The app is split up into five categories; Breviary, Missal, Lectures, Prayers and Rites. Breviary includes Office of Readings, Lauds, Daytime Prayers, Vespers and Compline. Missal includes Mass’ Order, Readings & Prayers, Preface, Eucharistic Prayer, Faithfuls’ Prayer. Lectures contains readings for the day, and can be downloaded for the week. Prayers includes Complimentary Psalmody, Office for the Dead (Office of Readings) Office for the Dead (Lauds/Vespers), Saturday Memorial of the B.V. Mary (office of readings)….Well, it goes on for quite a while, but thats a pretty good sample of the prayers section. Rites includes not as many entries, but still a hefty amount of info for the price…. How much is it you ask? I understand that pretty soon it might actually cost something, but for now it’s absolutely free! Now, I stole the rest of this from a website called iSnoops, but they pretty much cover everything else adequately, so I’ve included an excerpt from their review:

iBreviary is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and contains:
- Breviary, Missal and Lectionary complete in 7 languages and continuously updated
(Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian, English and Latin)
- The text of the Breviary and the Missal in the Vetus Ordo Ambrosian Rite and Latin
- All the main prayers of the Christian
- Rituals for the sacraments and celebrations
- The liturgical texts used in the Holy Land
Also iBreviary “Pro Terra Sancta” offers, than the first version of iBreviary:
- The new section, “Rites”, with all the rituals and texts for the various celebrations
Catholic (Adoration of the Eucharist, the Sacraments, Blessings, etc.).
- The brand new “Terra Sancta” the liturgical texts used in the Holy Land
- Keep in touch through the blog and the pages of the Franciscans
Holy Places.
- A rich section dedicated to Saints
- Store a day on any device
- Full management of saved days (selection and cancellation)
- Unlimited storage days (something very much in demand by those who want to download
a bit ‘of days for travel or long period without internet access from your iPhone /
iPad)
- Instantly download the entire week (continuing to quietly
use the application without having to wait for the download).
- Enlarge and diminish the character of the text, with the flick of the fingers
on the screen (Pinch-to-Zoom)
- The ability to adjust the color of the background for a better
reading of texts
- Application Languages: Italian, Inglese, Español, Deutsch, Française, Românã
- Content Languages: Italian, Inglese, Español, Français, Română, Latinum
- Languages constantly updated content.
- A new graphical interface

If you have an iPhone, jump on iTunes and download this nifty app as soon as you are able, because it’s really worth your while.

I ‘d like to present three of them here for you to peruse at your leisure. These can all be found on line (I’ve included links to the websites for you) and on itunes. First off, we have “Homilies of Fr. Paul Yi“. I know, I know, part of you is cringing right now at the thopught of homilies outside of mass, or you are recalling a certain someone filled with goodwill and a wonderful heart who just lacks that certain “oomph” to keep you rapt with attention throughout church, but fear not! Such is not the case with Fr.Paul! I had a chance to see & hear Fr. Paul on Easter Sunday last year at Our Lady of Mercy in Baton Rouge, and I have to say it was probably one of the best -if not THE best- Homilies I have ever heard. Imagine my joy when I discovered that his weekly homilies are now available on it tunes! Fr. Paul has a way of engaging his audience, and keeping their attention without going over the top. Moreover, his voice is so reassuring, that you’ll find yourself slightly disappointed when the podcast is over. This is his Homily, plain and simple, nothing else, so there really isn’t much more to say than go give him a listen, you will not be sorry!

As long as were discussing homilies, let me go ahead and mention another -a little more well known perhaps- one you can find on itunes as well. This one is is by Fr. Larry Richards, entitled “The Reason for Our Hope“. Fr. Larry is just as engaging, just as entertaining as Fr. Paul, but I feel as if he goes in the opposite direction. Much like his book ” Be a Man! Becoming the Man God Created You to Be“, Fr.Larry pulls no punches, and sugar coats nothing. He simply tells you how it is, and you know what? He’s right! Again, this is a Homily, nothing more, nothing less, and it, along with Fr.Paul’s, is truly worthy of your time. We’ve all sat through the well meant homily that is like a recitation of a quantum mechanics manual, so do yourself a favor and listen to a homily that will never fail to keep you rapt with attention, filled with anticipation and filled with the good word.

