iBreviary Pro Terra Sancta HD 4+

Vatican II renewed the role of non-ordained people in the Liturgy. More than just Sunday Mass, that meant the other major liturgy of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours, or Daily Office, which it reminded us was the "Prayer of the whole Church."

Prayed each day by clergy and religious orders, it is meant to be part of every Christian's cycle of prayer. In fact, the popular devotion of the Rosary emerged during the medieval era to help illiterate peasants participate in the Liturgy of the Hours by replacing the 150 Psalms with the Hail Mary on a string of beads. When recited, their prayers could be united to those of the monks in a nearby abbey praying the full liturgy.

This app gives that full prayer back to the people, while remaining an extraordinary resource for laity, ordained and religious alike. Popular devotions are combined with resources for clergy to plan a mass, and it simplifies the busywork of choosing the right common text for each day and season.

The app is a great tool which I found invaluable on my mission trip to Africa. I was able to download 2 weeks in advance which gave me access to the liturgical texts I needed without packing my books. This is a big advantage over the other apps that I am aware of as they need Internet access on the day when I want to use them. The rites, prayers, and blessings present have proven very useful as well. I like the addition of the Mass editor but it is only a first attempt for that so it needs work. I look forward to seeing the improvements on that as they are rolled out. For my purposes as a permanent deacon, I would like to be able to choose which parts of the Mass to include. This week I am collaborating on a communion service as part of a retreat we will be doing in a prison. Since no priest was available we cannot have a mass and I would have preferred to eliminate the Eucharistic Prayer which will not be used, as I emailed the liturgical team for the retreat.

I have always appreciated this app even from its early days. It keeps getting better and better. I do have a few complaints, however, that refer to the English language.

In past versions the propers for the Dominican Order was included. Those seem to have been removed. I don't know why, I never saw a explanation. Granted, the developer may not be at fault. But, he should communicate changes like this more clearly.

Another issues is the collects. Due to the new translation of the Roman Missal in the English speaking world there is a disjunct between the Collects that are common to the Mass and the Office. The developers have done a great job of incorporating these new collects in he festive seasons, commons, and propers. However, Ordinary time has not been done. Hopefully they are working on this.

The most frustrating deficiency to this app is the hymns associated each hour. I'm aware that not every English language version of the Divine Office has the same hymns. However, I would have hoped that by now the developers would have included all of them. Without having access to all the hymns in the Breviary it makes it inconvenient to pray the Divine Office with others. Obviously, this is not a problem if you only say it on your own. However, saying the Divine Office in private s less than ideal.

Other than these three relatively minor frustrations I love this app and recommend it to anyone who desires to pray he Prayer of the Church.