The app's popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic, as anxieties ran high and finding peace and quiet proved harder to do.

Calm provides mindfulness meditations, breathing exercises and bedtime stories to encourage users to take some time to chill out.

My screen-time calculator attests that I could afford to do more of nothing.

At an average of five hours per day, by the end of this year I will have spent 76 days on my screen, and not much of that time has gotten me much closer to God.

When I was tasked with identifying the best Catholic prayer apps, I was grateful for the opportunity to turn my screen time into soul time.

I wondered at first, why not just try Calm's non-religious meditations?

A soft voice from a reflection called "Sitting in silence with God" on the Hallow app I had just downloaded answered that question: "The goal of prayer and of any session in Hallow is never to remain in ourselves but always to lift our hearts and minds up to God to talk with him, to listen to him, and to recognize his presence in us."

I was grateful for the opportunity to turn my screen time into soul time.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the top three Catholic prayer apps.

Pray as You Go

If you are prone to indecision like me, the free app Pray As You Go offers a refuge from information overload. It provides one practical prayer session per day and about one fifth of the content of Hallow and Laudate.

Each prayer session includes introductory music, the day's Gospel reading and a reflection. A ministry of the British Jesuits, the prayers are written by Jesuits and others trained in Ignatian spirituality. The 10 to 13 minute audio sessions encourage you to consider moments throughout the day where you found or could look for God's presence, and they fit easily into a daily walk or commute.

Pray as You Go also offers reflections on specific struggles like loneliness and addiction. You can find audio retreats for married couples, health care workers and people spending time in nature and other groups or situations. These series provide space to step out of day-to-day life and into a deeper prayer experience.

And if you are not sold already, the Pray as You Go reflections are read by men and women with soothing British accents. Continue reading

• Amelia Jarecke is an editorial intern at America.

Churchappsnz gives churches two options either to track or register its visitors.

The service has already been offered to its 600+ existing client base for free and is now being made available to all other Churches in New Zealand at no cost.

"The idea came in from one of the churches on the day it was announced that New Zealand would be going into level 2," said Joshua Woodham, co-founder of Snapp Mobile.

"A discussion was had amongst our team and right away we decided to drop everything and jump to it."

"A few days later we had a prototype and were able to advise our client base that we had a solution for them," Woodham said.

Churches can send out a registration form via the ChurchAppsNZ platform for its members to give an indication to the Church of who will be attending a particular church service.

Alternatively, church staff can check people into the church to create a register of visitors.

The check-in data is saved in a database available only to the church and can be sent to the ministry of health if required.

For visitors without a smart-phone, there is the option for staff to manually check-in/out visitors on a tablet, phone or PC.

Churches don't have to be an existing ChurchAppsNZ client to gain access to the service.

ChurchAppsNZ said they are glad to be able to give back to their community of churches and provide a valuable service at a time when the help is needed.

Watch demonstration

Source

• scoop.co.nz
• churchapps.co.nz
• Image: facebook.com

NZpray2day is available for Android devices.

NCRS Director, Colin MacLeod, says NZpray2day is designed to support young and old in Catholic schools and parishes to enter simply into the richness of the ancient Christian cycle of seasons, saints and readings.

"It's not an exhaustive source of all information in these areas," MacLeod says.

"Rather, it takes ‘snapshots' and encourages people to seek a moment to reflect, pray and respond."

"It also brings in pieces of history to link this liturgical journey with aspects of the story of New Zealand and the wider world."

"We hope it will be an inviting and useful tool for individual, class and staff prayer in schools, and for whanau and parishioners throughout Aotearoa and abroad."

MacLeod says the project has been a major labour of love and "was deceptively complicated to create."

He says NZpray2day could be available on Apple's iOS platform by mid-year.

"Our simple hope is that NZpray2day helps people become more easily aware of the gentle cycle of days and months which link us to creation, the life of Jesus and the shared journey of the Church.

"It is a journey we walk together."

Source

Supplied: David McLoughlin
Communications Adviser, NZ Catholic Bishops
Te Huinga o nga Pihopa Katorika o Aotearoa

Established seven years ago, Pushpay is now one of the world's fastest-growing SAS (software-as-a-service) companies.

It has gone on to develop a suite of social media-style engagement tools. These include donor tools, finance tools and a custom community app.

"It's not about raising money any more but actually enabling communities," says independent chairman Bruce Gordon.

He says when they added a recurring giving option, their customers' income jumped another 3 or 4 per cent.

This has a positive impact on local communities, where the churches are raising money for social programmes such as those to tackle homelessness.

At the company's last quarterly update, Pushpay's customer base included 55 of the US's 100 largest churches and had generated $3b of giving payments.

