The Treasury of Daily Prayer and the Pray Now App

One of the best things ever from CPH is the one-two punch of the Treasury of Daily Prayer and the Pray Now app.

The Treasury is a Lutheran breviary that contains a subset of the daily office (Matins, Vespers, and Compline) as well as the alternative settings of Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, orders of family worship, the Litany, etc. packaged together with a complete pointed Psalter (with Psalm tones), a daily lectionary with the complete readings (Psalm portion, Old Testament, New Testament, hymn excerpt, meditation from a church father, collect, and explanatory readings for those days that are feasts and commemorations). There are also other useful features, all contained in one volume.

The TDP is flexible for any kind of use: simple or elaborate, sung or spoken, by oneself, or with family, small group, or congregation. And there is a compact size that is easier to carry about and pray with than the full-sized version.

I use the TDP to conduct daily Matins in the parish, and as the source of my own daily devotions that I share at Substack. I use the entire Psalm apportioned instead of the excerpt, and I use the entire hymn instead of one stanza. As needed, I make substitutions, penciling them in along with the suggested Psalm tone from the Concordia Psalter. I have to say that this is one of the best things ever done by CPH. My only real complaint is that sometimes the Psalm appointed for the day is not in the hymnal. Sometimes there is an alternative Psalm, but occasionally that alternative is also not in the hymnal, requiring me to select another Psalm for congregational use. These are minor issues, and I make it work.

In tandem with the TDP is the Pray Now app. I bought it years ago when it was expensive. But it was worth it! Over time, the price was reduced. The app contains not just the text of the TDP, but seamlessly integrates the daily proper readings with the ordinaries of the services. There are also audible Psalm tones. It is easy to use, but powerful. I use it especially when traveling by air (or by motorcycle). I don’t like to check baggage, so I prefer to keep everything in my carry-on and backpack. The Pray Now app makes it easy for me to keep my breviary with me, traveling light, whether in the air or on two wheels, with limited luggage.

But it seems that CPH giveth, and CPH taketh away.

The Pray Now app has been removed from sale, at CPH and at the App store. Those who already have it can continue using it - for now. It seems that the plan is for CPH to no longer support Pray Now. So it will work through OS updates, until it won’t. CPH is offering, in place of Pray Now, another app. In this new app, TDP is bundled with other devotional materials - whether you want those materials or not. And the new app is paid for by an ongoing monthly or yearly subscription model.

Sigh.

As of now, the cost is ten bucks a year. Of course, this isn’t much, but does anyone think it will stay the same? Will more unwanted devotions be bundled, more things that customers may not really want but will be forced to buy if they simply want TDP? Moreover, a colleague of mine - a loyal Pray Now devotee - purchased the new format. They are only the bare-bones readings. Gone are the services - let alone the integration with them. Gone are the Psalm tones. I guess this is yet another case of “It sucks to be you.” His review: “I got ripped off.” A lot of my other colleagues report that they and their members use it and love it.

I’m sure the justification is one of money. Yes, it costs money to upgrade Pray Now through various platforms and upgrades. But it also cost me a lot of money to buy Pray Now, and to buy the four copies of the Deluxe Edition TDP for my immediate family and church use, as well as at least two copies (probably more) of the Compact Edition that I have purchased for myself and others. And then there is the Kindle version of TDP that I bought before I knew about Pray Now. It is still for sale, and is actually more expensive ($54.99) than the standard print edition at Amazon ($50.99)! It’s a download, but actually costs more! At least CPH is not yet charging shipping for downloadable resources. Perhaps I shouldn’t be giving them ideas. And then there is the matter of the decades that my congregation has purchased bulk subscriptions to Portals of Prayer. It is my understanding that this is a huge markup: a great moneymaker for the synod’s publishing house. I know we end up giving away about half of them to the local food bank because CPH has a minimum required purchase that is far beyond our needs. They’ve made a good bit off of my little congregation alone.

So it’s not like we, who have purchased Pray Now, are a bunch of deadbeats dragging down the bottom line over at South Jefferson Avenue.

So maybe, just this once, CPH could change course and keep supporting Pray Now. I’m not alone in my use of it. Pastors and laity love the app. And again, many of us have purchased numerous copies of the print edition of TDP - which aren’t cheap either.

Come on, CPH! You will not release the text of the Small Catechism into the public domain. Your shipping charges are brutal, to the point where you don’t even have to tell the whole joke anymore: just find anyone in the LCMS and say the words, “CPH” and “shipping” - and there will be laughter as if a punchline were delivered. We know you’re not strapped for cash. Moreover, many of your resources for pastors are simply unaffordable. I am familiar with a revival of the old Soviet “samizdat” technique by borrowing a CPH product from the library and taking pictures of every page. I’m sorry, but CPH simply does not have a stellar reputation of responsiveness to their customers. A couple years ago, I wrote a scholarly paper for inclusion in a festschrift for a colleague. I asked to quote one single paragraph from a CPH source, and was sent a bill for ten dollars. I literally had to write CPH a check for ten bucks for the privilege. I hope they didn’t spend it all in one place. That ten bucks bought them a lot of bad-will. By contrast, the “greedy capitalists” at the non-profit Mises Institute granted me carte blanche to quote as much of one of their books as I wanted to, at no charge.

Okay, everything is expensive. I get that. But I will not buy the new app. I will not pay the subscription, no matter how small it is (for now). I will not buy a bundle of devotions that I don’t want. I’ll use the kindle version first, as clunky as it is. And if CPH pulls the plug on that, I’ll take pictures of (or photocopy) the pages that I want to use before I go on a trip. Others are free to do as they wish. But again, I will not buy the new app.

How about just this once, CPH, you could just throw us a bone? How about just one time not saying “no” and not just slamming the door in our faces?

We are praying now that CPH will keep the Pray Now app.