Preparing the Missal The Rev. Daniel Seward prepares the missal at a service at Oxford Oratory in April. An Italian priest is launching an iPad app that will make the entire Roman missal available in electronic form. via Flickr/ James Bradley

Want to conduct Sunday Mass but don't have your copy of the church missal? There's an app for that.

The Rev. Paolo Padrini, an Italian priest who consults with the Vatican, is launching a free iPad app that will contain the complete Roman missal -- the book containing everything that is said and sung during Catholic Mass throughout the liturgical year.

It will be available in July, meaning iPads could start appearing on altars in the next few weeks. Future editions will feature audio as well as commentaries and suggestions for homilies, AP reports.

It's not the first time that 2,000-year-old prayers will be available in app form. Padrini already has an iPhone app called the iBreviary, which contains the book of daily prayers used by priests. To date, 200,000 people have downloaded it.

The free missal app will be available in July in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin. Padrini said the apps were his idea and launched with his money, and are not official Vatican initiatives. But the work seems to fit his role as a consultant with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

The Vatican has praised Padrini's work as a novel form of evangelization. It could also help the church's efforts to appeal to young people -- the Vatican already has regular updates on Facebook and YouTube. Pope Benedict XVI was reportedly given an iPod in 2006.

Padrini, 36, said he expected priests who frequently travel would use the iPad app. He recently had to celebrate Mass in a small parish with a small, aged missal.

"If I had had my iPad with me, it would've been better than this old, tiny book," he said.

The app will have to be updated again next year, when several sections of the missal are scheduled to be changed for the first time in more than 30 years. Some church officials have expressed worry that young Catholics will object to the new translations, having grown up with only one version of the Mass.

[PhysOrg]

5 Comments

Awesome now they can surf kiddy-porn while preaching...

I would love for someone to break this app - and have it upload all the quotes that the preists and preachers alike intentionally neglect to quote such as the classic:

Luke 14:26 (New International Version)
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."

hm, interesting use for an ipad.

@friedguy: What's your problem? Steve Jobs gets bashed every other week it seems for not allowing porn... Also only 0.045% of clergy are pedophiles, pretty big number eh?

@ThisNameTaken:
1) use the actual version they use (King James)
2) read the rest of the parable

7And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them.

8When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;

9And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.

10But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

12Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.

13But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:

14And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

15And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

16Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

17And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.

18And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

19And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.

20And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

21So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

22And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

24For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

The moral of the story is humility and loving God more than anything else

That is great.
iPad is a nice and multilateral tool, it has a lot functions...awesome as a productivity or reading device, great for traveling and students as well...
Applications definitely can help boost and improve its functionalities...here are some cool suggestions for some of best ipad apps available: ipadappsplus.com/ipad-apps/best-ipad-apps-top-50/

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