"So, that's flowing straight to communities. It's very powerful for senior management to stand up with the team and say hey, your hard work has meant US$3b - and that will go close to US$5b this year - flowed straight to communities," said Gordon.

"It's very powerful to be able say so-and-so in California has just opened a foodbank and service because the extra 10 per cent revenue generated by implementing Pushpay. It's super cool."

The company is New Zealand-owned but does most of its business in the United States.

Gordon was speaking at the Icehouse fifth anniversary celebration dinner in Napier on 7 December.

Icehouse is a Hawke's Bay-based national start-up incubator and funder.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• pressreader.com
• Image:.nzherald.co.nz

It's co-founder, Eliot Crowther, is about to depart the business with a stake worth just over $99 million.

Crowther says he is leaving the business for personal reasons to focus on his family.

In 2011 he started the company with Chris Heaslip as an outside-work-hours job.

The two New Zealanders who both come from Christian backgrounds a saw there was a gap in the market for a mobile app for charity payments.

Prior to co-founding Pushpay, Crowther was a leading sales executive at HRV, the home ventilation business.

He is a former New Zealand representative in cycling, holds a DipAppSc from AUT University.

He lives with his family in the USA.

Early on, Pushpay's focus shifted to the lucrative mobile church donations market, starting in New Zealand and then expanding into Australia, the US and Canada.

These days growth is coming from medium and large churches in North America.

Pushpay Holdings recently achieved the $100 million mark in annualized revenue, and the company itself is valued at $1.2 billion.

Heaslip, who is the chief executive sees an opportunity to generate US$1 billion of annual revenue in the future.

He said the company expects the number of deals it's closing and deal size to accelerate over the coming year.

Last week Pushpay Holdings went into a trading halt to prepare a bookbuild to let Crowther exist.

24.8 million shares were to be sold in a fully underwritten bookbuild ahead of his resignation, first as a director on June 21 then as an employee on July 31, Pushpay said in a statement.

The bookbuild was oversubscribed, with bids subject to scaling, and got offers from 19 institutional investors across New Zealand, Australia and the US, Pushpay said.

Source

• paymentweek.com
• newsroom.co.nz
• pushpay.com
• scoop.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: capterra.com Screenshot

Meesh's art style means the pencil never leaves the page and actually dovetails in with the overall message of the Bible. "One line, one thread, from the beginning of the Bible until the end, it's all one story.

Each illustration is made with one continuous line, which then joins with the next illustration, and the next, representing the one story than runs through the Bible from beginning to end," she explained.

For the Wellington illustrator and mum, the project is a dream come true. "God gave me the heart to draw and I have been drawing non-stop since I was a child."

Meesh's passion for illustrating goes back to her childhood love for the Bible. "The Bible is a precious gift that gives us insight into the great story of God's love revealed throughout time.

Reading Bible stories shows us how other people, just like us, live out their lives in faith, sometimes in failure, and the wondrous things that happen when we follow God.

"Drawing Bible stories brought me back to when, as a child, I used to wonder at the beautiful illustrations in Bible story books. Remembering those days helped me think of how I wanted to illustrate each story," she said.

The Big Little Bible App and now hardcover book has been designed to help parents engage their children with the Bible.

Aimed at 8-10 year olds, The Big Little Bible includes 30 Bible stories taken straight from the Contemporary English Version translation and seeks to bridge the gap from paraphrased Bible stories to independent real text Bible reading.

It features 100 of Meesh's illustrations using a unique 'one line' art technique called contour drawing. To date, there have been more than 800 downloads of the free app in New Zealand.

Following the app's success, Bible Society published The Big Little Bible in a hardback format and will give away 2,000 copies to families that may not be able to afford one. The book is also available for purchase.

The Big Little Bible book is $19.99 and can be ordered directly from Bible Society via email orders@biblesociety.org.nz or by phoning 0800 0800 424 253. The mobile app is free to download on the Apple and Google Play stores.

Source

Supplied

Stuff.co.nz says Chris Heaslip and Eliot Crowther got the idea while they were sitting in church one Sunday. When the plate came round they found they did not have any cash, but they did have their phones.

Another story is that initial idea started while Crowther was queuing at a coffee shop and wondering why on earth anybody was still having to do that.

But eventuallly they chose to nurture fresh pastures - principally charity donations and things such as utility bill payments on the go.

Pushpay is marketed as "the fastest, free, and convenient way to buy stuff, pay your bills, support your favourite charities or give to your church."

It allows you to," make secure 10 second payments from your iOS or Android smart device."

The business grew 10-fold in less than 10 months last year, going from average monthly revenue of $1m to $10m.

That intense growth meant the NZX-listed company led this year's Deloitte Fast 50 with 4574 per cent growth, almost four times more than the second fastest growing company on the list.