Finally, we come to what ius probably the most unique of all Catholic podcasts, “Catholic Underground“; Despite the name, this has nothing do with  the Catholic Underground of The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. No, this Catholic Underground (henceforth referred to as CU) is a little farther below the Mason Dixon line than the good Friars. Abbeville, Louisiana, to be exact. I know, I know, Fr. Paul, the CU podcats, it seems as if I have a penchant for all thing Louisiana…..Well I do, but that’s not why I chose CU for my final entry today!

No, I chose them because quite honestly, they have the most entertaining Catholic podcast I have ever heard. It’s witty, humorous,educational and absolutely captivating. They do not suffer from the “Grandma tape syndrome” that so many podcasts seem to be afflicted with. Know what I’m talking about when I say “Grandma tapes”?? Well, when I was a little kid, we’d make these cassette tapes for my grandparents who lived in Philly. We’d tell them everything that was going on in our lives, and then we’d send them the tapes through the mail system. Once they had listened to them, my Grandparents would do the same for us, and that’s pretty much how we talked to each other when I was young.

I have noticed in sorting through Catholic podcasts, that alot of them suffer from “Grandma’s Tapes Syndrome”; they drone on and on about stuff that they seem to think is important, but it doesn’t really translate as such to the listener. But you listen anyway, not wanting to seem unkind, but in your mind, you are really thinking that it is a chore to listen to them. CU has avoided this syndrome altogether by splitting their podcasts up into segments. I cant really do them justice with a description, so I stole the following from their website: “Following the success of several podcasts aimed at presenting weekly technology news and podcasts covering life in the Catholic sphere, the members of catholicunderground.com began to formulate a podcast that speaks to both Vatican II and Pope John Paul the Great’s call for those in media to responsibly and courageously bring technology to the transmission of the Gospel. The blogs and podcasts contained in these pages hope to have that goal within every click; that’s why catholicunderground.com really is faith gone digital.”.

They are worth every moment of your time. To make it even better, they (Fr. Ryan, Fr.Chris, Daniel and Joshua) offer the weekly podcast live on their site via CU TV, and invite listeners to chime in via their chat room. Again, I cant say enough good things, and I invite you to try them out!

You start off with the current for of the Mass, which they call “Old Text”. This should be fairly self explanatory, as the next tab is labeled “New Text”, followed by a tab titled “Reason”, as you can see from the illustrations of the app. I will admit,I have not used the other features of the App, and quite honestly, I have this on here  for when we finally do switch over, I can follow along, but for right now, I don’t look at it so much. The “Reason” for the new mass leaves something to be desired. But to be honest, do we really need to know the reasons for the change? Isn’t it enough that the Church has made these decisions? For me, just knowing where the changes have been made is enough.

Personally, I like that the app doesn’t crash, and that it’s easy to read. The FX blog is interesting too, but like I said, I really  want to know just about the New Mass. The app also includes the authors (Cale Clark) Facebook and Twitter feeds, just in case you were interested.

My only real problem with this app was the $2.99 I paid for it. But in the grand scheme of things, that’s not a bad price for an app that I’m sure will come in handy this November!

Someone left their personal journal at work the other day by mistake; It was sitting on this persons desk, very obviously a journal. An elegant affair, hard back, 6.5 X 9.0 or so, royal green cloth page marker to mark his place. Let me stop here and say I have kept a journal for the better part of 20+ years, and  I love the idea of my sons being able to read what I thought long after I’m gone from this mortal coil. But I don’t want anyone reading it right now! Makes sense, right? Friends, one of my coworkers took his journal and read it aloud to the rest of the office…… I was mortified! His innermost thoughts, his doubts, fears, self loathing was nothing more than a joyous moment of glee for them! I kept hoping the person reading from it would put it down, and I finally just said in the loudest voice I could: “LALALALALALALA I CANT HEAR ANYTHING YOU”RE SAYING!!! LALALALALALALALA!!! Juvenile perhaps, but my message was clear, and the reading of his journal ceased. But the damage has been done, the things that were read aloud are so embarrassing, and I’m really upset about this!

