iBreviary puts the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, the Roman Missal, and the Lectionary on a phone, tablet, or browser, so priests, religious, and laypeople can pray the daily office without carrying the printed books.^1 It is free on iOS and Android.^1 The same office is available in a browser, where a visit shows the day's Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayers, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer.^2
The texts are offered in ten languages, Italian, English, Spanish, French, Romanian, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish, Latin, and Galician, and stay current with the liturgical calendar, including the Latin Vetus Ordo for the Breviary and Missal.^1 Alongside the office, the app gathers the main prayers of the Christian tradition, rituals for the sacraments and celebrations, and a section on the saints.^1 Readers can store up to 14 days ahead, a feature the store listing notes is in demand for travel or a long period without internet access.^1
Paolo Padrini created iBreviary in 2008, when he was a parish priest in Tortona, in northern Italy, and a consultant with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.^4 In a published interview on the project's own site, he traces the idea to holding his first iPhone and wondering why the prayer liturgy could not be eased by putting everything into the new medium.^5 He describes the aim in his own words: "to link technology with the faith and the human need to talk with God, to feel closer to Him through the prayer in any time of the day."^5 A partnership with the Custody of the Holy Land supplies daily-updated Hours and Missal texts and the liturgical forms used at the Holy Places.^6
"Having all the texts for the Hours is great, especially in multiple languages." - a Google Play reviewer^3
Notable:
- Religious congregations can add their own propers. Current partners listed by the project include the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus, the Franciscan Families, and the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood.^6
- Padrini later offered the app in Arabic in part, he told Catholic News Agency, "to offer a service for prayer" to Catholics who live in Arabic countries, in their own language.^4
