Latin Prayers

Latin Prayers is a small reference app holding the prayers every Catholic has heard in Latin — the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the rest of the basics.

Open it and you get the prayers laid out in Latin. These are the foundational ones, the prayers that have been said the same way for centuries across every country. It is a collection, plain and simple, meant to put the Latin in front of you so you can read it, learn it, and pray it.

I think there is real value in this. Most of us cradle Catholics know the Hail Mary cold in English but go blank the moment someone starts the Ave Maria. Having the words in your pocket means you can actually learn them instead of just meaning to. The app leans on St. John Paul II's line about Latin being a bond of unity among peoples of all nations, and that is the spirit of it.

Good for anyone who wants to follow along at a Latin Mass, pray the rosary in Latin, or just recover a bit of the Church's common language. It would suit an older Catholic going back to it and a younger one picking it up for the first time.

What it is not: a course. It will not teach you to pronounce the Latin or translate it line by line. It gives you the texts and trusts you to do the rest. The collection is also limited to the essential prayers, so do not expect every devotion under the sun.

It costs $0.99, from Maughold, LLC. Available on the App Store: Latin Prayers. A dollar well spent if learning the prayers in Latin is something you have been meaning to do.