Halloween message from Bishop: Dress up the kids and have fun but take them to church the next day too!

Here’s a great message about the origins of Halloween from our Bishop Richard Malone (Buffalo, NY). Part of parents’ participation in the celebration of the holiday is taking their children to church on All Saints Day too. Great point.

Bishop Malone (our bishop where Catholic APPtitude is based) uses the video medium to broadcast weekly reflections via YouTube utilizing Daybreak Productions.

And if you’re looking for a quality app to help teach the kids about heroic saints, check out:

Saint A Day ($1.99) Android Using content from their popular Saint-a-Day books, the Daughters of St. Paul have developed a comprehensive app that offers not only information on a saint for each day of the year but more than 100 prayers for intercession and meditation. You get
•Quick navigation to today’s saint biography along with full liturgical calendar
•A fully searchable, alphabetic listing of saint biographies along with patrons for various causes and concerns
•a short meditation for the day on what you can learn for your daily life from that saint.
•ability to email biographies or novenas

– Prayers to Saints displayed alphabetically or by need category (e.g. addiction, sickness, financial struggles, etc.).
•ability to send a novena prayer to join someone in intercession for a special intention.

•Your Prayer intentions can be e-mailed to a community of sisters, the Daughters of St. Paul, who will join you in prayer for your intention. You may even get a response from one of the sisters!

Saint of the Day ($2.99) Apple  St. Anthony Messenger’s most popular Web feature since 1997 is now available as an iPhone app. Saint of the Day allows you to carry the wisdom of the saints with you everywhere you go. SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio option included; Saints for every day of the year; Revised and updated to include both new and classic saints; Extensive searchable database (by saint or cause); List of patron saints; Interactive calendar.

Saint of the Day for Kids ($1.99) Apple A child-friendly app to help kids learn about saints. Looking for an alternative to mindless games? This is a wonderful substitute because it introduces children to real-life, extraordinary heroes with whom they can foster a devotion. The attractive illustrations can also be printed out into coloring pages! Saints are sorted out by the Roman Rite Catholic calendar or by a random pick or by alphabetical search. Save the ones you most like to the Favorites tab. Neat, clean, classy artwork that neither trivializes nor buffoons the featured saints.

Patron Saints (.99 cents) Apple Here’s a handy app brought to you by the folks at Our Sunday Visitor. Search for saints by feast day, what they are patron of, your particular needs or the saint’s country of origin. You can sort male or female. This also has an option to create a “favorites” list so you can access your list of favorite saints with ease. From developers: “…with a body of saints stretching into the thousands, it has not always been easy to know which saint to turn to for what. The Patron Saints app seeks to put all this information right in your hands, providing you with the names and information for over 1,000 saints.