Laudate

Review by eFreeware

Most Catholic apps pick one job and do it well: a readings app, a rosary app, a Bible reader. Laudate is the other approach, a single free library that piles daily Mass readings, the Liturgy of Hours, the rosary, a stack of chaplets, the Douay-Rheims Bible, the Catechism and a shelf of Church documents into one place. That breadth is the most distinctive thing about it, and it is the reason the app has held a following since 2010.

It is built for people who want their prayer and reference material together rather than scattered across several downloads. If you follow the daily readings, pray the rosary or the chaplets, or like having the Liturgy of Hours and the Catechism within reach, this is the sort of app that replaces a folder of separate ones. It is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases, which matters for something you might open every day.

Readings, Mass and the daily round

The daily Mass readings sit at the center of the app, and the developer has built around them rather than leaving them bare. Each day's readings screen carries a daily Bible verse, and there are podcasts of the readings with read-along text and meditations, so you can listen while following the words on screen. Daily meditations and a Saint of the Day entry fill out the rest of the day's material.

The Order of Mass is included, along with the Liturgy of Hours in both its ordinary form and a Latin version. The New American Bible is there for reading, and the Douay-Rheims translation is included as well. Between the readings, the hours and the two translations, the app covers the reading side of Catholic life fairly thoroughly.

There is also a Daily Prayer section and a daily examination of conscience, which is the kind of short, repeatable content that suits a morning or evening routine. I'd expect the readings and the hours to be what most people open first, with the meditations and the examination filling the quieter moments of the day.

Rosaries, chaplets and the Stations

The rosary screen is more crowded than the name suggests. It holds the rosary, a Latin rosary, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which the developer places on that same screen rather than in a separate section. Alongside those are the Seven Sorrows Rosary, the Chaplet of St. Michael, the Holy Wounds Chaplet, the St Jude Chaplet and the Franciscan Crown Rosary, so a good number of devotional prayers live in one spot.

The Stations of the Cross are included too, and both the rosary and the Stations have podcasts attached. That combination of text and audio is the part that appeals to me most: you can pray along silently, or let the audio carry the pace while you follow the words. Prayers in Latin with English translations are included as well, which serves anyone who wants the traditional texts without hunting for a separate source.

For someone who prays the rosary regularly and occasionally adds a chaplet, this is a lot of material under one roof. The variety also means the app is not just a single-devotion tool; it accommodates the days when you want the Divine Mercy chaplet instead of the rosary without a second download.

Reference shelf: Catechism, canon law and documents

Beyond prayer, Laudate carries a reference library: the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Code of Canon Law and papal encyclical letters. That is an unusual amount of magisterial material for a free app, and it turns the app into something you can consult rather than only pray from.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation section handles confession, with an examination of conscience to work through beforehand. This is where the app's breadth shows its value: the same download that gives you the day's readings also gives you the text you need before confession and the Catechism passage you want to check afterward.

I would treat this side of the app as a reference shelf rather than something to read cover to cover. It is the kind of content you dip into when a question comes up, and having it bundled with the prayers means one less place to look.

Your own prayers and how the app is set up

Laudate lets you bookmark prayers and build your own categorized prayer collection. The part I find genuinely useful is the export and import: you can edit prayers on a Mac or PC and bring them into the app, which suits anyone who wants to compose or correct a longer prayer with a real keyboard. The [My Prayers] section saves and imports those files.

The developer explains this is used so that the internal podcast player pauses when a call comes in, letting you answer without the audio continuing in the background, and states that no phone data is read or kept, with the privacy policy covering the details.

Support runs through the app itself: a Menu option to email the developer, an address for direct messages, and a blog with release notes and usage guidance. The most recent update covers bug fixes, so the app is still being maintained.

Who gets the most from Laudate

The people who will get the most out of this are practicing Catholics who want one app for both prayer and reference. If your routine includes the daily readings, the rosary or a chaplet, and you also like having the Liturgy of Hours, the Catechism and canon law within reach, the breadth works in your favor rather than against you.

The sixteen languages are a real draw for anyone praying in a language other than English, and for multilingual households. The install numbers and the 4.7 average across more than 31,000 ratings suggest a large, settled user base, though the app's age is also visible in how much it tries to hold at once.

Someone who wants a single, tightly focused devotion app may find the range here more than they need. That is a fair reading of what Laudate is: a broad Catholic library rather than a specialist tool, and it is best judged on that basis.

A broad library worth installing for daily prayer

Laudate's case rests on volume and price: very little else in this category tries to cover that much ground in one download.

The trade-off is that it is a library rather than a sharply focused app, and the material is spread across many sections. That is a reasonable exchange for anyone who wants their prayers and their reference texts in the same place, and it is why the app has stayed relevant since 2010.

I would install it if you pray the rosary or follow the daily readings and want the supporting texts nearby, or if you need the Catechism and Church documents on hand. If your practice is narrow and you want a single-purpose tool, the range here will feel like more than you asked for.

What's new in version 2.93

Bug fixes