From The Ambo

The day's readings, the saints, the whole Bible to read and search, the common prayers and the Rosary — and a liturgical year worked out rather than looked up. Offline.

From the Ambo opens on today and tells you today's reading and you place in the Church's year. The includes the week, the color, the holy days of obligation, and the saint celebration of the day.

It also includes the whole Bible, the most common Catholic prayers along with how to pray the Rosary. There's nothing to log in to, no subscription, no intrusive advertising, no private information sent anywhere.

ABOUT THE READINGS

The readings here are the correct verses for the day, in a slightly different English translation from the one read at Mass in the United States. Mass in the USA uses the New American Bible, which is copyrighted by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and this app does not yet have a license for it. It is something we are working on.

By default the app shows the World English Bible, Catholic Edition, which is in the public domain. The references follow the Lectionary exactly — the same passages, on the same days. Only the English differs: individual words will not exactly match what the lector reads, and a psalm you know by heart may be worded differently.

This app is not approved or endorsed by the USCCB, and it does not reproduce the official Lectionary text — only the Lectionary's schedule of which passages are read on which day, and those references are facts rather than anyone's writing.

If you would rather read a translation that carries ecclesiastical approval, you can change the Bible in to the American Douay-Rheims of 1899. That edition — Challoner's revision, published by John Murphy of Baltimore — bears the imprimatur of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. It is older English: "thou", "saith", "shew".

THE BIBLE

All seventy-three books in both translations, complete — not only the passages the Lectionary uses. Browse by section and chapter, or type where you want to go: "Matthew", "Matthew 1", "Matthew 1:1", "Matthew 1:11-20". The Lectionary's abbreviations work too, so "Jn 3:16" and "Ps 23" land where you expect. Or search by words, with no waiting and no network.

PRAYERS AND THE ROSARY

The Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Apostles' Creed, the Acts of Faith, Hope, Love and Contrition, the Hail Holy Queen and the Memorare.

The Rosary names the mysteries kept on the day you open it and walks the sequence bead by bead, each step beside the prayer it calls for.

THE CALENDAR

The liturgical year is calculated, not tabulated. Easter is computed and every movable feast follows from it, on the General Roman Calendar with the proper calendar for the dioceses of the USA.

Holy days of obligation are worked out for the year in front of you rather than read off a list. Three of the six lose their obligation when they fall on a Saturday or a Monday, so Mass is not of obligation two days running. The app tells you which is which, and why.

THE SAINTS

Every celebration carries a short account written for this app in plain modern English. Where the history is thin, it says so.

A DAILY REMINDER

One notification a day, at a time you choose, naming what is kept and where the Gospel is. Off until you turn it on.

A WIDGET

Home-screen and lock-screen widgets in every size: the day, its color, any obligation, and the Gospel. Worked out on the device, never stale.

ALSO

• A month calendar, each day dotted in the color of its vestments • On iPad, the month sits beside the day • Type size as a setting • The Easter Vigil in full

WITH THANKS

The calendar of saints comes from the romcal project under the MIT license, the reading citations from the Lectionary charts of Rev. Felix Just, S.J., and both Bibles from eBible.org. All credited by name inside the app.