How can OCIA / RCIA programs use a free Catholic prayer app?

An OCIA coordinator can create a single private Garden in the Little Way app for the cohort, share the invite link or print a QR-code Prayer Card for the parish bulletin board, and have catechumens join in seconds with their first name. From there, candidates can post and pray for shared intentions, walk through an 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. Everything is free, requires no accounts, and works on iPhone, Android, and the web.

What is the best free Catholic prayer app for OCIA candidates?

Little Way is built specifically for the kind of slow, daily, small-acts spirituality that the catechumenate is meant to cultivate. The Garden feature works as a private prayer chain for an OCIA cohort. The morning offering and daily examen become the rhythm of a catechumen's day. The 80-day Story of a Soul reading plan gives the cohort one of the Doctors of the Church to walk with from Inquiry to Mystagogy. There are no posts, no likes, no algorithms — just prayer. Always free for parish use.

How do you give a spiritual bouquet to an OCIA sponsor?

A spiritual bouquet is the traditional Catholic way to thank someone — a gathered collection of prayers, Masses, Rosaries, holy hours, and small sacrifices, offered for them as a gift. In the Little Way app, a catechumen can add prayers and offerings to a bouquet for their sponsor over the course of the catechumenate, then send the completed bouquet as a beautiful digital card on the day of the Easter Vigil. It is one of the most beloved and most natural fits between Little Way and OCIA programs.

Is Little Way really free for OCIA programs forever?

Yes. Everything an OCIA program needs — Garden, prayer pages, the daily examen, the morning offering, the rosary, Stations of the Cross, the Story of a Soul reading plan, spiritual bouquets, the printables — is free for parish use, with no per-candidate licenses, no cohort caps, and no annual renewals. There are no parish accounts to manage and no contracts to sign. Your candidates download the free app from the App Store or Google Play. A small individual subscription unlocks some optional advanced features, but nothing your OCIA program needs is gated behind it.

Does Little Way work for RCIA, or only OCIA?

Little Way works equally well for both — the Vatican formally renamed RCIA to OCIA in 2021, but adoption is uneven and many parishes still use RCIA. The features and the use are identical. Whether your parish calls it OCIA, RCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, Little Way fits.

How can OCIA candidates practice Catholic virtue formation daily?

Little Way builds Catholic virtue formation into a daily closed loop. Each user picks a virtue to grow in (patience, humility, charity, perseverance, kindness, etc.). At the end of the nightly examen, the app helps them name one small concrete act of that virtue to try the next day. The next morning, that small act appears at the top of the morning offering as 'Your intention for today.' They live it through the day, then reflect on it in the next examen. Over weeks and months, this rhythm forms the daily spiritual habits the catechumenate is meant to instill. It's free for OCIA candidates and grounded in the spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

FOR OCIA & RCIA COORDINATORS

A free Catholic prayer app and reading plan for your OCIA program.

Q: What daily prayers should OCIA candidates practice?

A simple, sustainable daily rhythm for OCIA candidates is: a Morning Offering when they wake up (the simplest possible Catholic daily practice), one prayer intention carried through the day (theirs or someone else's in the cohort's Garden), and a brief Daily Examen before bed. Five minutes total. The Little Way app guides candidates through all three for free, with no subscription required.

Q: What is a good Story of a Soul reading plan for OCIA?

Little Way includes a free 80-day reading plan through Story of a Soul, the spiritual autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Each day pairs one short passage (drawn from the public-domain Taylor 1912 translation) with an editorial annotation explaining the historical and spiritual context. Eighty days slots cleanly into the catechumenate-through-Mystagogy span, so most OCIA cohorts can finish the plan together at Pentecost. Available free in the app and as a free six-page printable PDF.

A digital companion for your catechumens through Inquiry, the Catechumenate, Purification & Enlightenment, and Mystagogy. Built around the spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux — by a convert who went through OCIA himself. Always free for parish use.

See how OCIA programs use it Email me about my program

I went through OCIA myself about five years ago. I converted to the Catholic Church as an adult and walked the catechumenate from Inquiry to the Easter Vigil. So when I tell you OCIA is one of the most beautiful and demanding ministries in the Catholic Church, I'm not speaking from a marketing brochure — I'm speaking from the candidate's side of the table.

What I remember most clearly is how scattered the resources were. There was a great catechist, weekly meetings, a sponsor I'm still in contact with, and a stack of books. But the things that would have been most useful — a quiet place to pray every day, a way to share what was happening spiritually with my cohort between meetings, a single tool that would have walked me through a daily morning offering and examen — didn't exist as one thing. I cobbled together a few different apps and a couple of notebooks.

