Much as been said about Stephen Hawking’s new book “The Great Design” and that he basically says the universe does not need God to exist.  In his new book he writes a detailed explanation of his new equation proving that indeed matter can come  from nothing. Forget ex nihilo nihil fit since his equation indeed shows that out of nothing matter can spontaneously arise.  Hard to argue with the mathematical proofs he provided and of course as a brilliant physicist he would use the scientific method to prove his case.  Someone devoted to science as he is wouldn’t venture into philosophy to make his case.

Oh wait – that is what he did.  And as many atheistic philosophers before him he is a much better physicist than philosopher and makes rather simple philosophical errors.  Intelligent Design is often critiqued as a non-science since it is not using the scientific method and arises with a  volitional explanation.  Though when Stephen Hawking’s does the same thing and enters the realm of philosophy and not repeatable experimentation I somehow doubt we will hear the same complaint.  Only  a very educated man could say something like “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist” and think that the statements means anything. Though I do believe in a spontaneous creation of BS. Fr. Barron replied to this statement.

Well, first of all, which is it: nothing or the law of gravity? There’s quite a substantial difference between the two. If Hawking is saying that the universe, which is marked in every nook and cranny by stunning and mathematically describable intellegibility, simply came forth from Nothing, then I just throw up my hands. The classical philosophical tradition gives us an adage that is still hard to improve upon: ex nihilo nihil fit (from nothing comes nothing). Any teacher worth his salt would take a student to task if, in trying to explain why and how a given phenomenon occurred, the student were to say, “well, it just spontaneously happened.” Yet we are expected to be satisfied with precisely that explanation when it comes to the most pressing and fascinating question of all: why is there something rather than nothing? In my dialogues with atheists, I often come up against this total non-explanation, and I can only smile ruefully. Apparently, the affirmation of God involves far too great a leap of faith, yet the assertion that the universe just popped into being is rationally compelling!

It was scientist and Catholic Louis Pasteur who debunked the widely accepted myth of spontaneous generation and it is rather sad to see someone of Stephen Hawking’s status to advance a spontaneous generation of the universe out of nothing.

I also wonder if the title of his book was intentionally ironic. A book that in part denies God’s existence is called “The Grand Design”? I guess that would be spontaneously designer-less design. Really from the materialistic worldview shouldn’t it be named “The Random Happenstance”, “Inferring meaning on the universe for no reason”, or “Nothing Matters: How nothing spontaneously produced matter.” I really have to question his seeming first cause of the law of gravity existing and thus the universe can exist. Hmm, was there a originally just a chalkboard with the law of gravity written on it that exploded into the big bang? Someone smarter than me – and that doesn’t take much – can hopefully explain to me how gravity could exist without matter? We infer a scientific law based on observations, I didn’t realize that the law itself could create the matter we observe.

I do think the Stephen Hawking could do with the same reply that God gave Job and his friends in Job 38.

[1] Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
[2] “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
[3] Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
[4] “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
[5] Who determined its measurements — surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
[6] On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
[7] when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Related Reading:

• Stephen Hawking should first consult a young child, then a dictionary, then…
• Stephen Hawking & More Tiresome Atheism

Despite opposition from Vatican, group officially welcomes new female priest

A woman was ordained as a Catholic priest in the Valley on Saturday in the kind of ceremony the Vatican recently condemned as one of the church’s most serious crimes.

Elaine Groppenbacher received holy orders from Bishop Peter Hickman of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, one of several liberal Catholic offshoots in the Valley. The ceremony took place at Guardian Angels Catholic Community, which meets in Tempe. [Source]

And for the funniest line of the year.

A cradle Catholic, Groppenbacher said she began to drift from the Roman Catholic Church in college. She tried a non-denominational Bible church for a while, but realized, “Tradition is in my blood.”

Hmm, must have had a transfusion.

Funny how if a man such as Pope Michael I in Kansas declares that he is Pope he gets very little media attention because they know that he is not the Pope and has no valid claim to declare himself as such. Yet if some women gets someone from another church to say that she is a priest – well that is all fine and dandy and “official” don’t you know. It’s all about equality and discrimination and who cares about the theology of the priesthood anyway.

