One of the problems I have with novenas is being able to remember to pray them during each of the nine days of if you are doing a novena of novenas during that time frame. So last Friday being a traditional day of starting a novena I remembered that I had recently seen an iOS app designed for novenas and so purchased it. Simply called Novena and priced at $2.99.
There are many ways a mobile application could help with praying a novena as far as scheduling goes. Unfortunately this app came up with none of these ideas. No push notifications. No scheduling. Nothing to track what day of a novena you might be on.
Neither was I impressed by the design of the app. Apparently not much effort went into design and it only worked in portrait mode in one orientation. Being a universal app for the iPhone and iPad it at least supported both platforms. Yet on the iPad the menu was apparently the same as for the iPhone or so just took up a small area at the top right part of the screen.
On the plus side novenas were grouped in several ways that could be useful in finding the one you want. You could also favorite one to easily come back to later. The artwork seems to have been taken from German holy cards and I did like the look of these cards and they did give the look of the app some consistency. Once selecting a novena you were presented with the individual novena and you could select or swipe to a history of the saint involved.
One nice feature was that for each image you could select Symbols to show a text overlay explaining some of the symbolic components in the image.
Overall I was disappointed by this app for missing obvious features and having a poorly designed interface and menu. So if anyone knows of an iOS novena app with push notifications and/or some form of scheduling please let me know.
9 comments
I don’t know of an app, but I know where you can get daily emails. Try praymorenovenas.com
He does a wonderful job of letting you know what is coming up and sending daily emails with the proper novena prayers.
(((Overall I was disappointed by this app for missing obvious features and having a poorly designed interface and menu.)))
Jeff! For what “IT” is worth, all I can say is that we’re all human and most of U>S hurt and bleed but then again when the flesh is hit too hard, bones can sometimes be broken.
Long story short, my wife and I also usually don’t stick to NOVENA but we still go to a new church about 3 times a week ever since I was literally thrown out of “ONE” of my so called “Father’s House” because I couldn’t accept dog in the flesh.
Longer story short, we Christians can not truly blame any “ONE” but ourselves and/or our own “Trinity” which could be “ME”, “ME”, “ME” and/or me, myself and i but then believe “IT” or not there are still Angels and Saints who truly believe in “The Father” “The Son” and “The Holy Spirit” and “I” would not be surprised if some of them in this Twenty First Century believe in “GOD” The Mother also and that we are ALL “ONE” big family in Christ NOW.
Being born in the year of the dog, “I” could probably keep going around and around chasing my tail but I better not give myself away NOW!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x6qCtgktms
YESSSS! “i” MEAN HEY MEN, WOULD YA BELIEVE AMEN and……
End YA say sinner vic?
Happy Mother’s Day MOTHERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQZmni-oeg4
Keep the prayers coming my way cause all of U>S (usual sinners) really need “IT” NOW.
GO Figure! 🙂
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2013/05/if-i-only-had-a-heart-educating-the-emotions.html#disqus_thread
Peace
I just put it in ical – set a date & time for the first day, then “repeat” daily, end after 9 times. It beeps at me every morning. If it’s a specific prayer on the internet, I’ll put in a link, and just click on that when the notification pops up, so I go right to the site and say it right then before I forget.
Try http://www.praymorenovenas.com/
They do a novena a month and email the prayer to you each day of the novena.
(((Simply called Novena and priced at $2.99.)))
For what “IT” is worth Jeff! All Novena should be free NOW!
I hear YA! So only rich people should be making them then?
WHATEVER! 🙁
Peace
The “Team Novena” is free and has push notifications (though I don’t think you can specify when the notifications are sent). It’s a very “social app”, in that they have a novena running each 9 days that they invite you to participate in, so you don’t really get to choose which novena to offer, though the app does keep a selection of past novenas in the list, so that you can actually choose any of those to pray when you receive a notification.
I like it, though I do wish there was an app that combined a selection of texts like “Novena” and the notifications of “Team Novena”.
I had the same problem of forgetting to remember which is why I created a website to help with that. It’s not exactly an app, but http://www.praymorenovenas.com will remind you to pray via email. We do one novena a month with it. We’re in the middle of the Holy Spirit novena for Pentecost right now.
Hi,
We are the writer/design team behind the Novena App. We have just come across your review and would like to address some of the issues which have disappointed you. Having created seven illustrated books on novenas, saints and holy cards, we are new to the world of app creation and look at this project as an evolving process. Many people have asked for a daily reminder to be added to the app, and we are in the process of designing one. Others have asked that we include feast days from the pre-Vatican II calendar. We are addressing this issue, along with developing an android version of the app. Most importantly, the new designs for the ipad will be available for an update by the end of June.
The Novena App is basically a book of novenas with beautiful images from the holy card collection of Father Eugene Carrella. We have received many enthusiastic reviews of this app (http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/05/novenas-on-go.html), but are open to improvements and changes. Happily, free downloads are available as we make it better. We invite you to revisit it along the way.
Thank you for your input and criticisms.
Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua
Novena.com
(((We are the writer/design team behind the Novena App.)))
Forgive me for sounding a little negative and long story short, I know that you all mean to bring a lot of U>S (usual sinners) to GOD (Good Old Dad). Longer story short, I guess that “I’M” still suffering from all those who took my oldest brother from Satan and then they “Left” , “I” mean led him “Right” back to the “Devil” who will always walk backward even if HE was once a “GOOD” Angel before he turned his back on Eve and…..
END YA SAY sinner vic?
Go Figure! 🙂
Keep the yes, i mean the Novena prayers coming my way cause God Knows, we all need plenty NOW! 🙁
Peace