I'm Not Texting, I'm Praying

Dozens of prayers – and multiple versions of the Catholic Bible – are with me everywhere.

They’re loaded on my iPhone.

Some folks at Masses I attend probably shake their heads sadly and think, “Oh, my…. That man just got back in the pew from receiving Holy Communion, and he’s TEXTING SOMEONE!!!!”

Um … no. I’m reading the Prayer of St. Padre Pio for after Communion. It’s in one of the several prayer-related apps I have on the phone, and on my iPad.

To date, I’ve never had anyone “call me out” about using my phone before, during and after Mass. If they do, I hope they’ll be pleasantly surprised when I show them how technology gives them the opportunity to really enrich their prayer lives.

The accompanying iPhone screen photo shows you the apps I have in the “Prayers” folder I created on the device. Not all of them are prayer-related, but most are. And I use most of them daily.

The app simply shown as “Prayers” comes from DivineOffice.org. Laudate includes daily Mass readings, the Order of the Mass, the New American Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Saint of the Day listings, and a vast collection of prayers.

iPieta also has lots of prayers, a Bible and many other holy features.

The Divine Mercy and Mary apps are the works of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. They are among my favorite prayer apps. The other favorite is the St. Michael app, which comes from a company called Little iApps.

As I mentioned last week, I have a personal devotion to the angels, especially St. Michael, St. Gabriel and my Guardian Angel. The St. Michael app includes several different prayers to this great saint, and the Chaplet to St. Michael.

What’s that? I haven’t mentioned the Rosary app shown in the photo? I don’t use it much, honestly – because I’ve memorized the daily mystery designations, the mysteries themselves and their spiritual fruits over the years. But that app comes in handy when non-Catholics ask me about how we pray and about the Rosary.

I dare say any of these apps can be evangelization helpers to anyone asked to explain more about our Catholic faith.

Maybe I’m wrong – but in such a secular world, being able to take someone even a little way into the Catechism of the Catholic Church by showing it to them as part of the Laudate app is a blessing.

First, we can expose people directly to the words of the CCC without carrying around a book that’s a few inches thick.

Second, we can send the message that as traditional and “old school” as the Catholic Church is considered in so many ways, the Church is plugging in to our latest and greatest technology. Having a pope who tweets isn’t the only cool thing about being a Catholic these days. Having an iPhone with your prayers, Bible and Catechism on it  - with memory left to spare – isn’t too shabby, either.

Why so many apps?

For me, it’s because every app has provided multiple prayers that I enjoy praying – but that aren’t found in any of the other apps.

iPieta, for example, has a great number of litanies to various saints.

The “Prayers” app from DivineOffice.org is the only one with the prayer of St. Padre Pio for after Communion, and it is a very powerful devotion.

Laudate has a prayer to St. Gabriel that I didn’t have on any of the other apps. He is a favorite here because he is one of multiple patron saints of communicators/writers/journalisits. St. Francis de Sales is another; St. Maximilian Kolbe is another.

St. Gabriel, however, appears more than one time in the Bible delivering the word of God. I believe – and hope and pray – that what we provide every week in the Message is driven by the Holy Spirit; so praying to St. Gabriel seems right for me as director of communications and editor of the Message.

Do you have a favorite prayer app – or Catholic prayer within an app? Drop me an email and share it. Maybe we can put together a collection of prayers from readers in a future column.

Stay faithful, my friends.