Is Little Way really free for parish use?

Yes. Everything a parish program needs — Garden (shared prayer spaces), prayer pages, the daily examen, the morning offering, the rosary, Stations of the Cross, the Story of a Soul reading plan, the printables — is free forever. There are no parish accounts to manage, no contracts, no per-seat licenses. Your candidates and parishioners just download the free app from the App Store or Google Play. A small individual subscription unlocks some optional advanced features, but nothing your program needs is gated behind it.

How does an OCIA coordinator use Little Way with their catechumens?

Create a private Garden in the app — about 30 seconds. Share the invite link with your catechumens by email or text, or print a Prayer Card with a built-in QR code and post it on your parish bulletin board. Catechumens tap or scan to join. From that moment on, they can post prayer intentions, pray for each other, and offer 'bouquets' of small sacrifices for one another through the catechumenate. The whole cohort can also walk through the Story of a Soul 80-day reading plan together as supplemental reading.

A Garden is a private, shared prayer space inside the Little Way app. The people you invite can post prayer intentions, see one another's prayers, and offer bouquets of small acts of love (and Masses, holy hours, candles) on each other's behalf. Think of it as a tiny digital prayer chain that lives in everyone's pocket — beautifully made, quiet, and Catholic. There are no posts, no likes, no algorithm. Just prayer.

What kinds of parish programs is Little Way good for?

OCIA / RCIA programs, Lent and Advent parish challenges, women's and men's prayer groups, mom's groups, bible studies, spiritual direction, bereavement and hospital ministries, Marian and rosary groups, Carmelite secular communities, and any community oriented around small daily fidelity rather than big spectacle. Little Way is deliberately quiet — it works best where the goal is spiritual depth, not engagement metrics.

Do members need to sign up for an account?

No accounts. No passwords. No data collection. Members just open the app and join with their first name. The same is true on the web — if someone scans a QR code from a printed Prayer Card, they can join in their browser without installing the app.

Does Little Way work on Android?

Yes — Little Way is available free on iPhone and Android, with feature parity on both platforms. There's also a web fallback so members without smartphones can still join in prayer through a browser.

What is the best free Catholic prayer app for a parish prayer chain?

Little Way is built specifically for shared prayer between members of a small Catholic community. The Garden feature works as a private parish prayer chain — members post intentions, pray for one another, and offer 'bouquets' (prayers, Masses, Rosaries, holy hours, small sacrifices) for each other. There are no posts, no likes, no algorithm — just prayer. It's free, runs on iPhone, Android, and the web, and requires no accounts or subscriptions for any parish use.

How can OCIA / RCIA programs use a prayer app?

OCIA and RCIA coordinators can use Little Way as a free, shared digital companion for the catechumenate. Create one private Garden for the cohort, share the invite link or print a QR-code Prayer Card for the bulletin board, and catechumens join with their first name. From that point on they can post prayer intentions, pray for one another, walk through the 80-day Story of a Soul reading plan together, practice a daily morning offering and nightly examen, and offer spiritual bouquets to their sponsors before the Easter Vigil. The whole experience is free, requires no accounts, and works on every phone.

Can a Catholic small group or Bible study use Little Way?

Yes — Catholic small groups, women's groups, men's groups, mom's groups, Bible studies, secular Carmelite communities, and Catholic homeschool co-ops all use Little Way as a digital backbone for their in-person meetings. The Garden feature gives the group a private shared prayer space that lives between meetings. Members can post intentions, see one another's prayers, and offer bouquets for milestones. Every feature a small group needs is free.

FOR CATHOLIC PARISHES & PROGRAMS

A free Catholic prayer app for your OCIA program, prayer group, or parish ministry.

Little Way is a quiet, beautifully made Catholic prayer app rooted in St. Thérèse of Lisieux's spirituality. I built it for individuals — and along the way I discovered it works just as well for OCIA and RCIA cohorts, parish prayer chains, small groups, and Catholic communities of every size. It's always free for parish use.

See how parishes use it Email me about my parish

Who this is for

Little Way is built for parish staff and program leaders who want a simple, faithfully Catholic, beautifully made prayer tool to share with the people they serve. It works as a Catholic small-group prayer app, a digital parish prayer chain, an OCIA companion, and a daily practice for any small community. That includes:

OCIA and RCIA coordinators building a community of catechumens (the rite is now formally called OCIA, but many parishes still use RCIA — Little Way works equally well for either)
DREs and catechists looking for daily prayer practices for older students
Lent and Advent program leaders running parish-wide challenges
Women's and men's prayer groups, mom's groups, and Bible studies
Spiritual directors and formation leaders working one-on-one
Bereavement, hospital, and prison ministry leaders organizing intercessory prayer
Marian and rosary groups, secular Carmelite communities, and Third Order Catholic communities
Catholic homeschool co-ops, college campus ministries, and Newman Centers looking for a shared prayer practice

If your program needs a free, faithfully Catholic prayer tool that works on every phone — Little Way is for you.

