Universalis app for iPhone and iPad

4.8 ( 6528 ratings )

Reference Lifestyle
Developer: Universalis Publishing

9.99 USD

Current version: 3.41, last update: 3 years ago
First release : 31 Jan 2019
App size: 68.14 Mb

Universalis is a breviary and a missal, and more besides. It gives you the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) and the Mass for every day; plus valuable additional material.

Tens of thousands of people use Universalis daily. Come and join them!

• Single purchase: the app lasts for ever. It does not need a subscription to make it work.
• No Internet needed: everything you need is already built in.
• No cleverness needed: each day, Universalis works out exactly what you need to see.
• View any date: past, present and future.
• Use your own local calendar: USA, Canada, Singapore, Ireland, and every diocese in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
• Easy to read and use: a choice of fonts; big or small type; dark or light theme; page-turning or scrolling.
• Optional add-on: spoken audio read by real human beings (this needs a subscription: see below).
• Latin if you want it: by itself or alongside the English.
• Help and support: tips and instructions are included; or press “Contact Us” to send us a message, and we will reply.

EXTRA MATERIAL

• The “About Today” page tells you what saints are being celebrated today, worldwide. It includes reflections, biographies and illustrations.
• “Mass Today” gives you the Order of Mass and today’s readings and prayers, all in one page. Bishops have been known to use it to say Mass from their iPads!
• “Spiritual Reading” gathers the patristic and hagiographic readings for all the saints and feasts of the day.
• “The Rosary” has a verse of Scripture for every Hail Mary of every Mystery. Spoken audio is included.
• Daily Books takes selected spiritual classics and presents them in daily instalments to focus and enrich your prayer life.
• Commentaries on the day’s Mass readings from a leading biblical scholar.

And more – Home Screen widgets; liturgical events for your iOS calendar; daily email service; copy and paste into other apps; reminders and alarms; Mass readings on your Apple Watch.

LITURGY OF THE HOURS (Divine Office)

The complete official Liturgy of the Hours of the Catholic Church, as used worldwide. Morning (Lauds), daytime (Terce, Sext and None), evening (Vespers), night (Compline) and the deeply reflective Office of Readings. Do as many or as few of them as you like.
• The psalms and canticles match the official English and American books. Scripture readings – United States: RSV. Elsewhere: Jerusalem Bible (with RSV as an optional add-on).

READINGS AT MASS

The exact prayers and readings at Mass for each day.
• United States: the official NAB version. Elsewhere: Jerusalem Bible readings and Grail psalms, as used at Mass in most of the English-speaking world.

OPTIONAL ADD-ON AUDIO (in-app purchase required)

Just press the button and listen! If you want to see what you are hearing, the text is highlighted to follow the sound. After an initial download, no Internet is required. Works with CarPlay too.

• Spoken English Liturgy of the Hours: every Hour of every day of every year. Monthly or annual subscription.
• Spoken English Mass Readings: First and Second Reading and the Gospel. Jerusalem Bible translation only. Monthly or annual subscription.

(You can listen to a sample before subscribing. Following App Store rules, subscriptions renew automatically but you can cancel auto-renewal at any time.)

• Sung Latin Compline (Night Prayer): by the boys of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School. Single purchase.

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Privacy policy and terms of service: universalis.com/n-ios-privacy.htm

Pros and cons of Universalis app for iPhone and iPad

Universalis app good for

I have used Universalis services for a number of years on different formats and I am glad that the company has made them available for the iPhone/iTouch platform. This is a program for those who need it and we will gratefully pay what is demanded. Just for the record, the printed format expands through a set of five books, $40 each in most editorials. You calculate. I have used it for the past two weeks and I am not disappointed. I had no crashes even though I found browsing through long text a bit slow. Today I downloaded a new update that seems to address this and other minor glitches that are typical of v. 1.00. I havent tested yet. I respect the individuals who wrote some of the negative (no technical) reviews, but not their opinions. Because they write from the ignorance of someone who does not know what this program does for those of us who need it. Theres no place in iTunes reviews for such misleading rigidity. Kudos for Universalis. I look forward for future updates and revisions.

I use it all the time. All thats missing would be the responsorial psalm for the mass and the antiphon for each of the prayer psalms in the divine office and it would be set.

A lot of content, worth every penny. No crashed, text sizing and position sensing work well.

This is a great application. I would give it 5 stars if the Psalms for the daily Readings at Mass were added. That way the application would be completely self contained.

$33 is insane for this app! I think this is one of the most expensive app on iTunes.

As a layperson, have been praying the Divine Office on-and-off over the years. I found the books bulky and somewhat labour intensive. I began to use the online Universalis source, and enjoyed it. Now that I have the iPhone version, it is amazingly simple to keep my commitment to pray the Divine Office, even when I am away from the computer and dont have the books. It is worth every penny! Enjoy!

Some bad moments

if you are buying this for the Divine Office dont, the text is wrong. It is not the version used by religious or lay people in the United States. If used by a lay person you will not be able to say the Office with others in group or community. Please reference iBrevery for proper text.

Contrary to the readers who obsess about your incorrectness/lack of "true Church approach" to LOH --- This app is one class act! And it continually improves on itself. The perfect way to carry the LOH with me. Thank you.

if you are buying this for the Divine Office dont, the text is wrong. It is not the version used by religious or lay people in the United States.

I bought this when it was still priced at $32. It was way overpriced! Well, there were no other options before. (Its current price is still high when other apps function the same way.) Now, there are better ones. I have imissal, and Im very happy with it (only $4.99). And iBreviary, which gives you the whole mass, prayers, liturgy of the hours, readings, and other rites. And its free. (of course, you have to download every now and then which can last you for 2 to 3 weeks). Universalis has the liturgy of the hours but the translation doesnt match official translation so that you cannot really join in community recitation for having a different version. Will I recommend Universalis? If its your first time, you can get the 2 apps above, cheaper, free, and it will do the job as a combination.

This is a great service if you have the pre iOS7 version. The iOS 7 version is very hard to read. My opinion: dont take the update.

The app does not offer anything traditional. Its based on the Vatican II New Mass and New calendar. The readings are not from the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible.

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