What a year it is been! Remember last year? Many of us took in the Best Lent Ever program and it was fantastic. This year we are bringing in a number of apps and programs that are available to you to once again make Easter more meaningful and to help your faith life grow and expand. What a great opportunity to know God personally, to spend time with Him, and really learn to love God with your whole being.
We have several great excuses for you not to give up your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. These apps that will help, encourage, motivate, and of course inspire you to deeper prayer.
Once again this year I have a few recommendations and the first isn’t an app at all but a site.
Dynamic Catholic presents Best Lent Ever (Free Email Sign Up for Lent)
ABOUT BEST LENT EVER 2021
It’s a free email program that will guide you on an incredible journey toward the-best-version-of-yourself. From Ash Wednesday to Easter, you’ll discover ways to transform your life in forty days.
Feed Your Soul with Prayer this Lent!
Nothing will transform your life so completely, absolutely, and forever like really learning how to pray. That’s why this year’s BEST LENT EVER journeys through Matthew Kelly’s latest book, I Heard God Laugh: A Practical Guide to Life’s Essential Daily Habit.
Beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing through all forty days of Lent, you will receive a daily email with a short video to help you reconnect with yourself and your God.
If you choose to throw yourself into this experience, we promise you that you will be surprised by what God can do in your life with just an email, a short video and an open heart. So this year, don’t just sign up for BEST LENT EVER, have your best lent ever!
Lenten Magnificat Companion 2021
(Apple) $2.99 and Android ($3.99)
This Lenten Companion App designed to help you live all the graces of Lent.
For just under $3.00 you can have daily reflections as well as the readings of each daily mass for all of Lent. That is such a great price to have everything all in one place. Prepare your heart during the precious days leading up to Easter. I highlight recommend this resource, and it is a great companion.
A Companion for the Forty Days of Lent (from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday)
Presented in a day-by-day format, the Magnificat Lenten App includes:
- Inspiring daily Lenten reflections by gifted Catholic writers
- Morning and evening prayers, inspired by the Liturgy of the Hours
- Readings and prayers of each daily Mass
- Faith-filled essays
- Prayers, poetry, and devotions
- Lenten Penance Service
- Meditations for the Way of the Cross
- A treasury of spiritual insights
- A selection of audio Hymns to enjoy
By spending a few moments meditating on the inspiring daily reflections and the short prayers that follow them, you will deepen your relationship with Jesus, his Blessed Mother, and his Church.
Let the profound yet practical insights you will find in this little spiritual treasury form and focus your spiritual life, filling it with new conviction and purpose.
Are you or a loved one looking for a way this Lent to return to the Church or to develop a more fervent practice of your faith? The Magnificat Lenten Companion 2021 is the perfect help.
If you like the Lenten Companion, please try the Magnificat APP!
Liturgical source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops & ICEL.
Catholic Meditations for Lent by St. Thomas Aquinas
$3.99 (Apple Only)
We have a great review here of this app.
Helping you to meditate during Lent season with these meditations by St. Thomas Aquinas.
There are meditations for 63 days starting from Septuagesima Sunday until Holy Saturday with the following topics:
- The Work of the Vineyard
- On Doing Good
- The Prayer of Our Lord in the Garden
- Good Works
- The Reward
- The Need for Caution
- On Reforming Ourselves
- The Seed
- The Goodness of God
- The Remembrance of Our Lord’s Passion
- The Need to be Watchful
- Our Watch must be Ceaseless
- The Worship due to God
- How are We to Serve God?
- How We should Serve God on the Lord’s Day
- Holiness
- Our Lord is Scourged
- Death
- Fasting
- The Crown of Thorns
- The Grain of Wheat
- It was Fitting that Christ should be Tempted
- Christ had to be Tempted in the Desert
- Christ Underwent every Kind of Suffering
- How Great was the Sorrow of Our Lord in His Passion?
- It was Fitting that Christ should be Crucified with Thieves
- The Feast of the Holy Lance and the Nails of Our Lord
- The Love of God Shown in the Passion of Christ
- God the Father Delivered Christ to His Passion
- It was Fitting that Our Lord should Suffer at the Hand of the Gentiles
- The Passion of Christ Brought about Our Salvation because It was a Meritorious Act
- The Passion of Christ Brought about Our Salvation because It was an Act of Satisfaction
- The Passion of Christ Brought about Our Salvation because It was a Sacrifice
- Feast of the Holy Winding Sheet
- The Passion of Christ Wrought Our Salvation by Redeeming Us
- It is the Passion of Christ That has Freed Us from Sin
- The Passion of Christ has Delivered Us from the Devil
- Christ is Truly Our Redeemer
- The Price of Our Redemption
- The Preaching of the Samaritan Woman
- It is by the Passion of Christ that We have been Freed from the Punishment due to Sin
- The Passion of Christ Reconciles Us to God
- Christ by His Passion Opened to Us the Gates of Heaven
- Christ by His Passion Merited to be Exalted
- The Example of Christ Crucified
- The Divine Friend
- The Death of Lazarus
- The Precious Blood
- There was not Any more Fitting Way to Free the Human Race than through the Passion of Christ
- The Passion of Christ
- The Passion of Christ is Remedy against Sin
- The Burial of Christ
- On Being Buried Spiritually
- Which is the Greatest Sign of His Love Our Lord has Given Us?
