About the Prayercast

Liturgical life at the University of Notre Dame is a vital, tangible thing. Just about every community here—our thirty residence halls, the Law School, the Business School, University Village and the Graduate Residences—have a living tradition of faith expression, made tangible through the celebration of the Mass and other devotional practices. NDPrayercast is a small attempt to bring that spiritual vitality to the wider community. Except this manner is through digital, electronic means.

NDPrayercast consists of several short components: a greeting and introduction, a statement of focus for the week, a psalm reflection, the Sunday Gospel reading and homily, a meditation song, intercessions and the singing of the Lord's Prayer.

The musical repertoire is taken from the library of the Notre Dame Folk Choir, one of the University's principal liturgical choirs. The Folk Choir assists the Notre Dame community in prayer at the 11:45 A.M. Sunday liturgies throughout the academic year. More on the music of the Folk Choir can be found through World Library Publications.

Homilies found on the Prayercast are crafted by the priests of Notre Dame's founding religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross. Consult the biographies on the home page for more information about the ministries of these men.

How can you use the Prayercast? Take it with you. Listen to the words of Scripture and sacred music during your commute back and forth to work. Download it through iTunes and subscribe weekly. Listen as you care for your children at home. Walk around campus with your iPod and meditate on the words and the songs.

We have included other options for you as well as the weekly Prayercasts to help to focus your prayer and spiritual life: Morning and Evening Prayer services, Rosaries, episodes which reflect the special intentions of our campus community, and an online broadcast of the 11:45 A.M. Sunday liturgy from the Basilica at Notre Dame, which can be viewed in full starting the following Monday afternoon on our site.

Finally, we exhort all of our listeners and viewers to these words: the Prayercast is not a substitution for involvement in your local prayer communities. If anything, it is meant to enhance your prayer life during the week so that you can join your faith communities on the weekend with more to contribute. The Prayercast should lead you deeper into the mystery of the Body of Christ—not create an individual church for yourself. Keep this in mind as you listen and pray.

The Prayercast is a project of Notre Dame's Office of Campus Ministry, and is supervised by Steven Warner, the Director of Liturgical Music Services and Director of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. Assisting him are Shanti Michael, Graduate Assistant to the Folk Choir, and Emmeline Schoen D'Agostino, who serves as host of the Prayercast. We are always interested in your feedback. If you have constructive comments, you can submit them via e-mail to Steve Warner.