A powerful prayer before logging on to the internet

Using Aquinas’ words can bring us God’s help and protection.

Pope Benedict XVI once wrote that priests should “give a soul to the fabric of communications that makes up the Web.”

The internet, being a central part of our modern life, needs the presence of God and a “soul” that animates it with truth, goodness and beauty. To that end, Saint Isidore of Seville, a man known for his encyclopedic knowledge, is the patron saint of the internet.

Here is a powerful prayer composed by Saint Thomas Aquinas that can be prayed before logging on to the internet to help infuse a “soul” into our own online activities and protect us from straying into harm’s way.

Infinite Creator,
Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom,
have established three hierarchies of angels,
have arrayed them in marvelous order
above the highest heavens,
and have marshaled the regions
of the universe with such artful skill,

You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
pour forth a ray of Your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born:
sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
The goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning,
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.

May You
guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.

You Who are true God and true Man,
who live and reign, world without end.

Amen.