Favorite Catholic iPhone Apps - Part One

Apple likes to advertise that it has more than 100,000 Apps available in its app store for iPhone users. When I finally got my iPhone in November I began to look for Catholic Apps to help my spiritual life.

I will begin to review some of them that I have downloaded and use on a daily basis.

One of my favorites is iBreviary. This App, which was $0.99 when I first downloaded it, is now free.

It has literally taken away the need to carry around the Liturgy of the Hours books or make the investment in buying them. The App provides: Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer with the exact same text as the books. No more flipping through the pages for those who are less experienced at praying the Hours.

As a bonus, it also has each day's Mass readings so you can follow along in church. You can choose to pray the Office or get Mass readings in one of the following languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French, or Latin.

I unfortunately do not get to pray all of the Hours every day, but when I want to, this App makes it extremely simple to do so since I carry the phone with me everywhere I go.

The App does not utilize a significant amount of data on the device since it does not store each day. Instead, you must hit a refresh button each day (you need an internet connection, either WiFi or a cell phone data connection when you refresh) to get that day's readings. That makes this App good for iPod Touch users as well as iPhone users.

I highly recommend this for those who pray using a Breviary with any sort of regularity or for those who are interested in investigating this timeless method of praying with the Universal Church but are not yet ready to invest in the books.