iPieta Review

If you are Catholic, or are interested in Catholicism, and you are trying to decide which of the many iPhone apps to download, your first choice should be iPieta.  It seems to have just about everything except the Liturgy of the Hours, and at $2.99 is likely the best app value on the market.  The incomplete list of contents include the following:

First, you get the Holy Bible in both the Douay-Rheims (English) version AND Latin Vulgate!  You can choose to have it all English or all Latin...OR do what I did and choose both.  Each verse is English on top with the Latin translation just underneath ---good way to learn Latin!

Second, you have a calendar either in Novus Ordo (ordinary form) OR Traditional (extraordinary form).  The calendar displays the season and feast.  Martyrs are in red.  By merely touching the day's entries you have access to the Readings and Gospel.  There are more complexities too numerous to mention here.

Third, you have a seemingly endless list of prayers (by clicking on the Prayer tab) in English and Latin.  But the Divine Mercy prayers have been omitted due to copywrite objections by the Marian Helpers in Stockbridge.  Don't worry, there is a Divine Mercy app HERE.  On iPieta's prayer tab there are 14 Sacred Heart of Jesus Prayers, 15 Passion Prayers, the entire Traditional Mass, Graces, Vesting Prayers, Holy Eucharist Prayers, Devotions to Jesus, Holy Spirit Prayers, Consecration (St. Pius X), Immaculate Heart of Mary prayers, basic Blessed Virgin Mary prayers and devotions (including Rosaries), Perpetual Helps (9),  St. Joseph Prayers, Basic Prayers (all in Latin or English) all updated with the new English interpretations, grace before meals and after meals, prayers for Popes and priests, 4 Keys to Heaven, The Blessings (all of them, I think) angel and saint prayers (as many as you can imagine)  ...really I could go on and on here.

Fourth, by virtue of the Veritas tab you can search for saints by name, saints by type, Q & A Catechisms (oddly no Catechism of the Catholic Church, not yet...still negotiating with the USCCB on that), 3 Baltimore Catechisms, the writings of so many like St. Teresa of Jesus, St. Jean-Marie Vianney, Confession of St. Patrick, just to name a few.  You'll have St. Thomas' Catechism, Councils Before Trent, Trent, Vatican I and II, what I believe to be the entire Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas (this really blew me away), Papal encyclicals from Benedict XVI back to Pius VI, and the writings of the Fathers of the Church:  St. Augustine's Confessions, City of God (normally a very thick book), etc... , the works of the Nicene Fathers and Ante-Nicene Fathers, and St. John Chrysostom.  And still I haven't done it justice.

Many of the prayers have an optional audio feature that you can download for free from the app creator's website, but there have been some issues with this.  I tried and failed in applying them tom my iPhone and am waiting to hear back from the support team.  Will let you know how that goes.  But even without the audio, I am still getting more than my money's worth, and strongly recommend this app both for its comprehensiveness as well as ease of use.  BTW, it's also available as an iPad app, too.