Praying the Liturgy of the Hours (for Busy Moms) with iBreviary

Developers: Paolo Padrini, Leonardo Parenti

Price: FREE

One of the best ways to incorporate more scriptural reading into your prayer life is to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. Over the course of four weeks, if you pray every set of prayers, you cover each one of the 150 Psalms and you begin to see the links between the prophecies of the Messiah and the fulfillment of those prophecies.

The added bonus is that often, the readings of the Mass compliment or echo what the psalms talk about, bringing the reality of the Eucharist to mind each time you pray. The longest of the prayers (Morning and Evening Prayer) take about 15 to 20 minutes to recite. Daytime and Night Prayers take about 5 to 7 minutes.

Typically, I manage to get Morning, Evening, and one Daytime Prayer in before I fall into bed at night. It’s better than the “My Jesus, Mercy” I would gasp as I was turning off the lights before I started praying them.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. I am a busy mom, too. I remember being a mom with a toddler and a preschooler and you don’t turn your back on the sea. Ever. When they’re teenagers and twenty-somethings it doesn’t get less busy.

So, how do you keep up with the prayers at all?

For more than a year I have been using iBreviary pro Terra Sancta on my iPod Touch to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. Now, anytime I am waiting for an appointment or practice to end, I can be praying instead of reading People magazine. I set my alarms to remind me to pray and then the prayers are right at hand, too.

What I like best about iBreviary is that I didn’t have to have a wireless connection or a 3G or 4G link to use it. I can download a whole week’s worth on Sunday night and pray all week. You can also download it on almost any iOS or Android platform.

I also loved the price tag: FREE!

Of the free apps for Liturgy of the Hours, this is the best I have found. The translations match up with the standard printed materials and the stanzas are separated so that they can be recited antiphonally, so if you are praying with a group, you won’t be lost.

I like the fact that every step of the way is mapped out for you. It’s great for a beginner because the guesswork is taken out of it for you.

The prayers and readings for daily mass are included as well as a description of the saint of the day or the feast. It’s completely portable and it’s lovely to look at.

The app is all done in sepia tones and background is designed to look like the page of a book without the weight or the bulk.

Check out the app and let me know what you think.

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