In addition to using Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram to communicate with friends, Convent of the Sacred Heart students can now take their connections to a spiritual level with the new “My Call Me Back” (CMB) iPhone application. The app has numerous platforms to promote religious devotion amongst young people across the world who want to deepen their personal beliefs throughout their discernment journeys.
Religious of the Sacred Heart Sister Reyna González developed CMB as a spiritual response to the digital age.
“Young people have everything on their phones, so we wanted to use technology to help young people reflect on life, and not live life with worry,” Sr. González said. “With this app, everything is in your hands.”
The application costs 99 cents and features a homepage along with seven subsections including “Faceworld,” a place to reflect on social issues of the world, “My route,” a platform to explore questions, opportunities, and calls of life, “Belonging,” where users experience belonging to a group, and “My creations,” where users can get in touch with their creative side.
The other sections are “My journal,” a private component that provides guidance for prayer, “My toolkit,” a section filled with different activities and workshops RSCJs offer, and “Home,” which is a portal to access various areas of the Society of the Sacred Heart, according to the RSCJ international website. Each component of the application acts as an outlet for reflection, creativity, prayer, and exploration.
To develop the application, Sr. González sought feedback from focus groups in the United States and Mexico. One Heart, Sacred Heart Greenwich’s campus ministry group, also helped with the process. Members contributed ideas and renamed a component of the app from “My highlight” to “My inspiration,” reflecting the goal of inspiring users to connect with God and with each other.
“We wanted to rename it from ‘highlight’ which has more of a passive connotation as something you simply enjoy thinking about for its own sake, to ‘inspiration’ which is something that also motivates you to make a change or do something new,” senior and secretary of One Heart Zsanelle Morel said.
Sr. González notes that all of the application components enable users to grow and learn about their faith as they make and strengthen connections with God and others and learn that discernment is a journey. The private feature of the app,“My journal,” also offers a private place for reflection.
“We ask young people how does a vocation work, and they think vocations are not fun,” Sr. González said. “A vocation is how you respond to God calling in your life, not just becoming nuns or priests.”
The first Lifeline weekend is a Northeast Network School retreat that will introduce CMB to the participants as a face-t0-face platform in promoting discernment and self-discovery. The retreat will take place at Sacred Heart starting tonight through March 1.
“I was interested in participating because part of the focus of the retreat is to reflect on my place in this world, which I know will be important to think about as I will be graduating and going on to college soon,” Zsanelle said. “I think the ‘My Call Me Back’ application will be a great way to organize all of my spiritual thoughts and inspirations. I like that I can also connect with other Sacred Heart students around the world with the app and because it is on my phone I will always have it with me for whenever inspiration strikes.”
– Emily Hirshorn, Opinions Editor