Really though I must admire these women for going against the hierarchy and staking their claim. In fact their example has encouraged me to do something that I have been hesitant about. Besides being faithful to the Church is not what it is cracked up to be following that narrow path and all. Thinking about the issue of equality I realize that it is not fair that I am not a Catholic priest. I am just as capable of saying Mass, hearing confessions, etc as any man who is a priest.

Just because I don’t have a vocation to the priesthood should not mean that I can’t be a priest. Being married is only a side issue. The fact is that the Church is persecuting me by saying that the priesthood is a vocation and that it is a vocation I don’t have. How is that fair? I have often thought about celebrating the Mass and saying the consecration, yet just because I don’t have a vocation to the priesthood I am barred from doing so. Thinking about what it is like to be a priest has been with me since I came into the Church. It is simple justice that I not be barred from the priesthood and thus it is a right and simple justice that the Church of male dominated hierarchy of men with vocations to priesthood should recognize my prophetic claim. Sadly though I see no movement in the Church recognizing my right to be a priest regardless of my actual vocation.

So I have decided to stand in faith and do something about this. I denounce the oppression of men without vocations. As of today I am officially starting the Men Without Priestly Vocations Ordination Conference. I hope to enroll like-minded men without priestly vocations to start this prophetic movement within the Church. We will seek to be ordained by people outside of the Catholic Church with no authority or even ability to ordain us to go ahead and ordain us making us Catholic Priests. In fact I am thinking about having a call to be a bishop within the Church and maybe even a Cardinal.

So if you have felt cheated for not having a priestly vocation and would still like to be a priest than the MWPVOC is for you.

Did you drop out of seminary because you did not a a vocation to the priesthood? If so the MWPVOC is for you.

Growing up did anybody ever tell you that you don’t have a vocation to the priesthood. The MWPVOC is for you too!

Ever think that the only think that separates you from your parish priest is that he has a priestly vocation and you don’t. Join the MWPVOC now.

Annoyed that women without vocations to the priesthood are getting all the attention? Then join us in the MWPVOC.

Just because Jesus picked the Apostles and the Holy Spirit gives vocations now should not stop you from appointing yourself as priest, especially if you feel you want to be a priest.

Plus if you join Men Without Priestly Vocations Ordination Conference we will send you a free media kit so that you can get attention for defiantly opposing the Roman Catholic Church and proudly proclaiming your prophetic status.  Don’t worry you won’t have to know the theology of the priesthood when talking with reporters, just knowing the right buzz words  and about how you are a devout Catholic and perhaps a sad story about wanting to be a priest yet being barred discriminated against because of a lack of vocations.  The official Church does not admit men without sarcerdotal vocations even though in the early Church no doubt there were men without priestly vocations elevated to the priesthood. Rome has closed its ears to objections to the requirement of priestly vocations, but if we stand strong we will be heard as progress is finally made within the Church.

To kick off Men Without Priestly Vocations Ordination Conference we will be doing some advertisement during the upcoming papal visit.

* Fr. Powell, one of those men with a vocation to the priesthood, writes today  On the impossibility of women’s ordination

It often seems that Catholic Charities is infected by the same problems that CCHD has.  The national leadership and individual chapters are often run and staffed by people with a very narrow view of Catholic Social Teaching and not that infrequent with those who defy Catholic teaching.  For example before Catholic Charities in Boston stopped doing adoptions because of the state law forcing homosexual adoptions, they had already been doing them somewhat covertly. The same pretty much occurred with Catholic Charities in San Francisco. Or you have the case of Catholic Charities of Richmond (CCR) for their involvement in procuring an illegal abortion for a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl in their care.  It is hard to remember a statement from Catholic Charities that has made me cheer because of a strong defense of Catholic teaching.   This does not deny the good work that Catholic Charities does do, but that does not erase the evil that sometimes occurs.

The latest bonehead decision of the national organization is to give the Centennial Medal to the Catholic Health Association.  Yes the same group who defied the bishops and decided pushed for ObamaCare.  Because I guess leading the way for public funding of abortion is oh so compassionate.

A passionate voice for compassionate care, the Catholic Health Association stands with the poor and disenfranchised and advocates for services and solutions that reflect dignity and respect for all people. CHA is the largest group of non-profit health care providers in the nation.

