Software

Brandon Vogt has a post up on some free resources from Logos for Catholics which include the documents of Vatican II and Pope Benedict’s exhortation Verbum Domini until December 31. Brandon’s site has the details and the coupon code necessary to get these resources for free. Brandon also gives information on how to use the tool.

As a user of Logos for the last ten years I have been very happy with both the increased performance and power of the Logos library system and how they have become even more Catholic friendly with a number of Catholic resources. For example one of the most recommended scriptural commentaries is “A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture” by Dom Bernard Orchard which had been out of print for awhile. Not only is it in print now, but it is also available on Logos. The power of Logos lets you read the scriptures side by side with whatever commentaries or other writings like what the Church Fathers had said about a passage.

They also have mobile apps (currently iPhone/iPad only, though the Android version is in development) and I had actually just used the Logos app on my iPad to read through the Gospel of Luke on Christmas. I had not realized until I read Brandon’s post that the free Verbum app for Catholic Bible study has included resources where all you have to do is to create a free Logos account to take advantage of them. So you can use the current free resources mentioned above along with those included built-in resources without owning Logos or the Catholic implementation of Verbum. Verbum uses the new Logos Bible Software 5.

What is nice also is that if you go ahead and buy Verbum than all of those Catholic resources are available on the mobile apps along with of course the desktop version. Another thing nice about the Logos ecosystem is that you can start with the basic package and then either upgrade to another package with increased resources or buy individual books. Upgrading to another package is pro-rated based on what you already own. While it is true many of some of the older resources are available online for free – the advantage of Logos/Verbum is that all the resources are indexed so that they are tied to verses in scripture and quickly referenced.

I currently own Logos 4 with the Catholic Scholars package, but did not yet have Verbum. I found though that I could get the Basic Verbum package for $34.95 pro-rated based on what I already owned. Even better using the coupon code “JIMMY” from Jimmy Akin’s site I got a %15 discount and paid $29.41 instead. The %15 discount is good for any of the Verbum packages.

Another nice thing about the Logos library system is the way that it syncs on both the desktop and mobile versions. To set it up you just need to have Verbum installed and tied to your Logos account and then it will download all of the resources you own. So setting up on a new computer is a snap. When I just installed Verbum it used all the information and documents I already had installed with Logos 4 and was up an running very fast.

I got a request to create an ebook version of the  “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.”  Since this was a document I had been meaning to read myself I went ahead and created it with a fully indexed table of contents.

ePub version – iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch/Nook/Sony Reader/Kobo

Kindle version

Note: While a dedicated e-reader is the preferred device for reading ebooks, you can also use various free desktop apps to do the same.

Kindle Reading Apps: Kindle Cloud Reader | PC | Mac

Adobe Digital Editions (PC/Mac)

Calibre  (PC/Mac/Linux)

Some years ago I bought a copy of the Logos Bible software for use in scripture study. Catholic Apologist Steve Ray has been a proponent of this software which was a main reason I got it. At the time they had version 2 and I was pretty happy with it and got a lot of use out of it. The ability to easily go deeper in scripture with commentaries and word studies along with tools such as maps is really quite a boon. When I switched to Mac though my use of it diminished even though I could have run it in a virtual machine. Back then they did not have a Mac version, though they were working on one.

Another of the reasons I went with Logos is that they are very Catholic friendly and some five or six years ago started developing packages specifically for Catholics. This trend has continued with Andrew Jones who is the Catholic Products Manager at Logos Bible Software. I was given the chance the review Logos 4 with the “Catholic Scholar’s Library” package.

The way Logos works is as a library system where you have access to the contents of any packages you bought along with any individual titles you may buy. It then wraps all of this content with linked and integrated search so that for example a scriptural passage you are reading can also show commentary from the Church Fathers or a wealth of other sources. There are some serious tools for those inclined to compare Bible versions with Hebrew and Greek texts along with easy access to comparison of verses using different scripture versions.

While I was very satisfied when I was using Logos 2, Logos 4 is certainly a large step forward in ease of use while having access to even more advanced features. It is sort of a personal internet containing scriptural and related resources since there is so much interlinking. Since Logos works with a variety of publishers including Ignatius Press to bring their works to their format their is an amazing wealth of what is available.

Though Logos does not come cheap and is rather pricey, but that is to be expected when you have so much source material licensed from various publishers. Currently there are three Catholic specific packages ranging from $395 to $669. One of the advantages of Logos is that if you go with one package you can still upgrade to another one at a later date.

A very important consideration for just how useful is this if you can only use it when sitting down in front of your computer? The answer is quite a lot. I’ve been using the iPad version of Logos which has access to all the same content from my account. This is my preferred mode for scripture reading and still having access to some of the advanced tools such as the multi-functional Passage Guide and text comparison. I do wish that there was an ability to tag something you are reading to be research later in the non-mobile version. For example favorites should really be synched. You can share a passage via the typical social networks. Logos apps are available for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad and Android along with mobile web.

