News
The latest release of Breviarium Meum offers users more choices. Versions of the office prior to 1962 are now available. In particular, priests might want to look at the Divino afflatu version of Sunday Matins in order to see the more of the sermon on the Sunday Gospel. Similarly, the version “1960 rubrics with new calendar,” although it has been ruled out as a legitimate form of the office, could be a useful reference when celebrating or attending Mass in the ordinary form: it can be used to check the reading at Matins for the saint of the day.
More choices are available for the breviary translation as well: Italian has been added, and German can also be selected, although the latter translation is far from complete. Due to the way it has been organized, many texts which lack a German translation will appear in Latin rather than English. The Italian translation has been marked “beta,” especially because of a known bug, which sometimes causes two hymn translations to appear: the English translation of the correct hymn, and the Italian translation of a different hymn.
Another expansion of the translations regards the “orationes” contained in Breviarium Meum's appendix. Nearly all of these now have an English translation, which will be displayed if the English translation of the breviary is selected. Thanks go to Mark Kendall for supplying most of these translations. A few orationes also have an Italian translation.
The new release also includes some bug fixes, optimizations for recent Apple hardware and software, and prayers for confessors and penitents (in the Variae section of the orationes).
Breviarium Meum 1.3 (and Breviarum Meum HD 1.3) is now available in the App Store. It features enhancements for iOS 7 and improved download reliablility. There are also a number of new texts in the orationes section, most of which were provided by Mark Kendall:
- Angelis et sanctis: Litany of Loreto, Reformatted Litany of Saints
- Ante Missam: Preparatio ad Missam
- Post Missam: Gratiarum actio post Missam, Leonine prayers after Mass
- Variae: Penitential psalms, Gradual Psalms, Itinerarium clericorum, Benedictio mensae, Optional prayer to the Sacred Heart added to Post Divinum Officium
Breviarium Meum has been chosen as one of five finalists in About.com’s 2013 Reader’s Choice Awards, in the category Best Catholic iOS App. Until March 19, you can cast your vote for our app here. You are permitted (and encouraged) to vote once a day (more precisely, 24 hours must pass between one vote and the next).
In recent months, we have had trouble with the server that hosted this site, both in terms of security and in terms of customer service (to us). As a result, there were times at which the app was not able to download breviary texts. We have therefore moved the site to a new server, which should be more secure and more reliable.
Most of the development work done for Breviarium Meum regards the server rather than the app. The former usually receives some update every week, and sometimes even more often, mostly to correct minor errors in the breviary text. Now, however, the time has come for a new version of the app. Breviarium Meum 1.2 has been released for use on the iPhone and iPod touch, and Breviarium Meum HD 1.2 for use on the iPad.
Besides bug fixes and support for the latest iPhone and iPad, there are also a few enhancements, including the following additions to the orationes:
- the blessings for a crucifix, miraculous medal, medal of St. Benedict, and the rite of imposition of the brown scapular;
- the vesting prayers before mass for priests; and
- the much requested prayers before and after the divine office.
A new feature requested by several users is the ability to access yesterday's office. You will find it just above today's office in the list of hours.