Yes an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised unless their current domicile is the womb.

Plus at their awards dinner they are having pretty much nothing but President Obama supporters who donated money to his campaign.  It would be pretty hard to justify having super-biased Obama supporter  and MSNBC reporter Norah O’Donnel be a main speaker, but alas they do.

“I think this is a very significant story and scandal. And I think one that could eventually bring down the Pope, I do. And I think that it’s going to rock the Catholic church. I think this is something that’s been simmering for a while. These allegations directly connect the scandal to the Pope. ” – Norah Donnell.

“I sent Maureen Dowd a note, because there need to be more woman in the church. And nuns have been cleaning up for priests for decades, if not centuries, and there needs to be more women in the Catholic church.” Norah O’Donnell.

Of course anybody who has actually been to a Mass or to the local diocesan offices will wonder where are all the men? But of course that is not what she is talking about, just a veiled call to woman’s ordination which Maureen Dowd was also whining about this year. Yeah, such a fine choice for a speaker.

I have given to Catholic Charities in the past. No more, I we go with a more accountable charity such as Food for the Poor.

Protests are planned throughout his four-day trip to England and Scotland, the first papal visit since John Paul II’s pastoral visit in 1982 and the first-ever official papal visit to Britain.

One group of women, Catholic Women’s Ordination (CWO), will have its message plastered on the side of the buses as they travel along key routes, including past Westminster Hall, at the Palace of Westminster, where the pope is set to deliver a speech to Britain’s civic society on September 17.

The group has paid 15,000 pounds ($23,130) for 15 buses to carry the message “Pope Benedict – Ordain Women Now!” for a month.

“We do not want to be disruptive, but I think the church has got to change or it will not survive,” CWO spokeswoman Pat Brown told Reuters.

“I am quite hopeful at the moment because I think the church is in disarray.” [Source]

Quick the Church is in disarray, let us take advantage of the situation to change dogma. Well I am sure the Arians felt the same way.

Actually I am quite concerned about this. We must protect the Pope from seeing such a bus sigs. Any exposure could lead him to deny the constant teaching of the Church and something infallibly defined by the ordinary magisterium. I mean the constant pressure of the very small amount of attempted women’s ordinations. Plus there are those protests by angry women on street corners with signs. I got to admit they really pulled out all the stops now springing for a bus advertising campaign. I mean how could you get more persuasive than a five-word slogan? Plus the rhetorical flourish of using the word “now” followed by an exclamation sign.  Besides just because something is the will of Christ does not mean we should keep following it.  If Jesus only knew about equality there would have been six women Apostles and his mother would have been one of them.

Update: Here is a funny parody on this subject from the always funny Alive and Young blog:

I am perplexed why 24% of the population would think an obvious atheist is a Muslim.  – Catholic Minority Report on Twitter

Well the actual Pew research pew said it was up to 18% of people who believed that the President was a Muslim.  What I thought was more interesting and much more of a story is that 46% answered down’t know to the question “What is Obama’s Religion?”, which was up from %36 percent.  There is that old question of “What if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” and it looks like almost half of America says no to this question.  Seems doubtful that Americans would answer “don’t know” if this had been asked about President Bush.  The President certainly does not wear his religion on a sleeve or any other article of clothing for that matter.  Even among Democrats only 46% identify him as a Christian.

The answer that people thought he was a Muslim is of course what made the headlines because of course trying to broadcast the stupidity of people is what makes headlines, especially if you are trying to make a specific segment look dumb.  But of course there were all those people who believed 9/11 was an inside job — so finding people who believe things such as this is no difficulty.

Now if I had to answer this poll question it would be rather difficult to answer.  I certainly don’t think he is a Muslim.  I think where the confusion comes into play is that he is very sympathetic to Muslims and his apparent buddying up with Muslims over Christians lends to that.  His announcements at the start of Ramadan are much more of a event than a simple message he releases for the start of Lent.  His first television appearance after becoming President was on Arab TV and his next two speeches were to Muslim leaders.  It is quite obvious his friendliness to dominate Muslim countries with nary a word of rebuke for any human rights violations.  To think of the President as a believing Muslim is to equate religious belief with appeasement.  If Obama prays five times a day, it is to a mirror.