How parishes use Little Way

The center of the parish experience is a feature called a Garden — a private, shared prayer space where the people in your program post intentions, pray for one another, and offer "bouquets" of small sacrifices on each other's behalf. Think of it as a Catholic prayer chain that lives in everyone's pocket — a parish prayer chain app, but quieter, prettier, and built around the spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

You create one Garden for your program.

It takes about thirty seconds. Name it (e.g. "St. Mary's OCIA 2026"), add a one-sentence description, choose private (the right default for a curated cohort), and you're done.

You invite people one of two ways.

Share the invite link by email, text, or group chat. Members tap and join with their first name. No accounts. No passwords. No data collection.

Or print a Prayer Card with a built-in QR code. The app generates the card for you with a Matthew 18:20 inscription on the front. The screen literally says: "Print this card and leave it where others can find it — a parish hall, a break room, a bulletin board." Hand it out at orientation. Pin it to the bulletin board. Slip it into your welcome packet.

A use that probably wasn't obvious

Print a Prayer Card for a specific intention — "Praying for our 2026 OCIA candidates as they prepare for Easter" — and post it on the parish hall bulletin board. Anyone in the parish can scan and join in praying for the cohort. Your candidates feel the support of the whole parish, not just their classmates. Print one card; reach hundreds.

Then your community starts to pray.

A catechumen posts: "I have my theology exam tomorrow." By morning, ten classmates have offered prayers. A sponsor adds: "Offering this morning's Mass for you." The whole cohort sees the support. Nobody is alone.

That's the entire feature. It's deliberately simple. It's quiet. It's Catholic.

Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Matthew 18:20

Feature → program mapping

Each Little Way feature maps cleanly to specific parish use cases. A few examples:

OCIA / RCIA program ›	Garden + Story of a Soul reading plan + daily virtue rhythm + spiritual bouquets for sponsors	Catechumens share intentions through the catechumenate, read St. Thérèse together over 80 days, practice a daily virtue rhythm where last night's examen names tomorrow's small act of love, and offer bouquets to their sponsors before the Easter Vigil. See the full OCIA guide →
Lent parish challenge	Thirty Days of Small Love practice + daily examen + Stations of the Cross	A whole parish takes on small hidden acts of love together, marks them daily, and walks the Stations as a shared rhythm.
Advent program	Morning offering + daily examen + 25-day practice	Members start each day in offering and end each day in gratitude through Advent.
Women's or men's prayer group	Garden + shared bouquets + group rosary	The Garden becomes the digital backbone of your in-person meeting — intentions flow between meetings, bouquets are offered for milestones.
Spiritual direction	Daily examen + the Rose Journal + prayer pages	Directees keep a structured prayer practice, journal the roses St. Thérèse sends, and bring it to direction sessions.
Bereavement ministry	Bouquets for the deceased + intercession garden	Members offer prayers and Masses for the deceased; families see the spiritual support visibly.
Marian or rosary group	Garden + rosary + bouquets for Marian feasts	A rosary group prays in their own time and offers bouquets together on Marian feast days.

Free printable companion materials

Three free PDFs you can print, distribute, and use alongside the app — or completely independently.

The Rose Journal

A two-page tracker for noticing the signs St. Thérèse sends.

Thirty Days of Small Love

Thirty hidden acts of love in the spirit of St. Thérèse — one each day on a single printable card.

Story of a Soul Reading Plan

A six-page checklist companion to the 80-day reading plan.

All printables are free for personal, parish, classroom, and homeschool use. No attribution required, though appreciated. Built around public-domain texts where applicable. Browse all printables →

License & cost

Little Way is always free for parish, classroom, and homeschool use.
There are no parish accounts, no licenses to manage, no contracts to sign.
Your candidates and parishioners just download the free app from the App Store or Google Play. No subscription is required to use Garden, prayer pages, the daily examen, the morning offering, the rosary, Stations of the Cross, the printables, or any of the core prayer tools.
Some advanced features (cloud backup across devices, certain premium prayer experiences) are available through a small individual subscription. Nothing your program needs is gated behind that.
Little Way doesn't sell data, run ads, or push parish members toward upsells inside the experience. The app is built like a Catholic prayer book, not a SaaS product.

Want to see it before recommending it to your group?

Download the free app and try it yourself. Everything you'd use for your program — Garden, prayer pages, the daily examen, the morning offering, the rosary, the printables — works without any subscription or sign-up.

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Who built this

I'm Carter Boatright, the founder of Little Way. I built this app as a Catholic husband and dad because I wanted a single quiet place to pray with my family, walk the Little Way of St. Thérèse, and offer the small things of an ordinary day for the people I love.

Little Way is independent and faithfully Catholic. There's no venture capital pushing it toward growth-at-all-costs. If your program would find it useful, I'd love to hear from you and answer any questions about whether it fits.

GET IN TOUCH

Want to use Little Way with your program?

If you lead an OCIA program, parish prayer group, Lenten challenge, or any other Catholic community that might use Little Way, I'd love to hear from you. Tell me a little about your program — what kind of group, how many people, what you're hoping for — and I'll write back personally.

If you're already using the app with a group and want to share what's working (or what isn't), I'd love to hear that too. The strongest features in Little Way come from real parish staff telling me what they need.

Email me about my parish I read every email myself. — Carter

Last updated April 2026