Giving Universalis for Christmas

The easiest way to give Universalis is in the form of a Universalis registration code. A registration code really is a gift for life.

A Universalis registration code costs £19.99, which at today’s exchange rates is $26.69 or €22.15. It gives the recipient all the Mass readings for every day, forever, and all the Hours of the Liturgy of the Hours for every day, forever. There are also benefits such as the daily ‘About Today’ pages, with their stories of the saints and their illustrations. The registration code works on whatever devices your friend has – Android and iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch and Mac and Windows – and also for making personal e-books.

November 2020 newsletter

This is the time of year to be thinking about books. Advent is round the corner, so if you get the annual or semi-annual e-books for the Amazon Kindle or some other e-book reader, now is the time to be getting the next one. Christmas is round the corner, so if you enjoyed last year’s “New Every Day” e-book, or gave it as a present to a friend, now is the time to do something about that.

But before getting on to these I would like to focus on the other “book thing”, because it is new this year. The Daily Books feature was added to the iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Windows versions of Universalis a couple of months ago, and now it has come to Android as well. We were a little anxious about it to start with, as with all new features – was this a genuine benefit to everyone, or just a fun thing to program? – but we were reassured by the many emails of appreciation and gratitude. So if you haven’t tried it yet, do.

October 2020 newsletter

Today is a day to felicitate our readers in England and Wales. Saint John Henry Newman was canonised a year ago, and this year, for the first time, he is celebrated as a Feast in the English and Welsh calendars. Our apps and programs have been updated accordingly.

“One God”

Many of the doxologies in the Mass collects and the Liturgy of the Hours include the words “One God, for ever and ever”.

This is now being changed, but different parts of the world are moving at different paces.

Malagasy on iPhone/iPad

Here are instructions for getting Universalis on the iPhone and iPad and reading it in Malagasy.

How to read the Divine Office in Malagasy

Here are instructions for getting Universalis and reading it in Malagasy. I apologise for this post being in English, but it is best to use the language one knows best!

July 2020 newsletter

As this strange time grinds on there seems to be less and less that one can actually say about it. But it is encouraging to hear that Universalis is still being a help and a support. People are reading more, and many of them are listening more, as well. It is good to be able to help.

There is one big new feature this month. It is rather speculative. Perhaps it will fall into the category of “How could we ever have done without it?”, perhaps into the category of “Whatever is the point of it?”. Perhaps it will end up half way between these extremes, as most features do. In any case, if you are using Universalis on iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or Windows, do give it a quick look.

Clever uses of QR codes

In the latest newsletter we announced the appearance of QR codes which would take one straight to the relevant page on the Universalis web site. We suggested a few uses, and you can read about how to create them here.

Since then, our readers have suggested splendid uses for the codes: uses we had never thought of. So here they are.

• In a YouTube video – a priest streaming a live Mass is putting the QR code on the screen at the time the readings started, so that anyone listening to the readings can use the code to see the Mass Readings page in Universalis.
• At the welcome desk – a church in Slovenia which regularly has tourists coming to Mass is going to put a QR code at the desk, so that any visitor can point his phone camera at the code, and be able to follow the readings during Mass.

June 2020 newsletter

We are just coming to the end of the brief but intense “theological season” which began with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and took us through a whole series of highlights: Mary, Mother of the Church, Jesus the Eternal High Priest, the Trinity, the Body and Blood of Christ. These feasts remind us that Christianity has both Jewish and Greek roots: as Jews, we live a continuing encounter with God; as Greeks, we aren’t satisfied with something being true – we also want it to make sense.

But we mustn’t let ourselves over-intellectualise, so at the end of it all the Church brings this short season to an end with two feasts not of the mind but of the heart: the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They remind us that life is not only about understanding but about living and feeling, and that our Saviour himself was not some Buddha-like figure floating in serene detachment above it all. He plunged into our world and was happy and sad, lived and loved: all of them, things of the heart. We need to emulate him and his Mother, even if most of us would find serene detachment be a lot more comfortable.

May 2020 newsletter

He is truly risen, alleluia!

We are heartened to see how helpful Universalis has been to you all at this time. Some of you have taken to the Hours more seriously, and often you are listening to the spoken versions through our apps. Other people use Universalis to follow one or other of the streamed online Masses. It will be interesting to see how daily Mass-going takes off once the churches are open again. Meanwhile, we are happy to continue being of help.