As to his being a Christian we should first look to  the fact that he says he became a Christian after being raised in a non-religious background.  So he could very well believe in Christ, but acting like the majority of progressive Christians in that they become radically inconsistent and have a version of social justice involving government that is in no way the fullness of Social Justice.  Jesus says let the little ones come to me and Obama votes to send them to Jesus on a much earlier schedule then intended.  Being so radically pro-abortion if he is indeed a Christian then he is a very wicked one.  Hypocritical Christians are nothing new.  He wrote very little about his conversion to Christ in his books and it was in light of seeing people from churches doing good and he would not be the first to convert for this very reason.

Now I move into the area of pure conjecture.  I certainly can not read the President’s mind and to know with any certainty his actual belief in Jesus.  As an armchair observer if I was going to guess the President’s religion by his actions I would say he was either an atheist or an agnostic.  I would choose agnostic as more likely since it is a form of voting present, something that State Senator Obama had much practice at.  He would not be the first politician who joined a church for reasons other than worship.

Ultimately it is really hard to separate some forms of progressive Christianity from atheism/agnosticism.  They can both align on many of the same causes without feeling out of joint and when it comes to abortion the arguments for it are usually identical.  The same can be said for many other issues such as euthanasia, same-sex marriage, etc.

Regardless I offer a simple prayer for the President. If he is not a Christian I pray he converts.  If he is I pray he becomes a better one.

Which brings me to the next story that is getting so much attention and besides the world needs another pundit spilling pixels on the issue of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.

First off those that put this issue as a religious rights one are quite misguided.  If no Mosques were allowed to be built in New York City or in any other city for that matter it would be another story.  The question is not whether Muslims can build places of worship, they certainly have that right and living in a country which follows the God-given right of religious freedom they have been and are able to do so.

The real issue is a prudential one as to the location of this Mosque to be built.  This is an area where people are certainly entitled to weigh in on this precisely because it is a prudential issue and not one involving rights.  As is often the case too much of a debate gets involved in side issues and do not focus the attention where it should be.

We have heard that the builders of this Mosque/Islamic Center is for purposes intended towards reconciliation.  This is certainly a laudable goal and just for the sake of argument let us say that this is indeed the actual motive.  If I had a project whose aim was for reconciliation on a sensitive subject and as I proceeded I found that I was causing much more heat than light, I hope that I would see that my efforts for such a reconciliation were causing more harm than good.  So if the prudential question is if they are causing more harm than good than I would say this building should be built elsewhere on this point alone.  After all they could build an Islamic Center elsewhere in the city with the same goal and if their motive was actually reconciliation could show that there are indeed Muslims who find the attack on 9/11 repellent and not morally acceptable in any way’I find the side issue of the proposed building site not really being part of ground zero a rather odd one.  Even if you consider a building actually damaged during the attack on 9/11 not part of ground zero it is still adjacent to the site and many of those who lost loved ones during the attack don’t see this a very effective argument.

Add in to this equation that the person behind this has said things in the past that were not intended towards reconciliation, you have to wonder about the motive behind this in the first place.  Islamic Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf said “I Do Not Believe in Religious Dialogue.” and that the United States deserved the attack on 9/11.  It is hard to see how this whole issue is not a deliberate provocation with not interest in reconciliation or religious dialogue.  So if a Mosque/Center was to be build by ground zero than one of the last people who should do this would be him.

But like too many things a reasoned discussion on this is not possible because it gets mired in a topic not to the point such as religious freedom.   The President framed his support based on this idea and ignored any prudential arguments on this.   Interesting that the left often accuses the right of seeing things in black and white when really there are just so many shades of gray, yet they often do precisely this.  I am so glad he is concerned about religious freedom and the next time a Catholic adoption agency is forced to close down because of state laws mandating homosexual adoptions he will be denouncing this action.  No doubt he is already planning to write a speech denouncing the lack of religious freedom in the Muslim world and will be advocating that Saudi Arabia allow at least one Christian church to be built there.

(Roto Reuters) SAN FRANCISCO –  More fallout continues from Judge Vaughn Walker overturning of California’s Proposition 8 on grounds that it was unconstitutional.  While the legal case will continue on in the courts a surprising side effect of this ruling is starting to cause consternation among homosexuals. Increasing reports are coming in concerning a very surprising turn of events which is currently being investigated.

