Glenstal monks put faith in iPhone app to help put abbey on the map
Following a chance encounter with businessman Dermot Desmond at a wedding, Fr Simon Sleeman of Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick, decided to take on the challenge of getting the religious community its very own iPhone app.
“I was doing a wedding and I met Dermot Desmond. Dermot had his iPad on his lap and he asked me: ‘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,” he said.
One might be forgiven for thinking that such a move would be alien for a community of Benedictine monks. However, you would be wrong.
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.”
For Fr Sleeman, that has come to pass and although he is not the proud owner of an iPhone, he is content the app is bringing the work of Glenstal Abbey to the wider world.
“No I don’t have one myself I admit but I’ve had a look at the app and we think it looks very well,” he said. The application, which is completely free, provides the latest news from the abbey, the daily prayer — morning and evening for each day of the week, a selection of Gregorian chants you can listen to and quotes from the Rule of St Benedict.
You will also learn that the daily life of a Benedictine monk remains one involving an early start.
On weekdays, the day starts at 6.35am with matins and lauds, followed by conventual Mass at 12.10pm, vespers at 6pm and compline or night prayer at 8.35pm.
Weekends are similarly tough, although the monks have a lie-in until 7am. Thank God for small mercies.
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