Hozana – Christian prayer

Hozana is a prayer-community app. Instead of being one more solitary devotional, it connects you with online groups praying the same novena, retreat, or daily Scripture at the same time. The idea is that you are praying alongside other people, even when you are alone with your phone.

You can join prayer communities, share intentions, follow daily Scripture, sign up for novenas and short retreats delivered day by day, and watch live Mass streams. It runs in several languages and has a large membership, so there is usually something active to join. You pick what fits and it sends you the day's prayer or reflection.

What I appreciate is that it fights the loneliness that can creep into private prayer. Committing to a novena with a few thousand other people keeps you from quietly dropping it on day three. The intentions feature is quietly moving as well; you end up praying for strangers' real burdens, which is good for the soul.

Good for anyone who keeps starting novenas and never finishing them, for people who want a sense of company in prayer, and for following a guided retreat during Advent or Lent without leaving home. The live Mass streams are a help for the homebound.

A fair caveat: Hozana is Catholic in its roots and in most of its content, with novenas, the rosary, and Mass, but it describes itself as broadly Christian and hosts communities from various Christian groups. So you may come across material outside the Catholic tradition. It is also very much an online-community app, which is a feature for some and a distraction for others.

Free, made by the Association Hozana. Available on the App Store: Hozana. If keeping up private prayer has been hard, praying with others might be exactly the nudge you need.