You can look through the various Catholic specific packages here. The amount of Catholic specific material is quite high and ranges from the Early Church Fathers, Sts. Augustine & Aquinas, Councils, Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, G.K. Chesterton, Blessed Cardinal Newman along with Catholic specific commentaries and versions of the bible including the RSV-CE and various versions the Vulgate. Granted you can find a good amount of this in the public domain. A Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI is coming at a later date. The amount of material makes my inner and outer bibliophile jump for joy. Also included are Protestant sources and I found in the past many of these are quite worthwhile as long as you don’t mind an occasional “papist” thrown in as a slur. Commentaries from certain periods run rather anti-Catholic, but if anything they often confirmed my faith as they went out of their way to deny common Catholic exegesis.

The install for my Mac couldn’t have been easier. I downloaded the main program and then it started to download close to 5 gigabytes of content. The mobile versions download content as you need them. Of course the software and various packages also comes on DVD. I’m very happy with the multiple OS support, though as usual Linux users are left out – but hey they are use to that.

Now if only I can find a place to connect a chain to this application. Us Catholics love to put chains on bibles don’t you know.

Enter for a chance to win a copy of the Catholic Scholar’s Library.

Other Reviews:
First Things
Michael Barber
Taylor Marhall

Long time Catholic blogger Jeff Geerling deserves lots of congratulations this year. First he got married, then he produced an inovative iPhone app for his Diocese of St. Louis, and now he has produced a new iPhone app – Catholic News Live.

Catholic News Live presents a news feed containing Catholic News from traditional news sources, Catholics blogs, etc. Find a story title you are interested in – click on it to go to the story.

If you like a story and want to share it with others you can easily send it to Instapaper, Twitter, Facebook, Email and other services like Read it Later, Google Reader, etc. You can even go to a map showing world locations of stories.

This is a solid app and well worth the .99 cents.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with Instapaper or Read it Later – these are services where you can send articles to read them at your convenience. They are also reformatted so that they are easier to read and content such as ads, banners, etc are removed. I use Instapaper all the time on my Mac and iPad and it really helps me to save and read stories I am interested in and then have a archive of this content.

If you need to find a Catholic church and you’re out on the road, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has an app for you.

In the latest example of an ancient institution deploying the latest technology, the Archdiocese says a free iPhone app is available that will display all the nearest Catholic churches and, if desired, show directions to the church.

“We wanted to develop a tool for the website and for the iPhone that makes it easy for Catholics to locate any of our parishes, particularly those along their commute route after work,” Scot Landry, the archdiocesan secretary for Catholic Media said in a statement.

The tool might come in handy, officials said, for Catholics during the church’s Advent season push to get Catholics to come to confession.

The archdiocese is repeating its “The Light Is On For You” campaign from Lent, urging people to take the sacrament of penance on the evenings of Dec. 15 and Dec. 22.

“Our research from Lent indicated that many of the 30,000 Catholics went to confessions at a parish different from their home parish,” Landry said. “The iPhone app is wonderful, as a Catholic can push one button that will show all the nearby parishes immediately.”

“What we’re trying to do is just make it easier to find these parishes,” he said in a telephone interview.

So what’s a Catholic with a Droid phone to do?

Never fear. Landry said in a telephone interview that eventually the archdiocese would make Droid apps, but it began with the iPhone app because it already had experience with making iPhone apps that let people read the church’s Pilot newspaper or watch clips from Catholic TV.

The app is called Pilot Catholic Directory

Quite cool and the app is fairly interesting. You can even search by Language and “Extraordinary Form” is an option to filter your search. It includes contact information, Mass times, and can use your current location to map you to where a parish is.

On the minus side the app requires Wi-Fi/3G to work and so iPod Touch users can only use it when you have Wi-Fi available. Not a problem for iPhone users though. The app would be even better if they did list confession times and if they are going to be pushing this for the upcoming Lent maybe they will be updating it with this information. Having a Confession button along with Mass Times would be a good thing for sure.

For Catholics outside of Boston there is the Catholic Mass Times Church Directory app for the iPhone. The Catholic Directory web site is actually pretty good and now that I look at it seems to have more information than the more well known Mass Times including confession and adoration. No mention on their site for an Android version.

The app itself though is a bit of a disappointment. You can search by current location and get a list of parishes close to you – though you can’t set the distance. The church I wanted to check I could not easily get to. You should be able to select by State, City, Parish Name – and you can only search by street address, City, State. The information for Mass times etc, does not seem to exactly match their web site, but there is an ability to update the information to send back to them if the information displayed needs to be corrected. Also need to be connected to the internet to use.

If you have an internet connected device the app is good, but their web site might be better to use since you can more easily find specific parishes. The app also has ads for the company that makes this service available.

On a geeky phone OS note, I find it interesting that they mention the Droid when really they should be mentioning Android which is the mobile OS used for plenty of phones besides the Droid. Many Android users seems to see the phone model first and not identify the Android OS. Though considering that each Android Cell Phone maker usually adds an interface layer of their own above Android I guess this is no surprise.

