Karl Barth is said to have advised people to hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. People have written about new formulations of this in the age of cable network news and talk radio. I’ve been thinking about this in terms of social media.

Years ago, Kim made a shirt for me which said, “I get my news on Twitter”. In the early days of Twitter that shirt always started a conversation at future of journalism conferences.

Recently, I’ve been thinking of Facebook and the Daily Office. There are some people I know who post portions of liturgical prayer on Twitter. One friend posts thoughts from her morning prayer regularly on Facebook.

Yet returning to the quote attributed to Barth, what would it be like if we used Facebook as a starting point for our daily prayers? This came home to me recently as I read what friends were posting and I often replied about holding them and their loved ones in my prayers.

One day last week, I jotted down some of my responses, as part of a prayer list. I prayed for Linda, Ginny, Daron, Susan, Kendrick, Fred and Kenneth on their birthdays. I prayed for Claudia, Kristin, and Susan’s dad, who are ill. I prayed for Mike and his family on the passing of his mother-in-law, Andrew, on the passing of his pet Pip, and another friend on the passing of his “Uncle Mike”.

Yet there is also joy and I offered prayers of thanksgiving for the births of Charlotte, Lily and Aria. I also offered prayers of thanksgiving with my friends rejoicing about autumn in New England.

I talked about this a little with the priest after church today. We talked about how often we are asked to pray for one another in the secular world. Our friends who are not particularly religious often ask for good vibes or positive energy. To me, these are requests for intercessory prayer. Others post things they are happy about. Some participate in various gratitude challenges. To me, these are opportunities to offer prayers of thanksgiving.

Many years ago, I considered becoming a monk, dedicating my life to prayer. Yet I never experienced a clear sense of calling. Perhaps I am finding a twenty first century version of that calling as I live in the world and offer up prayers from my friends online.

To tie it all together, I pray that some of my religious friends online might take up the discipline of the Facebook Daily Office as well.