- Our Lady’s Suffering in the Passion
- How We, Each of Us, should Wash One Another’s Feet
- Christ’s Passion Serves Us as an Example
- It is Necessary that We be Wholly Clean
- Christ Preparing to Wash the Apostle’s Feet
- Three Things are Symbolised by the Washing of the Feet
- The Last Supper
- The Death of Christ
- Why Our Lord Went Down to Limbo
$3.99 – Download it here. or the Lite Version is available for FREE.
Bible in Year Podcast (Free)
This one isn’t just for Lent, but you can hop into a HUGE community of people going through the Bible in Year. Fr. Mike Schmitz (Review Here). In The Bible in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz walks you through the entire Bible in 365 episodes, providing commentary, reflection, and prayer along the way.
Unlike any other Bible podcast, Ascension’s Bible in a Year podcast follows a reading plan inspired by The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, a ground-breaking approach to understanding salvation history developed by renowned Catholic Bible scholar Jeff Cavins. For each period in the timeline, Jeff will join Fr. Mike for a special episode that will help you understand the context of each reading.
Listen and … Read the ENTIRE Bible
With this podcast, you won’t just read the Bible in a year … you’ll finally understand how all the pieces of the Bible fit together to tell an amazing story that continues in your life today!
Formed.org (iTunes, Google Play)
Often referred to as the “Netflix for Catholics”AMAZING!!! Often referred to as the “Netflix for Catholics”, the FORMED iOS App by the Augustine Institute provides convenient mobile access to any FORMED subscriber. Just login with your existing FORMED credentials and access thousands of video-based study programs, movies, documentaries, audio talks, audiobooks and even eBooks onDemand.
Let these materials facilitate your spiritual journey as you try to more fully understand, live and share your Catholic Faith.
Don’t have a FORMED account yet? Visit the website to create an account.
Our Parish has an account, and we use it for Lent, In fact we gave up NETFLIX for lent, in order to go through more Formed.org content.
Via Crucis App
This developer We have a review over here of the Via Crucis App. Let the writings of St. Francis of Assisi help you to meditate on the Way of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
You can continue right where you left off if you get interrupted because this app would save the last station you meditate.
For your reading convenience you can adjust the font size. Tap an image to enter full screen, pinch to zoom and tap it again or swipe it to dismiss. Change the language of the content between English, Italian, French, and Portuguese right from within the app or from Settings app.
If you prefer to, you can hide or show the prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be) displayed at the end of each mystery.
Movies and Videos to watch during lent.
The Prince of Egypt (iTunes, Google Play) and Joseph King of Dreams (iTunes, Google Play)
For those with children at home, this is your ticket to a great Holy Week. Both of these movies are absolutely thrilling musicals, (Check if they are on Netflix right now) and get your kids some snacks. They will love them both. And you will as well. It’s not “Catholic” however, it does bring the historical faith into kids minds, and you can use it as a great starting point for Holy Week, or even just to begin talking about faith.
Passion of the Christ(iTunes, Google Play, Amazon)
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST focuses on the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life. The film begins in the Garden of Olives where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Jesus must resist the temptations of Satan. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is then arrested and taken within the city walls of Jerusalem where leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his trial results in a condemnation to death.
Paul, Apostle of Christ (iTunes, Android, Amazon)
Paul, who goes from the most infamous persecutor of Christians to Christ’s most influential apostle, spends his last days awaiting execution by Emperor Nero in Rome. Paul is under the watchful eye of Mauritius, Mamertine Prison’s ambitious prefect, who seeks to understand how this broken old man can pose such a threat. As Paul’s days grow shorter, he feverishly works from prison to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and embolden his followers to stand strong in their faith against Roman persecution far greater than has ever been seen.
Song of God
Son of God (iTunes, Google Play)
From producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey comes Son of God — the most important chapter of the Greatest Story Ever Told. Acclaimed Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado delivers a spectacular portrayal of Jesus as this powerful and inspirational feature film depicts the life of Christ, from his humble birth through his teachings, crucifixion and ultimate resurrection.
Fatima – Streaming iTunes, Google Play, Amazon.com DVD: Amazon
Discover the miracle that changed there world: In the spring of 1917, as World War I rages across Europe, three young shepherds report multiple visions of the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal. Their prophecy that only prayer and suffering will bring peace inspires believers to flock to the site but angers officials of both the secularist government and the Church, who try to coerce the children into recanting their story. On the day of Mary’s final visit, tens of thousands of pilgrims arrive hoping to witness a miracle. What they experience will change their lives forever. Starring Sonia Braga (Aquarius), Harvey Keitel (The Piano), Lúcia Moniz (Love, Actually) and Stephanie Gil (Terminator: Dark Fate). FATIMA is a powerful and moving story inspired by true events.
The Chosen Review Here Apple | Android
From the Director:
I’ve been a believer my whole life, I’ve attended Christian schools my whole life, and I’ve heard the stories of Jesus countless times. I’ve also seen every Jesus movie and miniseries ever made, and there have been dozens. So why a new TV show about Jesus?
Because I have a passion for people to hear the “old, old story” again … for the very first time. When I see Jesus movies, it’s sometimes hard for me to feel moved or excited. I’ve heard the stories before, and many Jesus projects just take you from Bible story to Bible story, not spending as much time on the humanity and backstories of all these characters. And they sometimes feel stiff and formal.
