueness and that is a blessing. It helps to remove barriers that in turn help people feel safe sharing what is deep within their souls, even in front of people they probably do not know very well.
That leads to the diversity of the group. Because Faith Feeds is facilitated online, it is possible to bring together people from all over the world. So far, we have had participants from across North America and as far away as Europe and Latin America. The presence of the Lord in each person鈥檚 own unique culture reminds me that His presence comes to us in so many ways. There is no one path in serving the Lord, and the diversity of the group helps to keep me grounded in remembering this.
I have always believed that at the end of the day we are all walking each other home. Faith Feeds does exactly that. I invite everyone to join us.
You鈥檒l Never Walk Alone.
Jim Macika is a retired special education teacher, administrator, and director, and volunteers with the Louisiana SPCA and as a reader of the Word for Masses at the Ignatian Chapel at Loyola University.
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