Praying Catholic

Praying Catholic is a small, simple app — a short list of common Catholic prayers you can read from your phone.

You open it to a menu of prayers — Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Act of Contrition, Memorare, Angelus, and a handful of others. Tap one, the prayer comes up on screen with clean typography, and you read or pray along. That's it. No accounts, no notifications, no audio, no rosary counter.

What I appreciate is how unpretentious it is. There's room for an app that does one thing — show you the words to the prayers you already know but might not remember word-for-word in a tight moment. If you forgot the second half of the Memorare in a hospital chapel, this gets you through it.

Good for someone newer to the faith who's still learning the common prayers and wants a tidy reference. Good for a grandparent who wants the words in front of them when leading grace before a meal. Good as a backup for a catechist or RCIA sponsor.

It is small. It's brand new from a single developer, so the prayer list is short, there's no audio, no Latin, no devotional structure. If you want a daily Office, a rosary walkthrough, or anything beyond a printed prayer card on a screen, this isn't the right place.

Free, by Nick Azzarello (an independent developer). Available on the App Store: Praying Catholic. A modest, well-meant app that does exactly what its name says.