A Faith-Finding App Like No Other

Diocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis

Available for iOS and Android

Across the top of the Rediscover:app introductory screen scrolls images of a variety of people. Along the bottom of each screen you see the word “Rediscover” followed by one of the following words: faith, hope, peace, love, meaning, freedom, belonging. Each ends with “Find it in your Catholic faith.” To quote a popular movie, “You had me at hello.”

The strength of this “Catholic-to-the-max” application is there is just nothing else like it on the market, at least none that I’ve discovered – and I’m really looking! The abundance of information available to the user to learn about their Catholic faith, and really grow in their faith is astounding!

I will try to it justice in this review – but since the app is free; I HIGHLY recommend downloading it and exploring for yourself. My best advice for when you do download it:

Have a full battery on your phone, because if you are anything like me, you will be easily drawn into researching and reading, which is best described as vast.
Keep reminding yourself, after your initial exploration, that the text in the app does not need to be read all in one day, nor are the videos all watched in one sitting.

On the opening page we are introduced to three main themes: Meaning; Belonging; and Strength, Freedom, and Peace. From these main selections come drop down tabs which allow the user to delve even deeper into the mysteries of the Catholic faith.

Some example questions from the “Meaning” section:

Who is Jesus?
What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Is Jesus relevant today?

What comes next is what sets this app apart for me: each question is a link which will bring you to either text or a video that explains that particular question further. What this app is ultimately achieving is summed up beautifully in what Catholic speaker Matthew Kelly often says, “There is genius in Catholicism; you just need to delve into it.”

Resources for the content (at least for the ones I opened, as there are so many links I did not get through all of them – but came pretty close) seem to come primarily from:

Matthew Kelly and DynamicCatholic
Fr. Robert Barron and Word on Fire
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Matthew Kelly and Fr. Barron, in my humble opinion, are two of the most dynamic, informative, and intelligent teachers of the Catholic faith of our time. I have been a fan of both for a long time, and it is exciting to have even more ways to not only learn from them, but share their brilliance with others!

Everything you read or view on this app can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, email, text, or Facebook Messenger. This also aids each of us in our evangelization efforts as well!!

In addition to the START option, there are also other options to choice from:

Pray
My Faith Life
Find (limited to parishes inside the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis only)
Calendar

The “Pray” section not only answers questions like “Why I should pray?” and “How I should pray?”, but also provides an extensive list of prayers.

“My Faith Life” was definitely one of my favorite options. It includes great tools for the budding as well as seasoned Catholic, especially the ones who love to write and track everything they think and do (that includes yours truly!). It is divided into four sections:

My Journal
My Questions
My Goal
My Parish

Matthew Kelly’s Dynamic Catholic puts out many free or low cost copies of his (and other) books, including his bestselling, Rediscover Catholicism – which you will find quoted throughout the app. I cannot recommend this book enough – for you, your friends, even your “not so friends” friends. In addition, I recommend looking into the fantastic program Dynamic Catholic has for getting a copy into every visitor to your Church at Easter or Christmas.

Another one of Matthew’s resources for growing in faith is a journal for recording your thoughts during Mass (the thoughts about the Mass of course, not your grocery list). I thought it was absolutely wonderful – as I have occasionally pulled my journal during Mass! I wish more people were doing it, and then I wouldn’t look so odd scribbling away. Matthew explains how God always has a message for you in Mass, sometimes small, sometimes more, and the “My Journal” section is appears to be based on that teaching and the journal book.

Lastly, is the Calendar option which offers three areas of support:

Events – to keep tabs of Rediscover events and happenings
Daily – includes daily reflection video from USCCB website, link to the Mass Daily Readings (USCCB site), and Saint of the Day from Catholic.org
Seasons – a Liturgical Calendar

Not that you needed more convincing...GET THIS APP!!! It is free, so it costs you nothing but will bring you riches beyond compare in ways to grow spiritually. Think of it as your own pocket spiritual director. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this app as they, as Matthew Kelly says, “Delve into it.”

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