You’d love to find more time to pray — but life gets in the way! You’re busy with work, or with school, or with family responsibilities, and you just can’t find enough time to talk to God.

The Cloisters Ignatian Prayer app offers a solution. The app was designed to help people make more time for prayer and reflection, by choosing the time that works best for them: They can pray along with the app while driving to the store, getting ready for work, washing the dishes, or lying in bed at the end of a hectic day. This convenient “retreat-on-the-go” offers guidance from noted spiritual leaders, divided into four “weeks” which can be collapsed into a shorter time, or expanded to fit the user’s schedule. Included are videos and lessons on God’s Love and Mercy, the Life of Jesus, the Passion, and the Resurrection and God’s Love.

Jesuit Father Joe Laramie, spokesman for the Cloisters app, talked with the Register recently about what the app offers, and how it can help people to delve into Ignatian spirituality. Father Laramie is one of the priests who appear in the Cloisters videos, helping viewers to deepen their prayer lives. He is also the national director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network Apostleship of Prayer, a 175-year-old mission that promotes devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He is the author of two books based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius and has written for America magazine. He has appeared on EWTN, The Busted Halo Show, the Hallow app, and the Jesuitical podcast. He is a National Eucharistic Preacher for the USCCB’s National Eucharistic Revival.

The Cloisters Ignatian Prayer app, Father Laramie explained, is designed to be flexible, to accommodate individuals’ schedules and interests. “There is a great tradition among Jesuits,” he said, “based on the spirituality of (Jesuit founder) St. Ignatius, of offering a really flexible format. St. Ignatius himself was flexible in leading people in prayer, and today we follow the same model.”

That means that an individual may choose to participate in a retreat, in the privacy of home or at a retreat center, or may simply stop by Father’s office for a few minutes. “People can engage this app in different ways,” said Laramie. “If they hear only half, that’s fine; they can have a spiritual experience that way. They can sit down and watch the video as well, studying the Scripture passages, reflection questions, and more.” 

Father Laramie delineated the four parts of the series, highlighting the ways that each “week” can enrich our spiritual lives. Each part includes videos, 15 to 20 minutes long, in which one of the priests explains the Spiritual Exercises. Then he will entrust the viewer to the Holy Spirit, saying, effectively, “Okay, now it’s your turn.” The viewer is encouraged to go and pray on the topic he’s just watched. 

The first part, God’s Love and Mercy, is focused on the human heart. We are loved by God, and named by God. The retreat begins with reflecting on our sins.

In the second part, the Life of Christ, Father Laramie explains that God comes himself to redeem us and befriend us. Classic Ignatian spirituality teaches us to use our imagination to study these Gospel passages, allowing ourselves to be drawn into these Gospel scenes and have a friendly conversation with Christ.

Part 3, The Passion, focuses on walking with Jesus as he carries his cross, and knowing that he walks with us as we carry our crosses.

In Week 4, on the Resurrection and God’s Love, religious scholars discuss the Resurrection, and how God’s love nurtures us throughout our lives. “In a nutshell,” Father Laramie explained, “the Risen Lord sends us out with our mission to preach and teach the gospel.”

Readers who want to grow closer to God by praying with the Cloisters Ignatian Prayer App can check it out and watch a few videos on the website. There is a modest enrollment fee for those who participate, but all proceeds from the app support The Cloisters on the Platte Foundation in running their nonprofit Ignatian retreat center in Nebraska, where EWTN’s own Mitch Pacwa has led, and leads, retreats.