Priest develops prayer cards to help struggling parishioners to move forward in spiritual life

Friday, Dec. 09, 2022

SALT LAKE CITY — A local priest has created a new way to help pastors succor their flock.

Parishioners who are struggling with an issue or need ongoing direction often bring these matters up in the confessional, where priests may be unable to address them immediately, said Fr. Dominic Sternhagen, pastor of St. Ann Parish in Salt Lake City.

The Sacrament of Confession is by its nature brief, and pastors administering the sacrament may find it difficult at that time to provide meaningful advice and resources to help people in their lives, Fr. Sternhagen said. 

As he pondered what he could do in such situations, Fr. Sternhagen came up with the idea of business card-sized cards containing an original picture of a saint, a meaningful prayer parishioners can pray as their penance, and a list of further resources that address specific issues or can help a person grow in a certain area.

“I thought, ‘What if we had cards that we could give out for different needs that people have that have QR codes on them so that people could scan them and go directly to a resource for further help and direction when they needed it?’” Fr. Dominic said. 

Thinking the idea might have merit, he reached out to his brother Nikolas and his friend Nathan Hadsall of Catholic Support Services, who were enthusiastic about the concept. Hadsall and Nikolas Sternhagen formed a company, reCatholic, to provide the cards and other resources to help inspire and challenge Catholics to rediscover, rekindle and renew their faith. 

Hadsall and Nikolas Sternhagen are pursuing nonprofit status for reCatholic.

“ReCatholic has really taken the lead in this,” Fr. Sternhagen said. “I’m just really blessed to be able to be connected to them. They are a company that is really trying to dedicate themselves to evangelization and to revitalize the Church.”

In developing the cards, the two worked with a creative team to produce a series of 12 Confession cards in both English and Spanish. In keeping with Fr. Sternhagen’s idea, each features an original picture of a saint, a prayer and a QR code that can access links to relevant materials, books and videos on those subjects.

Each Confession card has a theme: charity, confession, faith, fortitude, hope, humility, justice, patience, prudence and temperance. Along with individual cards for personal use or to share with family and friends, bulk orders may be purchased and donated to a priest or religious for their use. The price of the cards covers their development and production and that of the reCatholic website. 

“I really hope that the cards can be a resource for people who are coming to Confession to take the next step forward in their spiritual life,” Fr. Sternhagen said. 

For his brother priests, “My hope is that this would be something that could really become a resource for priests to use and to be able to help people in these difficult moments and contexts in which people come to them in real need. It’s where a priest says to himself, ‘I wish I could give this person something, but I’ve got 15 other people waiting outside and I’ve got Mass in 10 minutes. What can I do in this impossible situation?’” he said. 

In those moments, having something like the cards allows the priest to offer help to the person confessing and “hopefully jumpstart their spiritual development,” Fr. Sternhagen said.

The ReCatholic website, which is still in development, features a short video from Fr. Sternhagen talking about the cards, a Holy Spirit novena and a resource library containing Scripture and Church writings. Visit recatholic.org for information.