Just in Time for Lent
Look what arrived in the mail last week! It’s the brand-new, fancy-looking “40-Day Spiritual Workout.” Now on paper!
I’ve got a tell you, I am really impressed with the way Servant Publications put this thing together. The cover looks cool, the layout inside is sharp, and the whole book is square! Not “square” as in “un-cool,” but square from a geometric perspective.
And in this case, it is hip to be square.
You might wonder why you would spend nine dollars to buy a book that you can get in a free iPhone app, or a free daily email through Steubenville.org. That’s what I wondered about when Servant Publications approached me to do this book. I told them a free iPhone app and email was in the works, and I was even working on a podcast. But they still thought there was a market for it.
Now that I am holding the book in my hands, I understand what they’re talking about. There’s a lot of really cool things I like about the book even better than the iPhone app.
The thing I like most about the book is there is more Scripture in it. Due to copyright restrictions, I was limited as to how much Scripture I could put in the iPhone. But in the book it’s all there – everything I intended it to have in the first place.
By “all there” I mean the chapter and verses, but not the text itself. And that’s another thing I really like about this book. It makes you open your Bible and read the text directly instead of reading a snippet of it. That way, if you want, you can read what came before or came after the text. I think it is so important that people get comfortable flipping the pages of their own Bible.
I included the Scriptural text in the iPhone app (as well as the daily emails) because those are designed for people on the go. But someone reading a book is more likely to be sitting down and taking time to read — which is also more conducive to a deeper prayer experience.
Finally, and this point probably only pertains to me and the English nerds out there, I like the book because it is written better. Servant Publications had a great copy editor who went over everything I wrote and helped fix all the grammatical mistakes.
I’m so excited that the 40-Day Spiritual Workout is now available as a book, an iPhone app, and a daily email devotional. Hopefully by this summer I’ll have an audio version of it as well. The app has had over 2500 downloads, and about 1000 other people have signed up for email blasts. People frequently share with me how blessed they were by doing that devotional, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have helped so many people have a deeper prayer life.
If you haven’t done it yet, give it a try! Just in time for Lent.
To buy the book, go here.
Download the free iPhone app, go here
To sign up for daily emails, go here.
PS. The name of the book is “40-Day Spiritual Workout for Catholics.” The name of the iPhone app is “40 Day Spiritual Workout for Catholic Teens.” But the content is the same—the app isn’t a “teen” version of the book. The iPhone developers created it as a follow-up resource for teenagers at the Steubenville Summer Youth Conference; the book publisher wanted to brand it for a wider audience. And I guess “40-Day” is more grammatically correct than “40 Day.” Oops.
3 Comments on “Just in Time for Lent”
Leave a Reply
My most popular book!
Deacon Bob Rice 
I keep forgetting to tell you that I now own and iPhone (pigs have in fact flown — long story, lol) AND I recently downloaded your app, and have been using it in prayer nightly. 🙂
Loving it! Now I want the book, too!
Brother, you’re on a roll! And I’m proud to know such an awesome Servant of God.
This is great!!! Love the app