They are now based in the Untied States. They have more than 5200 merchants, including five of the top 10, and 30 of the top 100 largest churches in the US, and processed more than US$1b in payments a year.

Pushpay will keep focusing on the US church market and is on track to reach $100m in average monthly revenue by the end of 2017.

More than US$119 billion (NZ$162b) was given each year to religious organisations in the US and there were more than 340,000 churches.

Pushpay now has more than 5200 merchants, including five of the top 10, and 30 of the top 100 largest churches in the US, and processed more than US$1b in payments a year.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• idealog.co.nz
• pushpay.com
• Image: facebook.com

We like to call schools and parishes "Ignatius" or "Loyola" — or, if we're feeling wild, "Xavier."

We love to repeat phrases such as "men (and women) for others" or "finding God in all things." And if you have ever attended a Jesuit school, parish, or retreat house, chances are that you have heard us talk about the Examen. A lot.

St. Ignatius enshrined the Examen, a way of prayerfully reflecting on one's day, in the Spiritual Exercises.

Jesuits are still sharing it with anyone who will listen. But the story is not so simple or linear. Contexts change, as have our ways of praying it.

Last year, Loyola Press published Reimagining the Ignatian Examen by Mark Thibodeaux, SJ.

More recently, Loyola has translated Thibodeaux's insights into a mobile application that enables users to pray with 34 (!) different versions of the Examen.

One who does not have a clear idea of what to pray about can choose an examen at random; one who feels moved to pray with a particular theme can select an examen based on that topic.

Balancing "How I Treated Others Today" with "I'm Drained!", "Who Wore God's Face Today?", and 31 other examens makes no particular topic or theme feel like overkill.

The Examen is short and broken down into digestible steps, but limiting it to the same five steps each day greatly narrows the content to which one is exposed.

The variety of Reimagining the Examen enables the one praying to be exposed to diverse prompts for prayer over time. Even those who have been praying with the Examen for years can gain new perspectives on this familiar prayer.

Thibodeaux painstakingly uses language that is warm and inviting but also presents the one praying with questions that call for action. The one praying is asked to acknowledge and accept one's wounds in the presence of God, but also invited to allow such wounds to be transformed for service.

One examen, for example, invites the one praying to acknowledge difficult personal realities — "my ‘hand' of good personal qualities and not-so-good personal qualities that showed up today."

It also goes beyond such acknowledgment to ask, "How might I use my aces for the good of all, and how might I minimise the impact of my deuces?"

Not only is the content of Thibodeaux's examens significant, but the medium also matters.

St. Ignatius could never have imagined the number of ways we distract ourselves with a single device that fits in our pockets.

Just as technological changes have influenced other areas of our lives, they affect how we pray.

For those of us who spend most of our waking hours in front of a screen of some sort, it can often be difficult to unplug during prayer. I have often had the experience of wanting to "check something" online during prayer, only for that to lead to many other "somethings."

What makes the app based on Thibodeaux's work so helpful is that when I am praying with it on my phone, I am not using my phone for anything else, particularly because the app takes up the entire screen and hides notifications.

Thibodeaux takes what could be — and often is — a great distraction during prayer, and uses it to make some of us more likely to pray.

Using an app to pray is not for everyone.

For many of us, however, it's just what we need, and Mark Thibodeaux's app-based diversity of examens can be a fruitful way to see how God has been active during my (screen-filled) day.

Check out the app on IOS/Apple or Android/Google Play

• Prayer: There's an App for that originally appeared on The Jesuit Post.
• Used with permission.

The "DoCat" comes from the creators of 2011's "You Cat" youth catechism.

The former will attempt to present the Church's social teaching in a creative style more attractive and comprehensible to youth.

The new book will be launched during World Youth Day in Krakow.

It will be given to young pilgrims in the form of an app.

Continue reading

Teacher Danique Richards said she was contacted by the app's developer, Snapp Mobile, at the end of last year to see if the school might be interested.

She was hooked almost instantly and took the idea to the board of trustees, which approved it. Continue reading

Pushpay provides mobile tools that help make payments easy between consumers and merchants and is geared to mobile charitable giving.

Some 93 percent of Pushpay's merchant clients are located in North America, with 7 percent across Australasia.

For the six months ended 30 September 2015, Pushpay exceeded its targets by 11 percent having increased merchant numbers by 111 percent, CEO, Chris Heaslip said.

It ended the half year with 2,102 merchants out of a faith sector including 314,000 churches with an average size of over 500 attendees.

During the period, Pushpay launched additions to its payments technology including eChurch Apps, Pushpay Fastpay and Virtual Terminal/Envelope Giving.

