To jumpstart your Advent journey, here’s a sneak peak into one of our favorite Advent Apps–Xt3 Advent Calendar 2017 (Free) For Apple iPhone; Apple iPad and Android phone, Android tablet. This is a gentle Advent Calendar for youth and adults designed to get you reflecting, acting and praying as you prepare for the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. This year’s theme examines a quote from Venerable Fulton Sheen:
“Divinity Is Always Where One Least Expects To Find It”
And so, just as with any Advent Calendar, you will open little windows on your digital calendar each day of Advent as you explore this notion amidst Gospel readings and reflections. Brought to you by the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, the Xt3 Calendar App offers daily resources: Gospel reading, brief reflection, imagery and a short video from time to time. All this is to aid your Advent journey to Christmas day and beyond.
Not to be a spoiler, but the first window looks at the humility of Jesus Christ coming into the world. The simple video will cause you to pause and will probably bring tears to your eyes. That’s what Advent is supposed to do to us–shake us from our world of Christmas shopping and parties as endless as our wrapping paper and look deeply into the season. The goal, as always, is transformation and conversion. This app helps us do just that.
The time spent on each day’s readings or reflecting on the images or watching the featured video on certain days is minimal. But there is generally enough content for you to reflect upon on all day long. The content is ideal for families to open the calendar together each day. A “share” link is provided so you can share the content with others.
Disappointing are the images which are a daily feature. These are deliberately offered as amateure-looking flat drawings or paintings, a feature I find annoying. Our digital devices are designed to offer us beautiful high-resolution, in-depth color imagery in the palm of our hands. This generation expects rich, vibrant, material pushing the envelope of what our devices can deliver. This holy season, I think we need to take a break from the trite and expose ourselves to more glorious art that we human beings are capable of producing –Let’s flesh out the theme visually. Even children deserve that. That is why I found the features offered for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, for example, so disappointing. A campy 1-minute video explaining the definition of the Immaculate Conception coupled with a poor opening image. Fail.
That disappointment aside, the Gospel readings and the reflections for each day are quite enough, but the other elements offered can inspire as well. As I said, that opening day video is worth the effort to get this free app onto your device.
Check out Xt3’s promotional video followed by their video explaining how the app looks and works.
In the Advent App world, not all are quite ready for the season until we get closer to December 3. But we WILL get our full compliment of app reviews up for you soon. Stay tuned!
Leave a Reply