The person in question has had a lot of problems in the past year or so. Both personal and work related, and has pretty much made himself a pariah amongst his coworkers in the process. But I still feel sympathy for him! I still think he should be given his meter of dignity, just like any of us would want, and this affront to his deepest doubts is unforgivable!! I fear my response was weak and limp wristed. I should have said something more, I should have defended his right to privacy! But instead all I did was….nothing, not really. But this was two days ago, so what do I do now? I fear my response would be too late. It just amazes me how mean adults can be to one another! I’d expect this from children, but not grown ups!

So what do I do??

Am I being too severe, or do y’all recognize this as stealing? You go to a free site, to watch first run, still in the theater movies, filmed by some guy holding up a camcorder to the screen….That’s stealing, right? How do we rationalize things like this and make them ok? Free movies? Well who is it really hurting anyway? The Movie producers still make a ton of money, right?  The  keeping the wrong change at a store, well that’s the clerks fault for not paying attention! Bit torrent Plants Vs. Zombies?  If I have the smarts to figure it out, why not?

All these things, all these excuses people give themselves for why they deserve free stuff, they’re just lies! They lie to make themselves fel better about the fact they are taking from someone else. I’m not saying I’m holier than thou, in fact I am guilty of doing the same thing alot of times, I just actually came to the realization that it was wrong.

Chris apparently entered his home and was confronted by Young who had a knife.

Police found Chris bleeding and unresponsive lying on the floor. He had been stabbed a number of times including what was noted as defensive wounds on his hands and arms and police knew the situation was grim. When paramedics arrived they could not revive Chris Radok and he was pronounced dead at the scene.’

I knew Chris pretty well; he was always at shows with his camera, and since I had hung out at the Milestone “back in the day” and had worked at Tremont Music Hall, we knew each other pretty well. He’d always stop and talk, maybe not much -he was a man of few words- but he always stopped to talk….. Now he’s gone.

Why? Why do these terrible things happen to such good folk? He was a photographer, that’s what he loved, thats what he did for a living. he wasn’t a drug dealer, or a child molester, or a pimp, he was a guy who took pictures for a living! What the hell?!?! Why would anyone want to kill him?!?! What purpose does his or will his  demise serve? I haven’t a clue, and I’m trying very hard not to be angry, to go back to Adri Szewczyk‘s post about suffering, and the notion of the needlepoint work Padre Pio spoke of. There has to be an answer, there has to be some sort of good that will come out of this that we haven’t seen yet, right? Right? Well why can’t I see it? Why cant I get past this anger welling up inside me? I dont believe in the death penalty, so I don’t want this guy dead…….But I do want him to suffer. I want him to work on a road gang for the next 60 years, laying asphalt, pulling up tree stumps, real “Cool Hand Luke” type stuff…But that’s worng of me too, and I know it….But I’m still mad.

I have tried to find a good prayer for my friend, and for me and my friends he left behind who are so angry about this, but haven’t found anything really good. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Now, for any of you who have followed me on Face Book, you know how rough the last two years have been for my family. First my Father In Law died, then I was out on disability for 3 1/2 months of excruciating pain with my back, and then we almost lost my wife in October. Aside from medical, both my wife and I have been in extremely hostile work environments, resulting in one of us having to change jobs, and the other one almost losing their job, but being saved by a mass mutiny by everyone else at the office when the drama got too heavy….. It’s been rough, and it has sucked.

In her post , Ms. Szewczyk quoted Padre Pio from  excerpt from Padre Pio: The True Story by C. Bernard Ruffin. In her post she says “Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, or Padre Pio as many call him, used the example below to explain our inability to understand the reasoning behind our hardships.” and goes on to quote Padre Pio.

“There’s a woman who is embroidering. Her son, seated on a low stool, sees the work, but in reverse. He sees the knots of the embroidery, the tangled threads…He says, ‘Mother, what are you doing? I can’t make out what you are doing!’ Then the mother lowers the embroidery hoop and shows the good part of the work. Each color is in place and the various threads form a harmonious design. So, we see the reverse side of the embroidery because we are seated on the low stool.”