Pushpay Holdings increased its first-half loss while revenue more than tripled.

The company boosted spending on product development and sales in a bid to attract US churches to its system.

The Auckland-domiciled, Redmond, US-headquartered company posted a net loss of $6.1 million, or 12 cents per share, in the 6 months ended Sept. 30, from $2.6 million, or 7cps, a year earlier, it said in a statement.

Revenue jumped 290 percent to $6.3 million, while expenses rose 176 percent to $12.4 million.

Pushpay has a staff of 143, most of whom are in sales roles.

Source

• zdnet.com
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: image.slidesharecdn.com

In 2015, AdventWord will be released in English, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, French, Portuguese and German.

Brother Jim Woodram, a monk, explains, "When I was a kid I loved Advent because of Advent Calendars. Each day you pull back one of the little windows and there would be a picture to help you to pray and lead you towards Christmas, when Christ is born.

"Now you can sign up on AdventWord.org for your own Advent Calendar online. Continue reading

The "digital collection plate" stems from a partnership between the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Evergive.

It is also available on Android.

The app also simplifies creating new donation categories for special causes, be they for Nepal earthquake relief or for a local youth group.

The app will also serve as something of a digital community for members of the Catholic Church in San Francisco.

Through the app, users will receive updates, can join groups, share messages and prayers, and more.

Continue reading

Available in five languages, version 2.0 of the app features a new design that simplifies access to content.

It can be downloaded onto Apple and Android devices.

"The app allows you to follow live streaming of papal events, receive notifications of important events, view papal photos, videos, @Pontifex tweets, full texts of homilies and speeches, a calendar of events and links to all the Vatican media," the Pontifical Council for Social Communications said in its description of the app in the Google Play store.

It is also available in the Apple iTunes store.

The app also allows users to visit the Vatican live through the webcams located in St Peter's Square and other areas nearby.

On July 7, Pope Francis was given a personal demonstration of the app's capabilities.

Continue reading

Or a faithful guide and friendly reminder to practice virtue, do good works and read Scripture?

Whatever you're searching for to help you draw closer to Jesus Christ these 40 days of Lent, there's an app to help you.

"It's a beautiful thing to have access to, and it expands our growth and understanding of the faith or an aspect of our spirituality that we need to develop," said Daughter of St Paul Sister Anne Flanagan, a social-media authority who is known as the "Nunblogger."

"An advantage of these technological tools that we have is that it reminds us that we're not [going through Lent] on our own as individuals," she added. Continue reading.

Source: National Catholic Register

Image: mashable.com

Called "Pope Francis Comics," the app offers a kid-friendly mini-bio of the Argentine pontiff and 13 catchy phrases based on tweets or speeches by the pope. Kids can test how well they remember the messages with a fill-in-the-blank and coloring game.

There is also a full-color, eight-page comic book meant for older adolescents. Continue reading

The Catholic Social Teaching App is a product of The Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington DC think tank.

The App provides a selection of papal encyclicals ranging from Pope Francis' 2013 "Lumen Fidei" back to Pope Leo XII's 1891 "Rerum Novarum."

It includes documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on bioethics and Catholic political participation. It also has commentaries from Catholic and non-Catholic writers about the Church's social teaching.

Search and cross-reference functions help users find content about topics of interest to them.

The App is designed for the iPhone and iPad. The App is free.

The Ethics and Public Policy Centre was founded in 1976. It's mission is to apply the Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy.

Source

• CNA

But now, thanks to the new Rosary Plus iOS app from St. Clement ePress, I might just have a real contender for that ever-elusive perfect rosary app. (Well, on second thought, it might be a tie with iRosary.)

What I love about Rosary Plus: It's easy to use.

Though I think it should be required, I find that many rosary apps are not intuitively easy to use, even for me, a wannabe techie and an admitted rosary geek. Rosary Plus IS easy to use: you tap the beads to pray. Period. It's that easy. And when you need help, it's easy to find. Continue reading

Image: St Clement Press

Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university note that "at least one cardinal, celebrating in his cathedral, has publicly used a tablet in lieu of a missal, but this does not constitute official ratification."

McNamara expresses an opinion about the liturgical use of iPads and other electronic devices. He cautions that "what I say has no official standing whatsoever. I limit myself to what I consider to be the liturgical principles involved."

He concludes that, "Someone could develop a tablet for exclusively liturgical use with an appropriate design and no other programs installed. That might change the terms of the debate."

"Until such a time arrives, I think it best to avoid using such instruments so as to maintain that sacred distinction of the liturgy from the humdrum of ordinary activities," he says.

Read the Edward McNamara opinion on Zenit

Father Edward McNamara, a Legionary of Christ, is professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

Image: Eternity Bible College