I just released a prayer engine

This week, I released a new app: a prayer engine.

It lives at Prayer.page

"What even is a prayer engine?"

Well, I'm glad you asked. It's software running on a server that streams prayer lines in real-time. These lines appear at the same time* to all who are connected.

At launch, it comes in three blends: the Hail Mary, the Jesus prayer, and the Lord's prayer (or our Father).

But how I built this software allows me to add more prayers in the future easily. Each prayer is stored in a dictionary that contains the lines of the prayer, how long each should be displayed, what happens when the prayer ends, and so on.

While using one of the three websites (hailmary.today, jesusprayer.today, ourfather.today), you also see how many people are connected and praying with you. I hope to foster community and encourage people to pray a little longer because they see that other people are with them.

These websites are built to be great replacements to social media, for instance. Drop in and pray a round of the Jesus prayer instead of scrolling for 20 minutes on Instagram. One can also add one of these websites as their browser's home page or install the Progressive Web App (PWA) on their phone (more on that soon, as I'll be improving this part next.)

This new project is another step on the path I want to walk: using my skills (design + code + problem solving) to serve Christ and His church.

* while they are usually almost perfectly synced, it depends on factors that can vary, such as the connection quality or the load of the device.