My Top Free Catholic Apps You Might Like or Even Love

This lenten season, it's a perfect time to try using Catholic apps to help organize and strengthen our interior need and Catholic faith. We are living in the modern era of digital tech, after all. Here's my top Catholic apps I am using that I hope you might like, or even love. In no particular order...

ESCRIVA LITE

If you are a St. Josemaria Escriva and Opus Dei fan like I am, this free app is for you. The app contains daily mass readings in a clean, bold, super organized, minimalist interface, with St. Escriva related excerpts according to the readings of that day, taken from his various books and homilies, which are a gem of St. Escriva freebies of wisdom. Get yours here on Apple or Google Play app links provided below.

 DOWNLOAD Escriva Lite HERE: https://apple.co/3ssgId1

DOWNLOAD Escriva Lite Here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appleia.com.escrivalite

 

GREAT CATHOLIC MUSIC

Looking for all Catholic Songs, Hymns or Music? This non-stop, livestream 24 hours Catholic app is for you. I find Catholic music non-boisterous; relaxing, edifying and sanctifying, not to mention sacred. As St. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 14:40 on worship: "All things should be done decently and in order." Powered by the Living Bread Radio Network based in Canton, Ohio.

 DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/3bEGXGv

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greatcatholicmusic.app

 

FORMED

I got this for free thanks to my parish for gifting its subscription few years ago to all its parishioners. Last year, this app was also made open free to the public for a month or so due to the pandemic. This is one of my favorite Catholic apps, dubbed as the "Catholic Netflix". It contains videos, audios, books, talks, shows for all ages. A tremendous Catholic resource for Catholic nerds.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/3bCCFzq

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ai.formed.formed

 

EWTN

My favorite Catholic apologist and probably my most listen-to Catholic radio show is Dr. David Anders' Called to Communion. A Q&A show primarily catered for non-Catholics who have questions about the Catholic faith. This and a lot of other great EWTN shows are all tucked in this one app, such as Open Line Mondays thru Fridays with different Catholic clergies and theologians as hosts, Dr. Ray's the Doctor is in, Fr. Spitzer's Universe, Kresta in the afternoon, Catholic Connection by Teresa Tameo, EWTN news, even Children Catholic shows. Listen on demand at your own time and pace or live stream either on both video or audio. It also has a RSV-CE Bible (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) included free in this app, the version which according to Dr. Anders, one of the closer translations to the original texts.

 

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/3ssN1bJ

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ewtn.truthandlife

 

LAUDATE

Probably a more popular app to my close circle of friends in the community, as far as I know. It contains a wide array of menu in sort of a bullet-list format from daily mass readings, saints of the day, even EWTN programs in the above-mentioned app tuck in it.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/3dODCXN

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aycka.apps.MassReadings

 

HALLOW

A newer Catholic app that has a more contemporary look, clean and easy to use interface. It has all sort of prayers broken into simplistic morning and night routines, minute prayers, Bible stories, and catholic songs in cool thumbnails. The guided meditation audios are what my 8 year old daughter happened to love and had fun doing. However most of the menu need subscription. I used this app to listen to Fr. Mike Schmitz's Bible-In-A-Year podcast which included free in this app that I personally prefer a lot easier to navigate than listening the said podcast via Amazon, ITunes or Google play music.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/37PQ0mD

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.hallow.android

 

AWAKEN CATHOLIC

If the Formed app is the "Netflix" for Catholics, the Awaken Catholic for me is somewhat the "Youtube" for Catholics. It has videos and audios of different Catholic Talk shows of different genre, from men and women, to teens and pop culture (finding spiritual meanings and theology lessons off of Star Wars, Frozen and other cult classic movies in the entertainment world). How cool is that?

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/3qSfibk

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.disciplemedia.awakencatholic

 

DAILY READINGS FOR CATHOLICS

But if you are that type of person who just want to get down to the basics of reading the daily Mass readings, this is the app for you. Simple, straightforward: Daily Bible reading, some commentary from key religious personalities and Saint of the day bio. That's it! The company that made this app is by Catholicapp.org.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://apple.co/3pVWd6L

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catolicapp.missalww

  

2022 ADDITIONS/UPDATES including other favorite Catholic websites:

HEROIC MEN

This is similar to FORMED.org app but geared towards men (as the title obviously implies) and it's a free app unlike the former.

To download Heroic Men, click here: https://heroicmen.com/

ICATHOLIC MUSIC 

Similar to Great Catholic Music radio station but with a more contemporary sound and song choices like those of our Non-Catholic brethrens' contemporary Christian music selection.

Here is the direct online link: http://player.streamguys.com/hfc/sgplayer3/player.php?s=6

 

REVIVE PARISHES

This is a gem of online platform training video courses designed to help parish leaders and volunteers learn, grow, and renew their parishes and grow as a disciple. Best of all, It's free (yes free).

Check out their site at https://reviveparishes.com/

 

So there you have it! If you have tried one or all of these apps, let me know what you think. I love to hear your feedbacks by posting a comment below. And if you found some more cool Catholic apps you would like to share, feel free, I look forward to know about it as well! Don't forget to share this site with your friends! Share the blessings! Enjoy and be blessed!

 

 

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A Just-for-Laugh Voltron Logic for Some Who Said Religion Is Invented to Control People.

Written and posted last year on social media, February 24th, 2020.

