“Rock is not too far from prayer”; this is the belief of father Eloi Aran, a young Catalan Jesuit, one of the promoters of “Prega-rock”, an initiative of the Society of Jesus of Catalonia, aiming at “offering catechist aids to propose faith to the young”. “Pop music – says father Aran to SIR – contains evangelical seeds that can resonate with the message of Jesus and propose it to the young”. “It is an exercise of compared literature in which prayer comes into play through the world of rock”, he specifies. As he saw that it was such a hit with the young, they developed more “prega-rock” works, that can be downloaded from the Internet (www.jesuites.net). Six years have already passed since the first one. The website contains downloadable songs of contemporary pop, rock, funk bands, along with Biblical texts of the Christian tradition and other religious traditions. This month’s proposal is Bruce Springsteen and his album “We shall overcome”. Prega-rock helps the young understand the meaning of music through the notes and the aids that come with the texts. “To coincide with the liturgical times – he concludes -, we have put together some theme collections. For example, for Advent we propose songs about immigration”.