Judge Walker’s ruling has apparently rendered homosexual couples wanting to get married capable of marriage.  The biological mechanics of how this has happened is being looked into by researchers at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.  Apparently within days of this ruling multiple homosexual partners started complaining of pains suspiciously similar to morning sickness.  It was apparently considered a hoax by hospital staff when CT scans revealed female reproductive organs in one of the male partners from a homosexual couple.  With multiple occurrences of this being reported by hospitals throughout California it is now shown not to be a hoax, but that some males in a gay relationship had indeed developed reproductive organs that had started growing on the day of Judge Walker’s ruling.  It has also been confirmed that these men were indeed suffering from morning sickness and were actually pregnant.

The large number of these cases and the shock from these men threw out suspicion that they were simply women with sex change operations due to gender identity.  Medical researches are still trying to determine why it is that only one person from such a relationship would develop what is now being called Sudden Complementary Reproduction Capability Syndrome.  SCRCS also effects Lesbian couples who swear they have not used artificial insemination and yet one women in the relationship pregnant.

Some gay couples are outraged by Judge Walkers decision that rendered them capable both the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage by giving them complementary reproductive equipment against their will.  Many are upset about the idea that homosexual marriage will actually mean raising children other than by adopting the offspring of heterosexuals.  Joe Smether of South Bay said “I am glad that gay activists have often united with pro-choice activists in the past so that we can get abortions to keep our marriages sterile.”  Others are seeking contraceptives  to render sterile once again what once was a sterile act between a homosexual couple.

Legal scholars are looking at the physical repercussions of this.  While in the past and present many rulings have gone against common sense and natural biology, this is the first ruling that caused a physical change to follow the law.  Observer are carefully following other rulings to see if there are any other similar effects and whether judges have evolved beyond law interpretation/activism to the more god-like powers many thought they already had.  Politicians in the nations capitol are also following this result closely and hoping the latest CAFE standards actually causing scientists to make breakthroughs in physics.

Having read two of Robert Hugh Benson’s novels I have been looking to read Come Rack! Come Rope! which has been highly recommended. When I was looking over the new Catholic Digital Downloads section at Aquinas & More Catholic Goods I noticed they had this novel available and so bought and downloaded it.

This historical novel takes place during the reign of Elizabeth I of England with a mixture of fictional and historic figures such as St. Edmund Campion. This is the time of the Recusants where not attending an Anglican church resulted in a heavy tax. Attending both a Catholic Mass and the Anglican service had been disallowed by the Pope. This was a time of increased persecution and the martyrdom of many priests and lay people. A time where the famous priest-holes were built where priests could hide in what were sometimes quite elaborate hidden rooms.

The novel starts by telling the story of a father who decides to stop paying the Catholic tax and to attend the Anglican parish while his son can not do so in obeying his conscience. This conflict between father and son is written so well you have to wonder how much of it was in a sense autobiographical. Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and he left the Anglican priesthood to be ordained a Catholic priest and was later named a monsignor. It is easy to imagine that he drew upon this real life tension and experience when writing of the relationship between the father and son in the novel.

The whole novel is in fact is extremely well written with totally believable characters. I was totally wrapped up and involved in the story and the history of this time period. The inevitable conclusion also had me emotionally involved in a way similar to classics such as Shusaku Endo’s Silence or Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, but with a more faithful priest. Just reading about this sad era almost makes laughable the complaints Catholics have against the anti-Catholic media. We are only in danger of being slandered or slimed, but not getting stretched on the rack or being hanged, drawn and quartered. I loved Evelyn Waugh’s novel Edmund Campion and Come Rack! Come Rope! reminds me of it, but it also has a more expansive look at this era. Highly recommended.

Father Luke Strand of Holy Family Catholic Church in Fond du Lac, Wis. wasn’t looking for attention from corporate America; he simply wanted to promote vocations to the priesthood. Instead, he’s facing a cease-and-desist letter from Minnesota-based electronics retailer Best Buy over his Volkswagen Beetle.

The black VW sports a “God Squad” decal on the door that’s similar in appearance to the logo used by Best Buy’s Geek Squad computer technicians.

Best Buy says that Father Strand’s use of the logo violates its trademarks.

