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Light up a language.

Over the last fifteen years, Pray As You Go has helped millions of people around the world to reflect on the presence of God in their lives. Producer Emma Holland explains how the new ‘Light up a Language’ campaign aims to help even more people to deepen their relationship with God.

On 1 March 2021, Pray As You Go will turn fifteen. If you can’t quite remember 2006, modern social media emerged as Facebook and Twitter were unleashed onto the world, and the word ‘podcast’ made it into the dictionary for the first time. As podcasts began to capture global audiences, Fr Peter Scally SJ had an idea: create an easy way to pray daily, using music and Ignatian Spirituality. And so, Pray As You Go (PAYG) was born.

What started as a simple way to pray on your way to work is now available to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, in ten languages.

Each language has adopted their own culture, music and style; you get a different feel from each one. The languages currently available include: English, Dutch/Flemish (Bidden Onderweg), French (Prie en Chemin), Hungarian (Napi-útra-való), Polish (Modlitwa w Drodze), Portuguese (Passo a Rezar), Spanish (Rezandovoy) , Ukrainian (iMolytva) and Vietnamese (Phút cãu nguyên). Some versions naturally stretch over to other continents of like-languages, drawing audiences from further afield such as parts of South America and Africa, Australia, the US and more.

See also the overview on Jesuits.eu

The tenth and most recent language to join the PAYG international family was Fi Tariqi Osally (‘on my way, I pray’), the Arabic version in 2019. This has been the most ambitious and collaborative language creation yet. Fi Tariqi Osally is a joint project between CLC (Christian Life Community) Egypt and the Jesuits of the Near East (based in Beirut), working together with volunteers spreading across Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Inji, one of the directors of the project has said: ‘We would like the world to know that everyone involved in this project is doing it totally voluntarily with lots of love and passion, and that we are feeling God’s blessings in every step.’ Making PAYG available to the Arabic-speaking world has been an exciting step and a cause for great celebration by all involved.

In August 2020, we were all shaken by the sight of the explosion in Beirut, particularly holding in prayer our Jesuit friends and collaborators, who were very close to the blast. We are therefore keener than ever to support our friends financially and help to maintain Fi Tariqi Osally as a point of support for so many around the world.

A campaign has now been launched called ‘Light up a Language’, with the hopeful aim of supporting not only Fi Tariqi Osally, but also other new language versions on the cusp of joining the international PAYG family. Talks are being held with listeners and friends of PAYG who are interested in starting a version in their native languages, so that we can continue expanding the accessibility of Ignatian Spirituality through PAYG around the world.

We have begun working more closely with all the other language versions PAYG, strengthening our ties as a collaborative family, discerning our joint calling, sharing ideas and content, and encouraging one another towards a greater global reach. In a world facing fragmentation at the hands of political decisions and separation owing to global restrictions, there couldn’t be a more poignant moment to answer God’s call of drawing nearer to each other and, in turn, help the world to pray.

Emma Holland

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