Vincentians in Bielorussia use Skype for praying together. A whole new meaning to “where two or three are gathered together.”

Mykhaylo Talapkanych, CM shares this experience of  “Morning prayer by Skype”

     The Internet and modern methods of communication are widely used in various spheres of our life. Most people can not imagine living and working without access to the Internet. The ability to quickly communicate with the world is a great relief, especially for people living far away from each other.

Here I want to present an example of a fairly specific use of Skype. And it is not about carrying out so-called “conferences at a distance …”

The community of the Vincentian Fathers in Belarus consists of five confreres. The oldest of them (85 years old) lives in the Major Seminary in the city of Grodno, where he is been   teaching theology and music for over twenty years The rest of the confreres are working in parishes far away from each other. The confreres can not live together in one community because of the governmental laws related to foreign priests. They live in separate houses, having to care for two to three parishes each, scattered in a radius of about 100 kilometers.

We meet as a community as often as possible but regular meetings are limited.

Three years ago, during one of our meetings, we got the idea to pray the morning prayer by Skype. At first it felt a little strange, but over time it has become almost our daily practice. It was enough to synchronize among ourselves the time of getting up and our morning duties.

Our morning prayer includes the following:

Prayer of the hours with the readings, morning prayer ( Laudes ), Angel of the Lord… and the prayer for vocations “Hope of Israel.”

Jesus said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18,20). We believe that He is among us, as we gather in His Name!