Review Of New Divine Mercy iPhone App

Snagged this pic from the Marian Bros website.

As of New Year's Day there is a new iPhone app on the market which can be purchased FREE of charge at the App Store, but so far only for those using iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.  It is the OFFICIAL Divine Mercy app from the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, and it is a winner.

There are all kinds of apps sold by iTunes with clever names that try to get at least 99 cents or up to $4.99 out of you, but this one has neither a price tag or a clever name, eg., iConfess, iPray, etc...  Simply called Divine Mercy app, it has several colorful features, all of which are in very good working order --no bugs yet-- and all user-friendly. 

Without getting into the history of Saint Faustina (you can do that on the Marian Father's website to which I linked in the first paragraph, or get the app and read all about her), I'd like to draw your attention to the many features, all clearly displayed and easy to access.  At the bottom of each page are four tabs:  The Message, The Devotion, Mercy Plus, and Settings.  In each page of the first three tabs are six icons, while the Settings page allows you to turn on the Audio Chaplet and choose among the three most famous Divine Mercy images:  the Hyla (I don't prefer this one.  Jesus looks a bit too effete), the Skemp (not thrilled about this one either.  Jesus looks like he just climbed off his motorcycle), and the original Vilnius image (My preference which looks most like the painting commissioned by Saint Faustina, herself, and most closely matches the image of the Shroud of Turin).

The Message icons include an introduction of Divine Mercy, the timeline, the Mercy Popes (there were only two) excerpts from the Diary of St. Faustina, and a Resources icon where you can buy stuff.  All are packed with information.

The Devotion icons include the Chaplet with rosary beads lit up to help you keep your place (you have to manually scroll down my moving your finger in a downward motion on the screen.  There are no instructions to do this.  At the end you need to go back in reverse to force a prompt asking you if you wish to start over, again no instructions for this.  Thank me later.  There is an image icon so you can gaze upon Jesus and meditate on His Mercy.  Other icons here include 3 O'Clock Hour, Way of the Cross, Feast of Mercy, and Novena & Other Prayers, all of which have sub-headings full of very helpful information.

The final tab (before the Settings tab) is Mercy Plus with icons linking to The Marians, Marian Helpers, Apostolates, The Shrine, current Articles, and of course, a Catalog where you can buy stuff.

Perhaps the links to places where you can purchase stuff makes up for the fact that this is free, but in any case I would grab this FREE app before someone gets wise and starts charging for it.  Basically you get an awful lot for nothing.  And these days that's mighty attractive.

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.

Do I Blame iPhone Or AT&T?

Got an iPhone?  I do.  Having trouble with it in the past year with interrupted service and dropped calls?  Me too.  Seems lots have been complaining.  Is it any better at Verizon?  Read part of the article below and follow the link for the rest of it.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Consumer outrage about AT&T's 3G service for iPhones is boiling over, but the dropped calls and spotty service reflect a greater lack of foresight in the wireless industry.

Analysts say AT&T's problems would have happened on any network that carried Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone because of the overwhelming amount of data downloaded by iPhone users. Over the past three years, AT&T's data traffic increased 5,000% because of the iPhone.

"The challenges that AT&T has are being faced by a lot of operators around the world: Very rapidly growing usage coupled with dense populations," said Daniel Hays, wireless expert and partner at consultancy PRTM. "Would it have been different on Verizon? Probably not."

AT&T accurately states that it has the nation's fastest 3G network but it "probably bit off more than it could chew," said Doug Helmreich, program director at consultancy CFI Group. "Now some of their customers are paying the price."

(Click HERE for the original article)

(h/t:  Lucianne)