When I was growing up and even when I had my kids, there were no such things as apps that you would have access to on your cell phones. Let’s be real, there weren’t cell phones when I was growing up and phones were still attached to a wall and were wired. But all that has changed and today we have access to so many apps on our phones, computers, and TVs. You can find apps for absolutely anything you can dream of, games, audiobooks, streaming, videos, music and so much more. Today, I want to write about some of the free Catholic apps that I really like.
The Free Catholic Apps Selected
About seven or so years ago, I started using my very first app for prayer. I am still going back to that app several times a week. But more on that later on. There are so many options to choose from. This list is a tiny portion of what is available. I suggest you keep exploring and finding what works for you.
The seven free Catholic apps we will talk about are:
- Hallow
- Amen
- Formed
- RezandoVoy / Pray As You Go
- iPieta
- Catholic Mass
- ConfessIt
Why These Apps
One of the main reasons for selecting these specific apps is because I use them. I cannot recommend with a clear conscience what I don’t use. But these aren’t the only apps I use. I do use several others. Why these then?
The other reason I have chosen to highlight these is that they are all free (except one that has a paid subscription option). They have so much content even if you only use the free version of the app. It is worth downloading these and, if you like them, I would recommend giving them a donation so they can continue to provide this awesome free content.
The final reason is that these free Catholic apps do not have any obnoxious and loud ads or any of those popups. I have such a hard time entering into my time of prayer and being interrupted by ads and pop-ups. This time is sacred for me. So, I honestly don’t use any prayer apps with ads or pop-ups. I understand the reason for the ads. No one ever has enough to keep the lights on for free. (That’s why donating is so important!)
Hallow (free version)
This is the one I use the most of the free Catholic apps. As described in the Google Play Store, “Hallow is a Catholic prayer app that offers audio-guided meditation sessions to help us grow in our Christian faith & spiritual lives and find peace in God. Explore over 6,000 different sessions on contemplative prayer, meditation, Catholic Holy Bible readings, music, and more.”
Free vs Paid
This app has a lot of wonderful free content if you do not want to pay for a subscription. In all honesty, I use the free version, but the subscription isn’t that costly. And paying the subscription opens up the majority of the content. Still, I am including them on my list because they do have good content available for free and no pop-ups or ads even with the free version.
How I Use This App
This is the app I use to start my prayer time. I start with the Morning Offering. I then listen to the Daily Mass Readings. I used to use it to follow along with the Bible in a Year podcast with Father Mike Schmitz, which is available for free. His latest project, Catechism in a Year is also available free on this app. On Sundays, I also use this app to listen to Father Mike’s homily. I go to mass, but I listen to his homily as well. I love how God uses him. Bishop Barron’s Sunday sermons are also available for free.
Other Things I Like About This App
My top feature to highlight is the fact that it has content in several languages. Being bilingual myself, I love that I can switch languages and get totally different content from the same app.
The other feature that I like is that you can select which narrator voice you prefer. I’ve been using Ana now for quite a while, but I may want to change up soon and select a different voice. I’m glad that when I decide to do so, I have the option.
Download today on Google Play Store!
Amen Catholic Prayer App
As described on their website, the “Amen app is the free Catholic prayer app that inspires your daily conversation with God through faithful meditations and nourishing Scripture.”
All of the content in this and in all the other free Catholic apps I will mention is 100% and contain no ads or popups.
How I Use This App
Every day I listen to the Daily Reflection after listening to the Daily Mass Readings. Dr. Tim Gray gives a very short, usually less than 5 minutes, reflection on one of the readings of the day. He keeps things simple but explains the point he is highlighting well. But this app has so many wonderful things that I can’t wait to tell you about.
Sleep and Evening Psalms is another way I use this app. On nights when I struggle to sleep, it happens more as I am getting older, I turn on this app and select either a Sleep Meditation or an Evening Psalm. I select the length of the meditation I want to listen to (15, 30, 60, or 90 minutes) and I close my eyes. It will play the meditation for the length of time I selected and turn it off. It’s just wonderful to clear your mind of all the troubles of the day and anxieties of tomorrow at bedtime.
Other Things I Like About this App
- Prayers, Novenas, Rosary, Meditations: It has many prayers that you can follow along with, such as Prayer before Sleep, Prayer of Abandonment, St. Therese’s Prayer for Holy Priests, and An Act of Spiritual Communion among others. At the time of this writing, it also has 14 novenas to choose from. To Mary, Undoer of Knots, St. Augustine, Surrender, St. Joseph, and many more. The meditations are beautiful. They are categorized by need: Spiritual Growth, Comfort, Healing, Anxiety, and so forth. They will usually reflect on a Bible verse or two and guide you thru reflection and questions to ponder. It even gives you options as to the length of the meditation you want to do and the background music you’d like to listen to.
- Living the Faith, Bible in a Year, and more: Living the Faith has different topics, audiobooks, 1-Minute Inspirations, Examinations of Conscience, and other topics related to our faith. If you have followed Fr. Mike’s Bible in a Year and would like to continue reading the bible in a year in a different format, this app is for you. It has the daily mass readings to listen to daily. It is divided by month and day, and also by day of the year, so you can start today instead of waiting until January 1. This does not have a reflection. It only has the readings.
- Journal entries are also a nice feature to have. It gives you space to jot down your thoughts and notes in its daily journal feature.