On my way into the Church as I was exploring a devotional prayer life i started to pray The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is similar to the Liturgy of the Hours in format but with limited readings. After finding that I liked this style of prayer of praying during parts of the day and that it was something I could actually stick with I soon turned to the Four Volume Set of the Liturgy of the Hours which I bought one volume at a time. Learning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours is not the simplest task, but the St. Joseph Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours put out annually is a good way to be able to learn to do so. Though paging through the book for the different hours of prayer and marking them with ribbons is functional but messy. In this technological age we are getting lazier and lazier and I for one wished for an electronic version of the LOTH that would let me concentrate more on praying than flipping through the volumes.

When iBreviary was originally released for the iPhone/iPod Touch for first .99 cents and then later free this need was answered for me. So from the time this app was released I retired my 4-Volume set of the LOTH for the electronic version. I was fairly satisfied with this app, but when the iPad was announced I figured that the screen on the iPad would be perfect for the Breviary and there would be much less page scrolling involved. Just last week iBreviaryPro was released on iTunes and it is a significant upgrade to the previous versions.

Mostly on the iPad I prefer landscape mode and all the screenshots are in landscape mode. Though it works in portrait mode also.

The formatting of the screen is much improved over previous versions where the word could be haphazard at times. In previous versions you had to download each day and so if you were away from the internet for a period of time you were out of luck. The new version now lets you cache a period of 10 days which is a welcome change.

Switching the various Hours is quite easy via the sidebar.

The new version also include the complete Missal for the celebration of Mass. Also added are new sections for Saints and Prayers.

What is especially nice about iBreviaryPro is the support for Italian, French, Spanish, English, and Latin and that the texts used as far as I know match the official texts. The English text was identical to the English version of the Liturgy Hours I had in the 4-Volume set.

For the price of free you really can’t beat iBreviaryPro and if you had ever wanted to start reading the Liturgy of the Hours it is a great way to start since you don’t have to worry about mechanics, but can just start reading and praying. Also very cool is that the app was created by an Italian Priest, Don Paolo Padrini. No doubt we will see future improvements.

This though is not the only Liturgy of the Hours app available. When I first got my iPad I was disappointed to find that iBreviaryPro had not yet been updated to the iPad and I really wanted an iPad version of the Liturgy of the Hours. When the Apple App store first opened there was an LOTR app right from the start called Universalis and many people will be acquainted with their website. Unfortunately they charged $40 dollars for the app and they had no lite version to see if you liked it ahead of time. $40 bucks was pretty steep for an iPhone/iPod Touch app in a field where $10 is expensive so I passed that one right up. On the day the iPad was released they also had a version for the iPad and they had lowered the price to $27 which is still steep in my opinion, but I decided to buy it.

The original iPad version of Universalis was fairly good, but a bit buggy. It was also lacking hymns and antiphons which iBreviaryPro supported. Later upgrades fixed these problems and one of the latest releases gave me a feature that I really wanted.

Every book reader app allows you to tap on the screen or swipe in a direction to change pages. I really wanted this feature instead of having to keep scrolling down to finish an Hour. This might be more evidence of laziness, but it is a more exact way to advance through the text. In addition Universalis in Landscape Mode pretty much copied the layout that iBooks uses in show two facing pages at a time. Having read plenty of books via iBooks this way I was thrilled to see that Universalis had imitated this feature. The page turning animation is not as slick as Apples’ version, but good enough. To navigate between the hours you simply click the clock icon and select the required Hour.

As you can see Antiphons and Hymns are now fully supported and the rendering of the text and format is quite nice. One of the best features of Universalis is that you never have to download anything other than the app. All text is included for the liturgical cycles. In addition there are some other nice settings not found in iBreviaryPro. For example because man Diocese in the U.S. move feast days to Sunday such as the Ascension you are able to set this so that the correct texts are displayed.

Unfortunately there is no multi-language support and this is for English users only. It does though liturgical calendars for UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The translation used is not the same as in the printed version of the LOTH. You can select though to use the NAB, Jerusalem Bible, and the Grail Psalms are used.

The app has gone done to $24.99 and you can also get the free Catholic Calendar application to preview the full version.

So for now my LOTH app of choice is Universalis because of the page rendering of text, but I keep both versions on my iPad. iBreviary Pro is great when you read the Liturgy of the Hours in public and must use the same text as everybody else.

There are still improvements I would like to see in both versions. Being able to set the text and background colors or to set the contrast would be a welcome feature for both apps since depending on where you have your contrast set the black on white can be a bit glaring. iBooks has a Sepia mode which I really like and is easy on the eyes.

iBreviaryPro and Universalis are both excellent full featured apps and so this is a great thing for Catholics that we have this available to us. There are different features in both apps, but depending on your requirements you can select which one to fill your needs.

For those with Android devices you can also find iBreviary available.

Most of all if you are curious about praying the Liturgy of the Hours, no time is better than now to jump right in. It is a cool feeling to know that you are joining in with the Church and praying the same Hours that the priests and religious are also praying.