“This was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission,” Paula Baldwin, Best Buy spokesperson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But at the end of the day, it’s bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others.”

Father Strand mentioned the cease-and-desist order during the 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on August 8, but cannot discuss the details of the case.

Then-Deacon Strand, received the car in 2007 from Father Quinn Mann of the Diocese of Green Bay. Not only does the car sport the God Squad logo, but also the websites thinkpriest.org and cyexpeditions.org on the fenders. His license plate reads GODLVYA, and the very front of the Beetle has a white paint stripe to match his priestly collar.

“It stimulates a lot of conversation,” Father Strand told the Fond du Lac Reporter in 2009. “People don’t always know when the right time is to start a conversation about faith questions. The church is alive, young and vibrant. This is a new and creative way to bring the faith I love into everyday life.”

Blogger Brian Osborne, of Geek.com, said that Best Buy has “created a public relations nightmare…the kind that could only come as a result of a company suing a priest,” and that the company is now facing the “backlash” from its decision.

Baldwin said that Best Buy is working with Strand to try to alter the God Squad logo in a way that will still work for him without infringing on the Geek Squad trademark.

“We’re confident that together we’ll come up with a good solution for everyone,” said Baldwin. [Source]

Now if this priest started charging outlandish prices for minor spiritual tuneups and giving crappy service than I could see a case for copyright infringement. A priest offering services for free without trying to sell you an extended warranty will in no way get confused with the Geek Squad despite having a logon on a VW.

CLEVELAND — Members of a Cleveland church that was ordered closed have defied their Roman Catholic bishop with a Mass celebrated in a warehouse by a priest on leave.

Several hundred people attended Sunday’s service led by Rev. Robert Marrone. His congregation at the closed St. Peter Church had been warned by Bishop Richard Lennon to avoid setting up a breakaway church.

Members upset by the closing describe themselves as traditional Catholics challenging the shutdown, not their faith. The bishop says a renegade congregation can lead to disunity.

The eight-county Cleveland diocese has closed or merged 50 parishes, blaming declining numbers of priests, parishioners and finances. [Source]

Because it is traditional to disobey your bishop and to have Mass in a warehouse.

There have been multiple instances of this type of behavior throughout the country where people are more attached to their parish then they are to the Church. I can certainly understand the pain when a parish closes for people who have a deep attachment to that parish. But ultimately the local Bishop gets to make these decisions even if you think his reasoning for closing a parish is faulty. In many cases it is simply because of demographic shifts and sometimes possibly for less than stelar reasons. The parishioners of some more traditional parishes slated for closure have felt that the reason for closure was because it was a more traditional parish. There have also been cases of parishioners petitioning Rome to overturn a closing. The Vatican though has always responded by siding with the local ordinary and it is hard to imagine a case where this would not be so.

If you are obedient only when it suits you then you are not obedient. We have to be obedient to our local Bishop even when we prudently disagree with him. When I was in the military I learned I had to obey a lawful order from an officer regardless of what I thought of that officer or the order. The same goes here in that a lawful order from a bishop which would be one that does not contravene either the moral or Church law should be followed. During the period of time when they are considering a parish closing is the time to try to convince the bishop otherwise in a respectful manner. Sure it is a tragedy that a church in 1853 and the oldest church building in continuous use in the Diocese of Cleveland has been closed down. It is a greater tragedy for the priest and parishioners of this closed down parish to act in such a way.

On my way into the Church as I was exploring a devotional prayer life i started to pray The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is similar to the Liturgy of the Hours in format but with limited readings. After finding that I liked this style of prayer of praying during parts of the day and that it was something I could actually stick with I soon turned to the Four Volume Set of the Liturgy of the Hours which I bought one volume at a time. Learning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours is not the simplest task, but the St. Joseph Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours put out annually is a good way to be able to learn to do so. Though paging through the book for the different hours of prayer and marking them with ribbons is functional but messy. In this technological age we are getting lazier and lazier and I for one wished for an electronic version of the LOTH that would let me concentrate more on praying than flipping through the volumes.

