Want To Learn More About Monastic Life? There's An App For That!

There are nearly a million iPhone/iPad apps and more than 800,000 Android apps available today. Gaming is the most popular category, with one source reporting more than 150,000 different games currently in use. 

Touchscreen technology offers more than games and music, though. Many Catholic apps have been produced over the years – from Liturgy of the Hours and prayer apps to apps about the Mass, complete with readings and encyclicals.

Of all the apps in all the formats, only one app offers a look into religious life at St. Meinrad Archabbey: the Brothers App.

Sam Oldenburg, a recent graduate of Western Kentucky University with a degree in photojournalism, has taken evangelism to a new media by producing the Brothers App. It features the monks of St. Meinrad Archabbey; their way of life; and a virtual tour of the grounds, including some places that visitors normally aren’t allowed to see. 

Oldenburg’s first connection to St. Meinrad came through the chaplain at his alma mater, a priest who had graduated from St. Meinrad. During his time at WKU, Oldenburg became very involved in the Catholic Campus Center. In addition, while volunteering at a youth conference, Oldenburg met Brother John Mark Falkenhain, OSB, a monk from St. Meinrad who would become instrumental in coordinating the project. Although Oldenburg is Catholic, he realized he still had a lot to learn about the monastic life of the brothers. A combination of these factors led to Oldenburg’s interest in St. Meinrad, and eventually to the creation of the app.

Oldenburg worked with the archabbey, receiving permission to visit and create the project from Archabbot Justin DuVall. Oldenburg made three separate trips to St. Meinrad, each lasting 3-4 days, where he collected photos, audio clips, and other data. 

Oldenburg’s developed the Brothers App during the last semester of his senior year, when WKU students devote the full semester to one project specific to their major. “At first,” Oldenburg said, “I didn’t know what it would look like in the end.” He experimented with various media to display the archabbey’s monastic life, and didn’t make his decision to create an app until the middle of March. Even then, he spent a long time working on formatting and layout to create better transitions. “I hadn’t seen anything like this done before,” he explained. Oldenburg used children’s picture books and video games to explore various layouts, and also received feedback from his class to see what worked and what didn’t.

“You can choose your own adventure,” Oldenburg said. The app takes users from room to room, exploring the monastery and the monks’ lives of prayer and work. Intermingled with 70 photos are 20 short stories told by the monks themselves and a full half-hour of audio. “Pictures are a really amazing way to communicate,” Oldenburg explained. Through photojournalism, pictures can pull a person into the story by expressing emotion and detail in a way that writing simply can’t.

Oldenburg said some people think of monks as quiet, closed-off people who pray all the time; but he recalled that his favorite part of the project was experiencing the fun and surprising moments with the monks, from brewing beer to washing dishes, to deep conversations about everyday life and its implications in the world.

When he joined the monks for meals during his visits, Oldenburg would pray the community’s meal prayer with them. At first, he was hesitant about praying the line that read, “We pray others will join us in the monastic way of life.” But throughout his stay at St. Meinrad, Oldenburg came to understand that “you don’t have to be a monk to live monastic life.”

He explained that we are all called to live our daily lives and offer everything that we do as a prayer to God. St. Meinrad has many places where the monks both work and pray, such as the chapels, church, and kitchen – but also places for study, carpentry, pottery, and opportunity for artistic and personal expression. “Not everything looks like prayer, but it is all offered to God in a prayerful way,” Oldenburg reflected. 

Oldenburg intends to continue exploring how photography can be used in new ways in the communications field. For more information about the Brothers App, or to download your own copy, visit http://www.samoldenburg.com/brothers/.