Electric Prayer

After last year’s leisurely four-week Advent the hurried nature of this year’s Advent comes as a bit of a shock. Only three weeks and a day! A lot of activity has to be compressed into a small space, so please accept this short newsletter as our “Happy Advent” and “Happy Christmas” message combined.

Thank you for all your support throughout the year, not only for using Universalis or, better still, listening to it; but also for the way you react when – as sometimes happens – things go wrong.

Here is an example.

There was a problematic update for the iPhone and iPad versions of the app at the end of November (not entirely our fault but this is not the place for details) and here are some of the things you said while the problems were being sorted out:

“Many thanks. I really appreciate your help as my day doesn’t start without the Universalis prayers.”

“I would like to express my gratitude for Universalis. It has profoundly impacted my prayer life and deepened my connection with God and the Catholic Church. May the Lord continue to grace you with His love and blessings as you continue to walk in His footsteps.”

“Thank you for your app.  It has changed my life… Thank you again for the great work you have put into this ministry!”

“I am so very grateful for your wonderful app.  I can be anywhere and feel as if I am praying with a community in England.”

“I want to take this opportunity to tell you how much I enjoy and use this app. It is probably the single most used and appreciated application on my iPad.  Being able pray morning prayer and evening prayer from your app is especially convenient. I especially enjoyed listening to the excerpts from “The Creed in Slow Motion” when it was available.  I purchased a digital copy of the book afterwards, and have enjoyed reading it. Thank you for making such a useful app!”

At a time when I was tearing my hair out, resolving bugs, such kind voices were beyond price.

The Creed in Slow Motion

Perhaps I oughtn’t to be going on about this book because so many of you have already got it. But a stunning review has appeared and I cannot not share it with you. It is by Hugh Walters, Head of Religious Studies at Downside School. What is so impressive about it is how carefully the reviewer has read the book and how deeply he has engaged with it. For an author, a review of this kind is utterly humbling. You begin by saying to yourself “I wish I could write a book like that,” and then you realise, “But I have!”. The experience is not so much flattering, as flattening.

The review can’t be quoted from because it is a masterpiece of compression and every sentence deserves quotation. By kind permission of the reviewer you can read the whole review here.

If you haven’t already got the book, this review may encourage you to get it. If you have already got it, the review may encourage you to read it. And if you have already both got and read and re-read, perhaps the review will encourage you to encourage your friends.

Happy Christmas!

Above all, best wishes for a joyful and holy Christmas (the two are practically the same thing!) and for an Advent that is the perfect warm-up for it.

Our own warm-up started last Monday at the church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More in Chelsea, when the choir of Downside School came for their annual London carol service. As is the tradition, we had Benediction as the high point of it, just as the story told in word and song had reached the moment of the Incarnation. The consequent juxtaposition of the Tantum ergo with “Hark! the herald angels sing” put the solid theology of the coming feast in exactly the right place. This is going to be a good Advent!

Thank you all for using Universalis. If you have trouble or questions, or suggestions, do write to us at universalis@universalis.com or use the Contact Us button in one of the apps.

Let us all keep one another in our prayers, as always.