The Scriptural Rosary App

Developer: Valent Richie

Cost: $3.99

iOS 7.0 or higher

I am really bad at praying the Rosary. I always find my mind drifting to other tasks and worries while I pray.  So rosary apps are a great way to keep me focused on what I’m supposed to be doing. The Scriptural Rosary App is far and away the nicest Rosary app I have ever used.

Let me start by explaining the Scriptural Rosary.

Each prayer of a Scriptural Rosary is given a small snippet of scripture that relates to the mystery you are praying. By the time you finish the decade, you have a more complete picture of the events surrounding the mystery. In addition, there are longer pieces of scripture at the beginning of each decade to set the stage – so to speak – for the meditations to come. This app replaces the little blue and white pocket-sized book I used to use to pray this type of rosary, and it does even more!

It will keep track of where you are in the rosary so that you can pick up where you left off if you get distracted or disturbed. It will also keep a reminder on the icon to let you know you still haven’t finished. It will automatically schedule the right mysteries for each day (but you can override that feature if you need to).

If you want to pray the rosary in another language, you can choose from several: English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Spanish, and even Latin. This is great for learning the prayers in another language. I use it in Spanish every other day so that someday, I may be able to keep up with the Latinos in my parish when they pray the rosary.

But my favorite nerdtastic feature of all is the ability to link to other people (via Bluetooth or WiFi) and synchronize screens so that you can pray together.

So. Cool.

At $3.99 for a download, you might be hesitant to invest in the app. It’s not a Mercedes Benz, but it’s not a cheap app, either. And it’s a big app at 20.5 MB and that’s a lot of space when you need to carry around pictures of your cute kids or grandkids.

Consider this, though: How much is it worth to you to have a better, more focused prayer experience?

For me, it was absolutely worth it. The artwork, the ease of use, and the overall concept are outstanding and it’s well-used and well-loved here at my house.

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Copyright 2013 Katie O’Keefe