Irish Monks develop iPhone app

To follow on from my previous blog that everyone is developing iphone apps I bring you “iGod “! I kid you not, this is an app developed by the Limerick order of Benidictine Monks in Glenstal Abby. Who said Monks aren’t down with the kids  these days ?

 The initiative came about as a result of a chance encounter between Glenstal’s Bursar Fr Simon Sleeman and multimillionaire Dermot Desmond, who showed off his iPhone at a wedding and asked why the monks didn’t have an app.

 ‘Simon, where is the app for Glenstal?’ So I said to him that I would get one going. So when I came back home I set about trying to get one.” ” I got on to some people about making it happen and went back to Dermot who got me in touch with some other people to help develop it and it went from there,"

For any of you who are out of the habit of saying your prayers this could be the app for you,its free to download on the iphone and android platforms and offers features such as  “daily prayer, chant and latest news from the monks of Glenstal abbey”. 

Who’d be without it eh? As well as this the app offers  a selection of Gregorian chant and quotes from the Rule of St Benedict, always handy to have few to throw into your essays and of course keep your moral compass in check.

Today’s rule reads: “Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which sepaarates from God and leads to hell, so there is a good zeal which separates from vices and leads to God and to life everlasting.”

Although Fr Sleeman does not have an iphone yet ,he has had a look at the app and is very happy with and delighted that the app will bring the work of Glenstall Abby to the wider world .

People may consider this move into iphone app development to might be a unlikely move  for the community of Benedictine monks. But you’d be wrong there. In fact, by seeking out help with the app, Fr Sleeman was following a teaching in The Rule of Benedict: "Do everything with consultation and you will have no regrets when the deed is done."

Well if any of you download it let me know how you get on .

Now go in peace to love and text the lord.Amen.