I was watching Voltron in Netflix with my son (and my wife too!) and was already on season 2. In its 2nd episode entitled "the Depths", there's a clip that shows a dialogue between Voltron's Blue Lion pilot and the jellyfish mer-people. The latter abducted the pilot in order to ask for his help to stop their alleged evil Mermaid Queen, because she was believed to be responsible for controlling and brainwashing their mer-men and merwomen's minds. 

When the Voltron pilot asked them why weren't they brainwashed by the Queen like the others were, the jellyfish people told the hero that they are jellyfishes, they don't have brains, so you can't brainwash something you don't have.

When I heard it, I said, well, that's a quotable quote if you come to think of it. I can't help but thought of some people I knew in social media (i.e., the Atheists/Agnostics) that say Christianity and the Church were invented to control people. And since they don't buy into the whole Christianity/Church thing; equates to they are not the "controlled" bunch; equates to them being like these Jellyfishes. And we know what these jellyfishes in Voltron just told us who they are.

Evaluating Protestant (and Catholic) Sex Scandals from A Christian, Catholic Perspective Without Minimizing its Gravity

In light of the recent sex scandal that surfaced around the late Ravi Zacharias, one of the finest and respected modern Christian apologists of our times in the Protestant world, I RAISE THIS ISSUE NOT BECAUSE to goad readers or shame Protestant pastors/leaders as bad people, as some do against Catholic clergies if it's the other way around.

But this is simply my hope and invitation to Anti-Catholics (who, every now and then, frequently demonized the Catholic church for sex scandals, cover-ups, etc.) of how we are to logically ponder everything into perspective whenever these Christian sex scandals (Protestant or Catholic) arise in the news.

What then do we as Christians make of this monstrosity? My own two cents is:
1. No matter what institution or organization we are in, as long as it is managed, governed, or run by Human Beings, sinfulness and bad apples always abound until the end of time. This is the reality of us men and women in a fallen world. This is not unique only to Catholics. Although I certainly do not wish any scandals to happen to any denomination, I guarantee your local pastor and church are not immune to one as well. We can only pray for our pastoral leaders that there are no skeletons and demons hidden in their closets. With that said, it doesn't mean it's an excuse, I am not condoning their atrocity nor am I minimizing their sinful acts especially the unimaginable pain and suffering their victims are going through. They indeed rightfully need to be punished for the crimes they committed no matter how high-ranking they are in the church. But at the same time, (to quote Matthew Kelly) there is no perfect church. And if you see one and you join in it, it won't be perfect anymore.

2. The Church's teachings are not defined by the character of the priests, pastors, popes, theologians or apologists nor their iniquities. Christian faith is defined by the unchanging truths of God in His Written (Bible) and Oral (Apostles' Tradition) teachings, deposits of faith passed down over 2,000 yrs. So the failures of our leaders (even lousy sermons or boring music) ought not to be our measuring stick of leaving or changing churches, but what was and is the one and only church Christ established not just with a partial but with the fullness of truth in it. For a seeker, they have to delve down and take an understanding of church history.

3. We know the cliche' some may retort that "I only go straight to Jesus in the Bible and not to any man nor man-made traditions" or something to this effect. This is a given, and it's common sense. We only have one triune God. But at the same time, God gave us human instrumentality, those who were and are before us (from Abraham, Moses to Sts Peter and Paul, St Augustine to Pope John Paul II, CS Lewis to Billy Graham, your local mentor, pastor or priest, even mom and dad) whom the Holy Spirit directly or indirectly used to introduce Christ to us and inspire us with ideas, knowledge & wisdom in our spiritual journey by their works, sermons or examples. We thereby continue to benefit from time to time from holy pastoral men and women to guide us in understanding God's word, to institute the sacraments, and not left us to our own devices. For every scoundrel in church, there are 100 more saints in this world, the latter are whom we need to look up to and never give up on. We need to include and keep them in our daily prayers more than ever, instead of quickly ostracizing them if they show some slack while we sit in our comfy chair and rant and virtue-signal at them in our social media posts all day (e.g., Internet-Only Christians). Pastors and priests' jobs are not a walk in the park.

4. I noticed this news is actually from a few months ago but surprisingly I just knew about this recently. It is disheartening to hear nevertheless. If this is a Catholic priest or clergy, this would be headline news all over the place both in secular and Christian spheres, it would be in the mainstream media airwaves and articles over and over again for many months and years. The fact that people love to target Catholics far more often than any other Christian institution--aside from the expectation they ought to be models of holiness--is because Catholics are the first and largest Christian community in the world established by Christ Himself circa 33AD; the largest forces of good on earth for centuries (e.g., compiled the Bible, started the first hospitals and universities, pioneers in judicial laws, science, the sanctity of life, etc.) and I always say that if Satan wants to attack Christianity, he wastes no time but goes straight to the jugular, straight to the heart of Christ's Church, straight to Christ's shepherds.

And so these are just something to chew on before thinking of casting the first stone and calling the Catholic church names like Anti-Christ, false prophets, idol-worshipers, spiritual perverts, pedophiles, pagans, "not-a-Christian", etc. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, first. To bear false witness is a sin in the 10 commandments. And one should not be cocky or arrogant to say it won't happen to me or my pastor or my "Bible-only" church as long I am sticking to the Bible. It is easy for us to know (and preach) the faith, but living the faith is another story. Without God's grace for the journey, so are we. God bless.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians. 4:8-9)