Which App Will You Use This Lent?

Suzanne Beck checks out four apps you can use to deepen your prayer life this Lent.

As we move into (or continue into) Lent, we are so fortunate in this day-and-age to have SO many wonderful tools at our disposal for furthering our faith! This article will give just a brief overview of a few of the wonderful apps that have been introduced within the last couple of years. All of them can benefit your spiritual walk and are available for most phones and/or computers.

AMEN is a free app from Augustine Institute. They describe its features here:

With a variety of faithful prayers, trusted meditations, daily devotionals, and nourishing Scripture, Amen guides you to deepen your life of prayer and find rest in God. Amen assembles the most trusted Catholic minds and theologians to offer you peace through prayer, from the moment you wake to when you go to sleep.

This is a very robust app, especially since it is free! Daily readings, novenas, litanies, meditations, sleep stories, music, audio dramas, and Catholic Sprouts (kids) podcast are just a small part of the offerings. There’s also content for spiritual growth, healing, courage, anxiety, and mercy, and a place for you to journal your thoughts each day. Only have 5 minutes? No problem! Many of the selections have a 5, 10, and 15-minute options from which to choose. Visit AmenApp.org for information.

HALLOW is a popular app that offers a free version and a subscriber (paid) version. Hallow CEO Alex Jones says:

The Hallow app is an attempt to share these prayer techniques – the same ones that changed my life – with as many people as we can. We believe that prayer and meditation has the power to change the world. We believe that if we let Him, God will hallow – meaning “make holy” – our lives.

Hallow app

Hallow also offers daily readings, prayers, meditations, as well as a sleep section and a section for children. Find Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year or Catechism in a Year podcasts as well as homilies from Bishop Barron and others, with many offerings in a variety of languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Filipino, German, Polish, and Italian. There are special novenas voiced with voices you’ll recognize (Jonathan Roumie, for example) and challenges to join (upcoming is Lent Pray40). The listener can also customize the length of the audios, and sometimes even the speaking. Your reflections can be journaled right in the app for future reference. Hallow’s subscriber version is $69, but they do have a friends and family option for $119 which allows up to six listeners, making it very cost effective. Visit Hallow.com for more information.

Ascension Press has recently introduced their own app, calling themselves the "premier Catholic Bible app, a powerful means to encounter God’s word."

Ascension app

It boasts all of Fr Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year podcasts as well as the read-along transcripts, but it also offers the entire Bible (with the Great Adventure Bible color-coding system) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, searchable and easily cross-referenced. This app also has a free and paid version ($59) with the latter offering many of Ascension's popular Bible studies. Learn more at AscensionPress.com.

Pray As You Go is a free Scottish app, so the readings have the delightful twist of being read with a lovely accent! One of the main offerings is the daily prayer session, designed for folks to go to help with pray whenever one has time, but particularly for commutes (hence there is only one weekend session).

Pray As You Go app

While not as robust as the others mentioned, this app begins each "Daily Moment" with a music introduction, the daily Gospel, a short reflection with time for contemplation and prayer related to the Gospel reading. A daily offering for children, lectio divina, prayers, music, blogs and even multi-session retreats are also available.

I have used all of these apps and like all of them for different reasons; what one doesn’t offer, the other one does! So depending on your mood or your spiritual need, you have a plethora of choices at your disposal. Why not download these, choose your favorite, and take your faith life to the next level!

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