Meditatio, finally a Christian meditation application!

Among the plethora of applications dedicated to meditation, the last one, finally, is based on the rich meditative and contemplative tradition of the Church: Meditatio. Officially launched this first week of October, it already has more than 10,000 users.

“This app helps me every morning to have a better day! exclaims Thibault. “Everything is beautiful: the texts, the voices, the images,” adds Zoé. “An app that allows you to take time for God and recharge your batteries,” says Lucie. “I’ve been waiting for this kind of application for a long time,” continues Sylvie. Mass has been said ! meditation corresponds to a real need, both among convinced Christians and among those who remain at the door of the Church, to allow themselves to be guided towards the Lord in order to taste the joy and peace which he alone can truly fill us with.

A quest that others associate with well-being, and to which many of our contemporaries are working. Indeed, in recent years, the practice of meditation has exploded, supported by a growing number of digital applications dedicated to well-being, mindfulness or even yoga. From the 2000s, scientific and media articles on the subject are multiplying : in 2005, newspapers published 14,000 articles referring to mindfulness or meditation. There were 33,000 in 2015. AppInventiv, a global application development company, valued that more than 2,500 mobile meditation applications have been launched since 2015. 2015 is also the date of creation of Petit Bambou, the app illustrated by a hilarious Buddhist monk who exploded during the first confinement and which today brings together more than 8 million users. The Covid-19 pandemic and the successive confinements are no strangers to the influx of these new profiles of meditators. A recent study reveals that one in four French people have practiced or are currently practicing meditation. Lockdowns have accelerated the phenomenon: 37% of meditation practitioners say they started this activity at the start of the first lockdown.

2,500 meditation applications, and yet Christian applications can be counted on the fingers of one hand. If there are half a dozen American apps in English, there are still none in French.

Faced with this observation, a young couple, Thomas Delenda, 32, creator of the social prayer network Hozana, and his wife Jeanne, 27, a former high-level windsurfer, decided a year ago to offer a Christian alternative to current meditation, very secular and of oriental inspiration. “We realized that in France, there was no application of Christian inspiration, while the Christian tradition has more than 2000 years of wisdom to offer in terms of meditative and contemplative practices,” Jeanne Delenda told Aleteia.

“You press play and prayer becomes easy”

Driven by the desire to respond to the thirst of their contemporaries, more or less distant from the Church, Thomas and Jeanne develop a Christian meditation application, taking care to choose themes that meet current concerns. They baptize it Meditatio. Once downloaded, users just have to let themselves be guided in their prayer time. Louis, a faithful user, testifies that the app is proving to be a “real help for prayer: the various meditations allow you to get closer to the Lord”. Another admits to being a “fan of the canticle of Simeon with two voices”. As for Océane, 26, who suffered from a serious inner ear disease, Meditatio’s “Hope” course enabled her to regain her confidence and regain courage in her illness. “With Meditatio, it is not necessary to know how to pray. Only to listen. And to let it go. We press play and prayer becomes easy. While prayer alone had become impossible for me because the silence weighed on me and made me rehash dark thoughts, Jeanne’s voice, the chosen texts, allow me to let myself be filled with the Gospel”.

An offer that also affects people with little or no practice. This is the case of Léa, 27, who has been using the app almost every day for a few months. Not particularly practicing, she is seduced by the possibility of “offering a bubble” in her daily life, “to take a step back, refocus”. But above all, Meditatio makes the relationship with God appear accessible to him. She who “didn’t really know how to go about praying” or even felt excluded from this Christian practice, discovered “how to get there and it’s great”, she confides. The relationship with God seems to him less impressive, more intimate. Encouraged by the app, she walked parallel on her path of faith. “My faith has evolved, and I realize that whatever his level of spirituality, the app is always suitable”.

In addition to the course based on hope, Meditatio offers guided meditations around different themes: evening rereading, meeting Jesus in the Gospel, finding peace, developing gratitude, sleeping well, meditating in transport, fighting against anxiety and stress, etc. Meditations based on Carmelite prayer, lectio divina, Ignatian prayer and the desert fathers. A dozen courses are already available, inviting you to develop your gratitude, inner peace, self-confidence and self-esteem. A course based on the Vittoz method teaches how to overcome stress and anxiety. Others are in preparation, focusing in particular on management and parenthood.

The application, in test version for several months, has already obtained more than 10,000 downloads. The objective of Thomas and Jeanne is to convince as many users as the Hozana prayer site, which exceeded one million members in mid-September. Meditatio works according to an original economic model: part of the content is freely accessible, and a subscription is necessary to access all the content, but the price is free: everyone sets the amount of the monthly subscription they wish to pay . They are a dozen people behind the app: three developers, a designer, editors and voices, and have benefited from the support of RCF, partner of the project, which has made recording studios available to them and supports the launching the application.

Meditatio is available on Android and iPhone, to download for free by clicking here.

In partnership with Meditatio.