Formed
Taken directly from their website. “FORMED brings beautiful and faithful Catholic content to parishes, families, and individuals. There is something for everyone here: award-winning studies and parish programs, inspiring audio content, movies, e-books, and family-friendly kid’s programming. Led by the Augustine Institute and Ignatius Press, and in collaboration with over 100 content providers, this site reaches more than one million subscribers worldwide.”
How I Use This App
There is a lot of learning to be done with this app. When I have the time to dedicate to learning something about my faith, this is the app I go to. If you are new to the faith or need a refresher as to what we as Catholics believe, I’d suggest you check out Symbolon. It is so well made and full of information. Do you want to learn more about the Holy Spirit? Check out the Wild Goose. These are just two of the many series they offer.
I also love their movies. The fact that this app is available for Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV makes it a great option to view all their content on the big screen. Some of the movies just aren’t formatted for today’s TVs, but you can nonetheless enjoy watching them in their original format.
Other Things I Like About this App
- I love to listen to audiobooks as I’m going about my day, this app has several to choose from.
- I love that they have content in other languages as well: Spanish, Portuguese, etc. This library of content in other languages continues to grow.
Download today on Google Play Store!
RezandoVoy / Pray As You Go –
RezandoVoy, the Spanish version of Pray As You Go, is the very first prayer app I downloaded onto my phone. It is the app, that over 7 years later, I still turn to several times a week. It is made with Ignatian Spirituality as its base. Created by the Jesuits in Spain, it became very popular, very fast. So much so that they created an English version, Pray As You Go, that is equally as beautiful and also quite different. If you are bilingual, you could use both apps and not feel that you are simply repeating the same meditation in a different language.
How I Use This App
There is a daily prayer and meditation that is guided by one of the mass readings of the day. The meditation will read the bible passage twice during the 15-minute or less session. There will be a song for meditation and reflection. On Saturdays, there is an end-of-the-week Examen. (Pray as you go has this which I love. The Spanish version does not.).
Other Things I Like About this App
If you are new to Ignatian Spirituality and want to learn more about it, this app is a great starting point. It guides you as it explains what this type of prayer is about. It also explains Lectio Divina and Contemplative Exercises. So if you are ready to try something new, and step out of your comfort zone, this is the app for you.
Download today on Google Play Store!
The Last Three Free Catholic Apps are:
iPieta (Spanish/English) –
iPieta is an app that contains Catholic prayers, bibles, and spiritual works in several languages including Dutch, English, Spanish, French, Latin, Turkey, etc. It also has daily mass readings.
How I Use This App
This app has the entire Bible at your fingertips, in several Catholic versions, and in several languages. I use this app for the Daily Mass readings at church. I go to an outdoor mass and we don’t have the missals outside, so I use this app to follow along. I love that it doesn’t have any obnoxious sounds or ads. I honestly only use it for mass readings, but there is a lot of writing here to enjoy.
Things I Like About this App
- It contains entire writings of popes, saints, and many others.
- It has the Daily Mass readings, the saint of the day, etc.
Catholic Mass Times
This app is quite useful when you are on vacation or away from your regular parish. It indicates the Mass times in churches near you. You can also find schedules for Reconciliation, Adoration, and others. I would recommend you verify the last update date to see if the information is new. When I looked up my church, the mass times were all wrong. Well, the last time the information had been updated was in 2019! So, I submitted the correction and it was corrected within 24 hours. This app works much like Wikipedia in which people submit their data.
That is about all this app contains, but I love that I have access to this information when I am away from home.
Download today on Google Play Store!
ConfessIt: Free Catholic App
ConfessIt is a Roman Catholic examination of conscience app. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, and it will help you remember your sins for confession. There is also a confession walkthrough that tells you exactly what your confessor will say and how you should respond. The examination of conscience is based on fundamental Catholic church teachings, is easy to understand, and is relevant for modern Catholics.
How I Use This App
In all honesty, I came across this app as I was doing research for this blog post. I downloaded it and am so excited to be able to use it before my next confession. This is the only use this app has. It is used to prepare you for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
In the first tab, you go thru all the 10 Commandments and place a checkmark on those that you have sinned against. Each commandment has a reference to the Bible reading related to it. It also has entries for the Precepts of the Church that you can check off as well.
The second tab will then list all the sins that you have identified from the first tab. You will be able to see them together. This second tab also gives you the option to add custom text with sins you feel weren’t covered. I would use this for sins against the Beatitudes, Corporal Works of Mercy, etc.
The third tab is the Walkthrough. It contains the structure of the Confession. What the priest says and what the penitent says. It incorporates your list of sins into this walkthrough so you can literally just open this app to the Walkthrough tab and do your confession. It also contains the Act of Contrition and the priest’s absolution.
Conclusion
I am so glad that we now have so many prayer and spiritual apps to incorporate into our spiritual life. These 7 free Catholic apps are loaded with content and so these are the ones I enjoy so much. But the creators of these apps could use our help through our donations. Our donations help to keep them free and with no ads.
What are some of your favorite free Catholic apps?
Comment below. I’d love to know.
(When commenting, do not fret if you don’t see your comment immediately. There are a lot of people out there trying to share inappropriate links. So, I review each comment before displaying it. That way I can save my readers the aggravation of these inappropriate comments.)
Written by Carmen
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