Universalis

Universalis is an app I’ve been using since it was first released. I have used other apps to follow the Mass and to pray the Divine Office prior to the release of Universalis, but Universalis is far better than any of those. The Mass and the Office are laid out in a manner which makes both extremely easy to follow, plus the Office provides many options to customize the day’s prayers to fit my style (two-year cycle of Scripture readings, psalm-prayers, choices of optional memorials, and so on). The rosary feature is also wonderful and is chock full of options as well, allowing me to pray it with or without scriptural passages and with or without certain prayers. The “About Today” page is a marvelous celebration of saints’ days throughout the world, not just those on the local calendar. To complement this cornucopia of heroic persons, the “Spiritual Reading” page often includes what would have been the second reading from the Office of Readings for those saints not on the local calendar, providing further insight into these noble men and women. The only complaint I have with this app is that in terms of prayers outside of the proper liturgical prayers, it only has the rosary, the Angelus, and lectio divina. I would love it if the app also contained the chaplet of Divine Mercy, the examen, and the Stations of the Cross, but I guess the app can only hold so much data, and those prayers can be found on other apps. Overall, Universalis is a truly great app. I only hope that when the new translation of the Divine Office is released next year on Ash Wednesday, Universalis can be updated and thereby continue to play its role in my daily prayer life.

BRAVO. I am a Lector and am very familiar with the official Lectionary of the Catholic Church. Universalis always gets the Calendar, Readings, and Mass prayers correct. I use Universalis “Readings at Mass” and “About Today” every day for my personal study and devotion. In addition, when attending Mass at a church where there are no full Missalettes, I use the “Mass Today” and “Order of the Mass”: it is always right on the mark for the entire readings and prayers for the Mass! I also like the ability to quickly go to any day of the Liturgical year and see the Feast/Memorial of the Saint of that day. Universalis has already added the brand new Feast “Mary the Mother of the Church” for the Monday after Pentecost! Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is somewhat complex for the average lay-person. Universalis makes it simple. The translations are different than some Breviaries, so may not be as useful for group recitation if all do not have the App. But the essence of each prayer is the same. May not be 100 pct perfect, but the ability to pray the LOH anytime, anywhere on your mobile device is literally a God-send. NOTE: to get the correct readings and calendar for your Diocese - it is important to go to the settings and select the local liturgical calendar for your country / region. For instance, in the USA, 6 Diocese celebrate The Ascension on the Thursday; the remainder celebrate on the Sunday. The Universalis settings options get it right.

The app has been awesomely created and in presentation it looks qualitatlively superior to all the other free apps I‘ve run into so far for the Liturgy Of The Hours. I live in the US and have recently started to lead a prayer group in my workplace, and here comes the big problem: fellows familiar with the Office and owners of physical breviaries or users of free apps follow the New American Bible translation. And of course I cannot force people to spend money in an app just because I as the leader just feel comfortable using the Universalis app and hence following a Bible translation that nobody else follows in my group... So I guess in the meantime I‘m gonna start using another app like iBreviary, which is great and uses the NAB translation but is not that flexible and rich as Universalis. That until hopefully the Universdalis developers incorporate the NAB option as it‘s the case for the Readings at Mass. I don‘t regret having spent 11 bucks for the app though; like I said, it‘s been a great tool but for the moment just for personal prayer here in the US, maybe not for group prayers with American fellows.