iOS Apps for Lent and Nerd Fasting

[ultimate_heading main_heading=”iOS Lent” main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;”][/ultimate_heading]This Lent, I wanted to challenge myself to look at apps that already had on my iOS device and see how it could help me go deeper into the season of Lent. Here’s what I came up with (I’m especially proud of the last one which gives me mucho nerd-points:[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Prayer Alarm” main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;”][/ultimate_heading]There’s a couple of things you can do with the Clock app’s alarm:

1. You can change your alarm to some prayerful music (Relient K or Gregorian Chant, your choice)
2. Create a custom label for your alarm that says: “Wake up and Pray a decade of the Rosary”
3. You can TURN OFF your snooze button on your iOS device
4. Don’t just use your alarm to wake you up, use it to remind you to pray throughout the day! (Set an alarm for noon and 3PM to pray the Angelus)
5. If you want to go to a holy hour, daily mass, or anything special this lent – put it in your calendar and set an alarm to remind you to actually go!

[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Prayer Requests” main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;”][/ultimate_heading]Use apps like “Notes” or “Reminders” to write down different prayer requests for yourself and others. The nice thing about Notes is you can keep a running tally throughout Lent. The nice thing about Reminders is you can check off a prayer once you’ve prayed for it. Whichever method floats your boat![ultimate_heading main_heading=”Catholic Content” main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;”][/ultimate_heading]Use the YouTube & Podcast Apps to subscribe to great Catholic content. Here’s a few channels/podcasts you may want to check out:

YouTube

• Outside da Box
• Spirit Juice Studiots
• Matthew Kelly
• Chris Stefanick
• Busted Halo
• Fr. Robert Barron
• FOCUS Equip
• Steubenville Youth Conferences

Podcasts

• Word on Fire w/Fr. Robert Barron
• Life Teen Sunday, Sunday, Sunday w/Mark Hart
• St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology w/Dr. Scott Hahn
• Understanding the Scriptures w/Carson Weber
• Anything from SQPN

[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Nerd Fasting” main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;”][/ultimate_heading]This year I’m fasting from Pizza. Part of my Lenten journey is to remind myself that the only way to say “no” is with a deeper “yes”. Therefore, I have setup my favorite Pizza Place as a contact in my “Contacts” app (complete with address). This allows me say to Siri: “Remind me to say a Hail Mary when I get to Joey’s Pizza Shop”. Using the phone’s built in GPS, now everytime I just drive by that Pizza Shop I get a little reminder that tells me to pray! Turning my “no” to a deeper “yes”! YES![ultimate_heading main_heading=”More Ideas” main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;”][/ultimate_heading]I have a few more ideas like finding a good Christian radio station on Pandora or Spotify, downloading some good Catholic books or PDFs and using iBook to store them all, creating a Photo Album/Stream for Lenten photos, or facebooking/tweeting/instagraming positive messages, etc. but at this point I want to hear from YOU. What are some creative ways your using your device to go deeper into Lent?