‘Click to pray’: Vatican launches $110 wearable smart rosary
VATICAN - In an effort to get more young people to pray for world peace, the Vatican has launched a $110 wearable digital rosary, called the “Click To Pray eRosary.”
The “Click to Pray” eRosary can be worn as a bracelet and links to a mobile app that becomes activated when the user makes the sign of the cross. The beads of the bracelet are made of black agate and hematite, and the digital device is in the shape of a cross.
October is the month of the Rosary, and the device was launched at a press conference at the Vatican Tuesday.
The Vatican launched a wearable smart rosary to encourage tech-savvy young people to engage with their faith and pray more.
"Aimed at the peripheral frontiers of the digital world where the young people dwell, the Click To Pray eRosary serves as a technology-based teaching tool to help young people pray the Rosary for peace and to contemplate the Gospel," the Vatican explained.
The smart rosary links to the official player app of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, called “Click To Pray,” that connects thousands of praying people worldwide daily.
Once the device is activated, users can choose whether they want to pray a standard rosary, a contemplative rosary or one of the thematic rosaries, which are updated annually. The smart rosary keeps track of and displays the user’s progress and tracks when each rosary is completed.
(Vatican)
“The project brings together the best of the Church’s spiritual tradition and the latest advances of the technological world," the Vatican said. The smart rosary also comes with an audio guide to the gospel, and it can also function as a health tracker.
Pope Francis himself has a personal profile on the “Click To Pray” app and hopes that creating modern, digital tools to guide prayer will entice more young people to join him “in his daily and monthly intentions in order to build a world with the taste of the Gospel.”
“Therefore, I renew my appeal to young people and to all to pray the Rosary for peace,” said Pope Francis.
This story was reported from Los Angeles.