Denver, Colo., Jul 25, 2023 / 09:30 am
Hallow, a Catholic meditation and prayer app, has brought back its “Saints in 7 Days” series.
The series first launched in 2022 and quickly became a fan favorite. It returned Monday, July 24, with a look at the life of St. Mary Magdalene with actress Elizabeth Tabish, who plays Mary Magdalene on the hit television series “The Chosen.”
Alex Jones, the CEO of Hallow, and Kevin Cotter, Hallow’s head of content, spoke with CNA about the popular series and what they hope people will take away from the lives of the saints.
“The saints are such a powerful example of how to grow deeper in your spirituality, and they’re such an inspiring example,” Jones said. “Some people might find them a bit intimidating, but what we found is actually diving straight into the hearts of the radical way in which they lived their lives is actually inspirational for folks to see.”
Some of the saints that have been featured in the series are Padre Pio, Mother Teresa, Louis and Zelie Martin, and Martin de Porres. Mary Magdalene and Ignatius of Loyola are two of four saints who will be highlighted this year.
Cotter explained that the format differs from other saint-of-the-day resources in that instead of simply reading a biography filled with facts, “Saints in 7 Days” focuses on telling the story of the saint.
“Over the course of seven days you can really hear their story, you can journey with them and get an understanding of them through these amazing moments in their life that helped make them the saint that they were and then get to pray alongside them as well,” Cotter said.
“So, you’re getting that story piece and that meditation piece to really enter into who they were and in a way that at the end of the week, you can say, ‘Wow, I really know that saint and I’ve walked with them, and they’re going to remain with me for a long time through this experience,’” he added.
When deciding on which saints to cover, Cotter said they try to focus on helping people “enter into a story,” such as Ignatius’ conversion story or Padre Pio’s stigmata.
“I think that’s where people can get captivated, they can enter into the story, and even see their own lives in those stories,” he said.
The other factor taken into consideration is making sure they include saints for people in all different walks of life.
“You’ve got Padre Pio, which is very supernatural and very intense and very, almost otherworldly,” Cotter shared. “But then you have really humble people and married people like St. Thérèse’s parents, with Louis and Zelie.”
The series on Mary Magdalene will focus on her healing from seven demons, her time following Jesus, and how she maintained an incredible faith, even being at the foot of the cross at Jesus’ crucifixion with the Blessed Mother and John while the other apostles stayed away.
“I think with Mary Magdalene you see that life story, we see that narrative arc of where she’s at, her transformation, then going through obviously the most incredible experience we have as Christians and being right alongside with Jesus through all that,” Cotter said.
Cotter hopes that through the stories of the saints, listeners will realize that “God is very real. My life very much matters. There’s a story going on that I can affect each day and it’s really worth sacrificing to follow God because he can do incredible things when we do that.”
“I think when we read their stories just naturally, we place ourselves in those stories, just like they did, to help our own transformation and lead us to understanding what it means to follow after Jesus.”
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Jones added: “Sometimes you just get stuck in this rhythm and it’s like, ‘Well, how can I look at this with a fresh perspective?’ And the saints just do such a great job of [it] — if you can enter into life through their eyes and see Christ the way that they saw him, it’s just this new way to kind of bring it to life.”
The “Saints in 7 Days” series can be found on the Hallow app.
