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.

iBreviaryPro Review

Anyone watching the news, reading their Diocesan Publication, or grabbing a copy of the latest OSV has noticed quite a lot of attention is being given to various Catholic inspired iPhone apps, some of which have been available for a while.  Fortunately this attention finally got me to visit the iTunes store.

My iPhone is a couple of years old, and I'm not even too sure what model it is.  I think it's a 3G8 or something.  I never visited the iTunes store in the past because I thought it was only about music, and why would I want to press an iPhone up to my head to listen to stuff I could blast on my stereo at home with CD's?  The point is, I got my OS updated to 4.02 for free at the Apple Store (from a lowly, outdated 2.01) so I can now download pretty much anything offered at the iTunes store without spending $200 for an upgrade to iPhone 4. 

In my search I found there are around 300 Catholic apps from which to choose.  And the choices can get rather confusing if you aren't sure where to start, as there is significant overlap among the selections.  I found there are two that every Catholic should start with, and then proceed from there:   they are iBreviaryPRO and iPieta.  It should be noted that both also have their own iPad versions, too.  For a detailed review on iBreviary for iPad, click HERE for Roma Locuta Est.

"Free" is a the first word that comes to mind, and a very important one it is in these Obama times of high unemployment and economic sinking, when iBreviaryPro is mentioned.  Yes, this iPhone app containing the updated Liturgy of the Hours with the touch of a button costs nothing to download or use.  It has the Office of Readings, Lauds (morning prayer), Daytime Prayers, Vespers, and Compline (night prayers).  It also has a list of Lectures consisting of Antiphone and Opening Prayer, Readings, Prayer over the Gifts, and Antiphon and Prayer after Communion.  On another tab are 23 other prayers ranging from Litany of Our Lady of Lourdes to Spiritual Assistance to the Dying.  Then there is the Daily Missal consisting of Ordinary, Readings and Prayers, Preface, Eucharistic Prayer and Prayer of the Faithful.  All this for free.  There are other apps out there like Universalis and Surgeworks, both of which are highly rated, but cost money. 

The resolution for iBreviaryPRO on the iPhone is very sharp, and the settings for font size can be adjusted to 150% for visually impaired folks like me who wear bifocals.  And though (I hate to admit) I have gotten a little bit confused by the Christian Prayer book on the order and locations of prayers, this app is VERY user-friendly.  Everything is in its proper place and easy to handle.  When I am out  on the job and have a moment, rather than twiddle my thumbs and tell myself to be patient, I can simply pull out the iPhone and do Liturgies instead.

This app was created and developed by Fr. Paolo Padrini and Dimitri Giani and "a group of volunteers motivated solely by a desire to spread the Faith and Prayer through new media."

UPDATE:  iBreviaryPro is now called "iBreviary Pro Terra Sancta" and is every bit as good, if not better than before.