As Advent begins, Father Dave welcomes back co-founder and CEO of the Hallow App, Alex Jones, to discuss their offerings for the season. Hallow’s Advent prayer challenge this year is called “Pray25: Be Still,” and features Chris Pratt, Jonathan Roumie, Gwen Stefani, and many more.
Father Dave and Alex reflect on the growth of Hallow since first being featured on the show in 2019. “Those were the earliest days, so you guys were crazy to have us on,” Alex says, and reflects on the success of the app. “We knew we were going to cross a billion prayers prayed [in 2025], and we ended up crossing it seven years exactly to the day that we officially incorporated Hallow…It was just the good Lord showing off as he usually does, and as he has throughout this whole thing; he is in charge and doing all the heavy lifting.”
RELATED: 2025 InstaAdvent Photo Challenge
Alex discusses an example when he’s seen God work through Hallow. “There was a 15-year-old girl who was about to take her own life, wrote her dad a suicide note, but ended up getting a push notification randomly from Hallow. She looked up at the ceiling and said, ‘God, I don’t believe in you, but this is your last chance; prove it to me that you’re real before I go through with it.’ And he did, in the silence of a meditation from the app that was about Christ’s passion. She said she realized he was real and with her in the room,” Alex says. “She dedicated the rest of her life to serving him in the inner city and the poor. We really have notes [like these], honestly, every week.”
“We’ve [heard from] dads who have struggled with addiction for 20 years, who have been able to be sober for the first time. Parents who have lost their children, who are able to find some sense of hope and peace,” Alex continues, “Even just for all of us; the world is so noisy, busy, and distracting, but the good Lord offers you this incredible peace and joy. It’s a little slice of heaven on earth, just in silence with him in prayer, and the world does everything it can to distract you from that. So we get to journey with everyone, including myself, to try to discover that peace a little bit more in our lives.”
Turning to Hallow’s Advent challenge for 2025, Alex highlights how the 25-day journey is designed to help people rediscover stillness during one of the busiest seasons of the year. “It’s so funny, because we all know what’s going to happen. It’s this crazy season — You’re going to go visit all your family, and you’re going to have all the stress,” Alex says. “Also for a lot of people, it’s a time of really tough and deep pain, like folks who are facing their first Christmas without a loved one or deep family issues. But we’re called in this season to this incredible, everlasting, and unshakable peace.”
LISTEN: Learning to Wait Well This Advent With Father Mike Schmitz
“It’s really beautifully represented in Psalm 46 that says, ‘Be still and know that I’m God.’ You would expect [the whole Psalm] to be like, ‘He leads me beside restful waters and green pastures,’ and all peaceful, but it’s not. The beginning of that psalm says, hey, everything’s going crazy. The mountains are falling into the sea, the Earth is quaking, but still, God is there. Be still and know that I am God,” Alex continues. “For us, that’s the real challenge this Advent season. We all know those people who operate from a place of deep peace, even in the craziness. For us to be that through this Christmas time, so we can be present and have patience [in order to] really spend time on what matters — that’s the really beautiful part.”
The daily 10-minute audio reflections feature Jonathan Roumie and Sister Miriam Heidland meditating on “The Reed of God,” Chris Pratt discussing “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,” and more. “Then there’s this fun combination of Gwen Stefani and a Byzantine nun, Mother Natalia,” Alex adds. “They do a great job of focusing on the saints, whether that’s Saint Faustina or Saint Teresa of Avila, and how they teach us to live from a place of stillness and peace. I think it’s a really special challenge.”
