Since its founding in 2018, Catholic prayer and meditation app Hallow has quickly become the #1 prayer app in the world. It's been downloaded more than 14 million times and has been used to pray more than 400 million times, in 150 different countries.
But it all began with a major change in the faith life of founder Alex Jones.
The Advent of Hallow
In Lent 2024, Hallow stretched beyond its subscriber base of faithful Christians and achieved even greater status as the #1 app downloaded at Apple's App Store.
During Advent 2024, Hallow launched Pray25 -– offering its users the opportunity to pray with Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the award-winning series The Chosen.
Hallow co-founder and CEO Alex Jones talked prior to Advent about his personal faith journey, and about what inspired him to create the popular app.
“I was raised Catholic,” he said, “but during college, I was agnostic or atheist. After college, I gave myself to meditation.”
It was an encouraging priest who helped Jones to see that meditation was nothing new –- that, in fact, Catholics had been doing it for 2,000 years. “It's called 'prayer'!” he explained.
But no, Jones insisted – prayer was about asking God for things. The priest continued to clarify: “Well,” he said. “That is one way of talking to God; but have you ever tried to just listen to God?”
Jones accepted the challenge, and he began to practice lectio divina, a meditation style in which an individual reads a verse of Scripture, then reflects on its message and responds to the text, by offering praise or asking for healing or forgiveness.
He turned his Bible to the Gospel of Luke; and in Chapter 11, he encountered the word “hallow.”
[Jesus] said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
“Hallow is the word that stuck out for me in the Our Father,” Jones explained. “It was only 10 or 15 minutes, but it changed my life.”
Jones' life change was profound. He described his experience as a combination of a deep sense of peace, and a real relationship with the Lord.
Launching a Startup for God
Jones was sure he wanted to serve God through his work -– and he took the big step of quitting his job, and building a start-up he named Hallow, to lead others in prayer.
“I had been using apps in the secular arena before,” he reported, “and I knew how to code a little bit.”
Alex Jones' project grew, and with two co-founders in charge of financial management, he hired others to share the workload. With self-deprecating humor, he explained that he brought in someone who was a much better developer than he, and that new developer deleted all of Alex's code and started over.
The prayer app took shape, and Jones professed, “It's the most important part of my life! I use it three times a day, every day. We have bishops and priests on it. But our real mission is to reach people who are otherwise unaccustomed to carving out time for prayer.”
Jones reported on the familiar voices who wound up leading the Advent prayers.
“Jonathan Roumie is leading it,” he said, “but on Sundays Fr. Chrysostom Baer, prior of St. Michael's Abbey, will lead the prayers. On Wednesdays, the prayer leader will be Sister Mariae Agnus Dei of the Sisters of Life."
More than 310,000 people had signed up for Advent25 at the time of our interview -– a surprise to Alex because that number was even higher than they'd achieved during Lent, although they'd aired a commercial during the Super Bowl, right before Lent began.
What's Next for Hallow?
Jones promises “a lot of incredible content” in the New Year.
For example, the app has plans for the National Day of Prayer on May 1, 2025.
Hallow is excited to recognize National Day of Prayer with actual words of prayer from holy men and women throughout the ages. Hear the voices of St. John Paul II, Padre Pio, Mother Teresa and others leading prayers.
Jones also was insistent that Hallow is not a replacement for the Church, but rather he wants to support the Church, helping to foster a culture of prayer in the parish.
He was pleased to report that listenership to Hallow spikes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and the number drops slightly on Sundays.
“I love that!” Jones said; “Our goal is to send people to Mass!”
Image: Adobe Stock
Kathy Schiffer writes regularly for the National Catholic Register and Catholic World Report, and for other Catholic publications, including Evangelization and Culture, Crisis Magazine, Aleteia, Zenit, the Michigan Catholic, and Legatus Magazine. She’s worked for Catholic and other Christian ministries since 1988, as radio producer, director of special events, and media-relations coordinator.
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