St. Josemaría's "The Way" inspires Hallow's Lenten challengeAlex Jones is the CEO and co-founder of Hallowa mobile application designed to assist in personal and mental prayer in the midst of a digitalized world.
Its initiators, Alex Jones, Alessandro DiSanto and Erich Kerekes created this app in 2018 without knowing that it would come to position itself as the first spirituality app with more than 22 million downloads on devices around the world.
Hallow is born out of the need for prayer and personal encounter with God. In fact, it responds to a vital need of its creators. It allows a great personalization according to the way of being and praying of each person and has meditations, prayers and readings in the main languages.
Although not all of its users are Catholic, the application is Catholic, and priests, bishops and theologians have contributed to it to ensure that it correctly transmits the Catholic faith.
For Lent 2025, which begins on March 5, the application has chosen the book The Wayof St. Josemaría Escriváas a guide in these 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
On this occasion, Alex Jones has given an interview to Omnes in which he highlights how the best-known work of the founder of the Opus Dei "changed my life."
What led them to choose The Way as an accompanying work for this Lent?
-We chose The Way first because it changed my life and many others, but also because of its powerful and direct spiritual advice. St. Josemaría teaches us to love the world deeply through prayer and by making sacrifices. And ultimately, he helps us see that holiness can be found in our ordinary, daily lives. It’s a book that really just gets at the core of Hallow’s mission, which is to help people pray every single day.
What are the points of this The Way of St. Josemaría are the ones marking this Lent with Hallow?
–The Lent challenge touches on several themes of The Way that are essential to living a Christian life and trying to be a saint: prayer, sacrifice, love, and trust in God. Here’s one of my favorites, from the very beginning of the challenge: The Way that are essential to living the Christian life and aspiring to holiness: prayer, sacrifice, love and trust in God. One of my favorites is right at the beginning of the challenge: "“Don't let your life be a sterile life . . . And light up all the roads of the earth with the fire of Christ that you carry in your heart. (The Way1) What a powerful reminder of how we are supposed to live!”
What role do voices like Tamara Falcó or Josepedro Manglano play in this accompaniment, why them?
I won’t give away too many details of the challenge quite yet, but we have some really exciting surprises in store for you this Lent2025will say that we’ve asked all of our partners to join Lent Pray40 because we find the way they live out their faith to be pretty inspiring.
It takes a lot of courage to share the faith, and for that, we are deeply grateful.
Lent is, for the entire Church, a true journey of conversion. Hallow What is most helpful to users during this liturgical season?
This Lent we hope to help folks root out what’s stopping them and start fully following Christ who is "the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6). It is about conquering each morning and giving it to God.
There’s this quote from St. Josemaría Escrivá that I’ve found powerful and think encompasses what our goal this Lent is: “Lent is a time of penance, purification, and conversion. It is not an easy program, but then Christianity is not an easy way of life. It is not enough just to be in the Church, letting the years roll by. In our life, in the life of Christians, our first conversion… is certainly very significant. But the later conversions are even more important, and they are increasingly demanding.” (Christ passing by, 57)
Lent2025 truly is for everyone, whether you’re a daily mass-goer, you’re just coming back to the faith after years away, or you’re just giving this a try. We’re excited to pray with you whenever you are on your faith journey.
How do users use HallowWhat distinguishes it from other similar applications?
-People use Hallow in all kinds of ways. Some folks like to start their mornings with the Daily Gospel reflection on the app. Others find rest before bed with a Sleep Bible Story or praying the Rosary.
Prayer really can look different for everyone, but that’s what makes getting to work on the app really powerful for us.
We are always looking for new ways to help people pray, especially those who are returning to the faith or discovering it for the first time. While many apps focus on looking inward and focusing on oneself, at Hallow we try to help focus on God and how He acts in our lives and those around us.
It’s all about building a friendship with God and really just getting to know Him. I love the quote from St. Teresa of Ávila that says,“Contemplative prayer, in my opinion, is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.” At the end of the day, that is what we seek: to help each person find his or her own way to pray and come closer to God.