WOW. Is it just me, or is that so beautiful in it’s simplicity, that it’s almost insane? It doesn’t give me the answers as to why the Cajun Princess and I have had such hardships this year and last, but it gives me a notion that despite what I might think, despite what I may feel, that ultimately, God knows what he is doing, and try though we may, we will never understand his ways, or his motives. It is all we can do to trust in him, and tell him we love him.

 

Lord, help me to trust in you, and not ask so many questions…..

journal – (1:) an account of day-to-day events (2:) a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use

blog – a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer

I have kept a journal since an old artist-type girlfriend 26 years ago handed me my first cheap, black sketch book and told me to write whatever came into my mind. That summer -my first and only spent living in Chicago- I went through 3 of those sketch books, writing what I was doing, what I wanted to, drawing really bad sketches, ranting and raving about the government, just about anything I could think of. Over the years I have kept them through thick and thin, good times and bad times, and it’s really interesting to go back and peruse them every now and then, albeit painful and embarrassing to see how naive and foolish I once was.

But when I got into blogging, my journaling started to fall by the way side. It seemed to be just another chore, and so instead of filling up 3 books in one summer, I almost filled one journal in 5 years. Recently, I have been blogging -in various forms and under assorted names- for the better part of 6 years or so now, and I’ve got one stark realization; I miss my journal.

But I do love blogging too, so I’ve decided to be dilligent about both of them. I’m wondering though; How am I going to find time to do both?  I’m guessing that my style of journaling is going to have to change. Instead of being an extension of this blog or my other one , my journal will just be those things I just don’t feel comfortable enough about sharing with the public. I’ve been thinking for a while now that I need a spiritual advisor, that I have these things I need to talk about, but I feel like I’m being a whinny little baby if I waste someone else’s time with them, you know? So maybe my journal can help with that.

Does anyone else keep a journal? A book of personal intentions maybe? Does anyone have suggestions or thoughts they’d like to share?? Let me know. I’d be really interested in what you’ve got to say.

I could just kick myself…..I was listening to “The Message” earlier, Sirius XM Radio’s Pop/Rock Christian station, and the DJ said something really profound yet so simple, I couldn’t even fathom how I had not thought of it earlier. that was my initial reaction, and now it’s my reaction again, because I can’t recall exactly what she said (My memory has been really bad since my surgery, though my wife will tell you I was an airhead already)!!

So I’m in the car, and I’m going through my mind about how lousy I’ve been about getting to mass and praying otherwise for the past 5 or so months. True, I was down with a ruptured L5,  and the Cajun Princess has been REALLY sick, but still, I feel guilty about missing Mass and about being lax in my Rosary intentions, Liturgy of the Hours and whatnot. I try, I really, really do, but I have been through a proverbial dry spell for the past 1/2 of the year. But I digress, I was in the car kicking myself when the DJ said that if you haven’t had the life you thought you were going to have, if you hadn’t lived the life you had intended to live, that the dawn of a new year was upon us, and instead of making ridiculous proclamations about this resolution, and that resolution, you should start by taking time to talk to God. Doesnt have to be hours upon hours she said, just a little here and there.

I had never thought of it in that way before, and so I pulled the car over, pulled out my journal (I’ll get into that in a little while), and started writing down a plan, and this is what I’ve come up with so far… Confession: At least once a month, hopefully I can make it the same time of the month every time, but Im not gonna be that picky at first. Prayer: 5 Minutes when I wake up, 5 minutes at lunch and 5 minutes before I go to bed…. 15 minutes total, who can’t spare 15 minutes a day for God?!?! Books: I am going to finish all the spiritual books I have purchased over the past few years, one at a time. I have at least 6 to read (and that’s just what I can see from my desk). I figure I’ll incorporate this one into my nightly prayer schedule.Read a few pages, and pray about it. Not bad so far, huh? I’m also going to find a way to keep up my schedule with scouting, AND attend Knights of Columbus functions as well, all the while not incurring the wrath of my lovely wife. I figure if I can take just 3 things from certain aspects of my life, (work, family, health and spiritual) and not paint too grand of a scene, I may actually be able to achieve some stability and positive movement in 2011!!