When iBreviary was originally released for the iPhone/iPod Touch for first .99 cents and then later free this need was answered for me. So from the time this app was released I retired my 4-Volume set of the LOTH for the electronic version. I was fairly satisfied with this app, but when the iPad was announced I figured that the screen on the iPad would be perfect for the Breviary and there would be much less page scrolling involved. Just last week iBreviaryPro was released on iTunes and it is a significant upgrade to the previous versions.

Mostly on the iPad I prefer landscape mode and all the screenshots are in landscape mode. Though it works in portrait mode also.

The formatting of the screen is much improved over previous versions where the word could be haphazard at times. In previous versions you had to download each day and so if you were away from the internet for a period of time you were out of luck. The new version now lets you cache a period of 10 days which is a welcome change.

Switching the various Hours is quite easy via the sidebar.

The new version also include the complete Missal for the celebration of Mass. Also added are new sections for Saints and Prayers.

What is especially nice about iBreviaryPro is the support for Italian, French, Spanish, English, and Latin and that the texts used as far as I know match the official texts. The English text was identical to the English version of the Liturgy Hours I had in the 4-Volume set.

For the price of free you really can’t beat iBreviaryPro and if you had ever wanted to start reading the Liturgy of the Hours it is a great way to start since you don’t have to worry about mechanics, but can just start reading and praying. Also very cool is that the app was created by an Italian Priest, Don Paolo Padrini. No doubt we will see future improvements.

This though is not the only Liturgy of the Hours app available. When I first got my iPad I was disappointed to find that iBreviaryPro had not yet been updated to the iPad and I really wanted an iPad version of the Liturgy of the Hours. When the Apple App store first opened there was an LOTR app right from the start called Universalis and many people will be acquainted with their website. Unfortunately they charged $40 dollars for the app and they had no lite version to see if you liked it ahead of time. $40 bucks was pretty steep for an iPhone/iPod Touch app in a field where $10 is expensive so I passed that one right up. On the day the iPad was released they also had a version for the iPad and they had lowered the price to $27 which is still steep in my opinion, but I decided to buy it.

The original iPad version of Universalis was fairly good, but a bit buggy. It was also lacking hymns and antiphons which iBreviaryPro supported. Later upgrades fixed these problems and one of the latest releases gave me a feature that I really wanted.

Every book reader app allows you to tap on the screen or swipe in a direction to change pages. I really wanted this feature instead of having to keep scrolling down to finish an Hour. This might be more evidence of laziness, but it is a more exact way to advance through the text. In addition Universalis in Landscape Mode pretty much copied the layout that iBooks uses in show two facing pages at a time. Having read plenty of books via iBooks this way I was thrilled to see that Universalis had imitated this feature. The page turning animation is not as slick as Apples’ version, but good enough. To navigate between the hours you simply click the clock icon and select the required Hour.

As you can see Antiphons and Hymns are now fully supported and the rendering of the text and format is quite nice. One of the best features of Universalis is that you never have to download anything other than the app. All text is included for the liturgical cycles. In addition there are some other nice settings not found in iBreviaryPro. For example because man Diocese in the U.S. move feast days to Sunday such as the Ascension you are able to set this so that the correct texts are displayed.

Unfortunately there is no multi-language support and this is for English users only. It does though liturgical calendars for UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The translation used is not the same as in the printed version of the LOTH. You can select though to use the NAB, Jerusalem Bible, and the Grail Psalms are used.

The app has gone done to $24.99 and you can also get the free Catholic Calendar application to preview the full version.

So for now my LOTH app of choice is Universalis because of the page rendering of text, but I keep both versions on my iPad. iBreviary Pro is great when you read the Liturgy of the Hours in public and must use the same text as everybody else.

There are still improvements I would like to see in both versions. Being able to set the text and background colors or to set the contrast would be a welcome feature for both apps since depending on where you have your contrast set the black on white can be a bit glaring. iBooks has a Sepia mode which I really like and is easy on the eyes.

iBreviaryPro and Universalis are both excellent full featured apps and so this is a great thing for Catholics that we have this available to us. There are different features in both apps, but depending on your requirements you can select which one to fill your needs.

For those with Android devices you can also find iBreviary available.

Most of all if you are curious about praying the Liturgy of the Hours, no time is better than now to jump right in. It is a cool feeling to know that you are joining in with the Church and praying the same Hours that the priests and religious are also praying.