Chris Pratt will be joining Jonathan Roumie and Mark Wahlberg, along with Fr. Mike Schmitz, Sr. Miriam James, S.O.L.T., and Cardinal Robert Sarah, for Hallow’s upcoming Lent Pray40 Community Prayer Challenge. Hallow, a Catholic prayer and meditation app, regularly offers prayer challenges that follow the Christian liturgical calendar.
“This Lent, Hallow will once again launch its Lent Pray40 prayer challenge, beginning on Ash Wednesday,” said Hallow on its website. “Drawing on the incredible writings of St. Josemaría Escrivá, author of The Way, we’ll follow Jesus into deeper faith every day this Lent.”
“Our Lenten challenge is always our biggest challenge of the year,” said Hallow CEO and co-founder Alex Jones in response to a request for comment, “and it’s an honor to get to pray with so many incredible voices and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.”
Hallow Announces Lineup for Lent Pray40 2025
Hallow’s CEO and co-founder Alex Jones helped launch the app at the end of 2018. Jones said that he grew up Catholic, fell away from his faith, and later returned to his roots, “learning about the Church’s beautiful tradition of prayer & meditation.” These traditions include “deep and transformative contemplative and meditative prayer techniques.”
Jones and his fellow co-founders, Erich Kerekes and Alessandro DiSanto, created the Hallow app as an alternative to the “secular meditation, mindfulness apps and yoga” attracting many of their friends.
The app regularly partners with celebrities, including Jonathan Roumie, Mark Wahlberg and Jim Caviezel. In 2022, Hallow partnered with members of “The Chosen” cast for that year’s Advent prayer challenge. Last Christmas, Hallow teamed up with Bear Grylls, Gwen Stefani, Kevin James, Lauren Daigle, Jonathan Roumie, and Francis Chan for its annual Pray25 Advent challenge.
Jones has written a lengthy blog post on the Hallow website explaining the app’s partnership philosophy, which distinguishes between “spiritual leaders,” “content partners,” and “advertising partners” and assigns different levels of responsibility to each.
“We take great care to make sure all of the content on the app is in-line with Church teaching, but we do not stand behind each individual actor or musician’s past public comments, actions, or personal beliefs,” said Jones. “Any answer to any question about where Hallow stands on Church teaching can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”
This Lent, Hallow said that “to help bring Escrivá’s advice to life, we’ll follow the story of Servant of God Takashi Nagai, a Japanese physician who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. He survived, but his life was not without difficulty, heartbreak, and, ultimately, conversion.”
