Prime Matters raises the bar in Catholic online content

Early in 2021, the University of Mary launched a special project its staff and faculty had been working on behind the scenes for months: a new website housing huge amounts of free content that seeks to awaken the Catholic imaginative vision.

The project is called Prime Matters.

Much of the content and inspiration for the site is an outgrowth of the groundbreaking book published by University of Mary Press in 2020, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age. The book has sold tens of thousands of copies and was the fruit of the conversation and efforts of a group of friends and scholars over the course of several years, asking each other questions about how best to evangelize in our current cultural moment.

“Everyone is looking to get famous on the internet,” said Monsignor James Shea, president of the University of Mary. “But with the book and with the foundational content of the website, we decided instead to push back against this idea of ‘Catholic celebrity’ by making much of the content unattributed. There is an old Christian tradition of signing works simply, ‘a monk.’ While I and many others at the University of Mary have been working hard on this transformational content, it really is the work of a fellowship of scholars and disciples. Neither the book nor the website are my work, it’s our work.”

The weekly update for Prime Matters, called The First Draught, now has more than 11,000 subscribers.

The content has indeed been transformative, first of all for the university’s own students.

Marianne, who studied Math and Philosophy in her undergraduate years at Mary and just completed her master’s in Catholic Studies, talks about an experience she had in her History of Math class, related to the approach Prime Matters takes.

“We were reading together this poem that a mathematician wrote, which is a dangerous thing to do as a mathematician—write poetry! But he was so overcome by the beauty of what he was studying that he had to write it down.

“I went to Mass right after that class, and having had my eyes opened to beauty through it, I myself was overcome by the beauty of Who is pursuing us so fervently as to become man, to become as bread and wine, for us.

“It was an extraordinary moment. My studies had opened up my imagination, in turn deepening my faith.”

It was the kind of experience that inspired a question at the University of Mary: how can Marianne’s experience be deepened even more, and how can it also be packaged—experiences like that of beauty in a math class, for instance—so that it is available to her long after her graduation, but also available to university faculty from every discipline, online graduate students, the students and teachers of our Catholic high schools, and all Catholics and people of goodwill who are hungry for an experience of God’s truth and love?

After months of puzzling and planning and praying, PrimeMatters.com was born.

The site offers articles and multimedia that will enrich readers’ vision of faith, learning, friendship, happiness, the Scriptures, and more, growing out of the work of the university’s vibrant Catholic Studies program, which looks to integrate experiences of study, prayer, worship, work, and relationships.

Likewise, Prime Matters provides Catholic thought leadership, tapping into the Church’s intellectual efforts through the centuries and up to the present day so that individuals can engage life and culture with a clear and energetic faith.

Marianne’s experience of Prime Matters, she says, has been life-changing.

“There’s so much out there telling us what to do—what should you do for Lent, how should you approach moral decisions, how should you discern your vocation—but there’s not much out there telling us how to see.”

In other words, Marianne says there’s not much out there answering those fundamental questions: what is the purpose of human life? How ought the faithful to make sense of all of their joys, sufferings, and disappointments? How can they begin to see the world as God does?

Indeed, “changing how you see,” Marianne says, “truly brings about a much deeper conversion than simply changing what you do.”

Prime Matters exists to give Catholics this deep conversion of mind and heart.

Those interested in diving into the site are invited to sign up for The First Draught at primematters.com/subscribe-first-draught. The First Draught goes out every Thursday afternoon by email, bringing readers something to discuss over an opening pint or during dinner with friends and family: perspectives on the news, spiritual encouragement, and personal enrichment.

They’re also welcome to dig into the “Christian Mythic Narrative” podcast, located at primematters.com/narrative, which presents the sweeping and epic narrative of the whole Christian story in 8 to 10 minute segments.

Wherever one might choose to start, the University of Mary is eager to open up this free and vast resource.

Prime Matters is a project of educational outreach of the University of Mary. For more, visit primematters.com.