Universalis

Instructions: settings

To get to the Settings screen:

1. View any of the text pages in Universalis.
2. If the toolbar isn't visible at the top of the page, tap in the middle of the page to make it appear.
3. Tap the button on the right-hand side of the toolbar.

Local Calendar

This section lets you choose the local calendar you want to use. We also have the calendars of some religious orders, and you can make that choice in this section as well.

Order of Mass

Order of Mass: You can view Latin or one of a number of other languages in parallel with the English text of the Order of Mass. This is intended to help you follow Mass when you are abroad. The Mass Today page will also show you the parallel texts. (The range of languages available for the readings and prayers at Mass is more limited: see the next section). If you choose Yoruba or Setswana, the readings and prayers will be shown in those languages as well.

Priest's Private Prayers: You can choose whether to include in the Order of Mass (and in Mass Today) the prayers that are said silently or quietly by the priest.

Readings at Mass

Readings & Psalms: in the English-speaking world, the most usual translation is the Jerusalem Bible for the Scripture readings and the Grail version of the psalms. In the USA, the New American Bible is used. Universalis lets you choose either. We apologize to Canada and South Africa: we are still trying to negotiate with the owners of the NRSV, which you are using at Mass.

Extra language: In addition to English, you can get the readings and prayers in Latin. You can also choose to view the original Greek text of the Gospel alongside the English. This may not work on your device: some manufacturers do provide the correct font on their Android devices, others do not, and the app has no way of knowing. (The feature to ask about is “polytonic Greek”).

Prayers and Antiphons: If you are using Universalis as a private spiritual resource, the Mass readings of the day are probably all that you want. If you are taking it to Mass with you, you may want the Entrance Antiphon and the other prayers and antiphons from the printed missals. This option lets you choose.

Liturgy of the Hours

Language: You can view the Liturgy of the Hours in English, English and Latin, Latin alone, or Englsh and Irish Gaelic. (The Gaelic texts are only available for some of the Hours).

Psalm-prayers: The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours mentions "psalm-prayers" (Orationes super psalmos) which can go after each psalm to pull together and conclude one's prayer on that psalm (§112). Some people find the psalm-prayers a help; others, a distraction.

Show chant marks: The Grail psalms are designed with a given number of stresses in each line. The number of syllables per line may vary from one verse to the next, but the stress pattern remains consistent throughout the psalm. As one might say:

When chánting each psálm,
  the páttern of stréss is consístent.
If you lóok at the márks,
  you will sée how the psálm should be chánted.

You can turn these chant marks on and off.

On memorials, use Common texts: There are two ways of celebrating a memorial. You can treat it as a slight modification of the normal ('ferial') day, with just the concluding prayer of the saint and probably a special Second Reading, or you can give the memorial more importance, and provide texts and antiphons from the Common of Martyrs or Common of Virgins or whatever the appropriate Common happens to be.

Display

Page by page: You can view an Hour as a series of pages you can turn like the pages of a book, or as a single, long, scrolling unit, rather like a web page.

Automatic toolbar: The Universalis toolbar usually gets out of the way while you are reading and appears when you tap the screen. A few people prefer to have it visible permanently.

Web-based services

Set up daily emails: If you like, our web site can send you daily emails with all the Hours or just a selection of them. Press this button to set it up.