Years later, when I built Little Way, I built it for individuals — for myself, for my family, for anyone walking the Little Way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. But the more I built, the more it looked like exactly what my own OCIA cohort would have used if it had existed back then. So I'm sharing it freely with parish OCIA programs, with no per-candidate licenses, no contracts, and no parish accounts to manage.

— Carter

Quick start — exactly what you do

Setting up Little Way for your OCIA cohort takes about ten minutes total. Here's the whole thing.

Create a private Garden for your cohort

Open the app, tap to create a Garden, and name it something specific like "St. Mary's OCIA 2026" or "OLPH Catechumens — Easter Vigil 2027." Choose Private (the right default for a curated cohort). Thirty seconds.

Share the invite — by link or by Prayer Card

Send the invite link by email, text, or your usual group chat. Catechumens tap and join with their first name. No accounts. No passwords. No data collection. Or print a built-in Prayer Card — a beautiful card with a QR code and a Matthew 18:20 inscription, ready to hand out at orientation, slip into your welcome packet, or pin to the parish bulletin board.

Recommend three daily practices

Suggest the Morning Offering when they wake, one prayer intention carried through the day (theirs or someone else's in the Garden), and a brief Daily Examen before bed. Five minutes total. None of it requires a subscription.

Start the Story of a Soul reading plan

Walk through St. Thérèse's spiritual autobiography together as a cohort — eighty days, one short passage per day, with editorial annotations. Free in the app and free as a printable PDF. Eighty days slots cleanly into the Catechumenate-through-Mystagogy span. See the reading plan →

That's the entire setup. You can run a full OCIA cohort on Little Way without paying anything, signing up for anything, or installing anything besides the free app on each catechumen's phone.

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.

A daily rhythm built around small acts of virtue

One of the most distinctive features in Little Way is also one of the simplest. At the beginning, your catechumens choose a virtue they'd like to grow in — patience, humility, charity, perseverance, kindness, the virtue they know they need most. Then each night, at the end of the daily examen, the app helps them pick one small concrete act of that virtue to try tomorrow. "Hold my tongue when I'm tempted to complain at lunch." "Listen to my coworker without planning my reply." "Smile at the person at the gas station even when I'm rushed."

The next morning, that one small act becomes the first thing they see when they open the app — set right at the top of the morning offering as "Your intention for today." They carry it through the day. That night, the next examen reflects on whether they lived it. Then they name the next one.

It's a closed loop. Examen → small act named → morning offering → lived → examen → next small act named. Day after day.

This is exactly the daily rhythm the catechumenate is supposed to form: the slow, hidden, repeated practice of Christian virtue. Most catechumens leave OCIA wanting to live what they've learned but having no concrete daily structure to live it through. Little Way gives them that structure for free — and it's grounded in St. Thérèse's "little way" of small things done with great love.

Read the full explanation of the daily virtue rhythm →

Practices by stage of the catechumenate

OCIA isn't a single program — it's four distinct stages, and the practices that fit one stage don't always fit another. Here's how Little Way maps to each.

STAGE ONE

Inquiry (the Pre-Catechumenate)

The first stage. Inquirers are exploring the Catholic faith without yet committing to it. The pastoral need is gentle introduction — to prayer, to scripture, to the sacramental imagination, without overwhelm.

The Morning Offering — the simplest possible Catholic daily practice. One prayer, said once a day, that gives every action of the day a supernatural dimension. Perfect for someone just beginning to pray.
Browse, don't drink from the firehose — let inquirers explore the app at their own pace. Don't assign anything yet.

STAGE TWO

The Catechumenate

The longest stage. Catechumens have committed to the journey toward baptism (or, for already-baptized candidates, full reception into the Church). The pastoral need is daily formation — the slow building of habits of prayer, examen, scripture, and community.

Garden — your shared cohort space becomes most active in this stage. Catechumens post intentions for one another (exam stress, family struggles, the spiritual questions they're wrestling with) and offer prayers and bouquets in return.
Daily Examen + virtue rhythm — five minutes before bed. Catechumens reflect on the day, then pick one small act of their chosen virtue to live tomorrow. That one act becomes the first thing they see at the next morning's offering. See the daily rhythm above ↑
The Story of a Soul reading plan — start it here. Eighty days at one passage per day means most catechumens will finish it in time for the Easter Vigil. Read together as a cohort.
Spiritual bouquets for major moments — the Rite of Acceptance, the Rite of Election, the Scrutinies.

STAGE THREE

Purification & Enlightenment (the Lent of the catechumenate)

The intense season immediately before initiation. Catechumens are in the final formation, walking through Lent toward the Easter Vigil. The pastoral need is intensification — deeper prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and preparation.

Stations of the Cross — the traditional Lenten devotion, beautifully illustrated in the app. Walk them together as a cohort, or individually each Friday.
Daily Examen continues — the discipline of reviewing the day becomes more contemplative as initiation approaches.
The Thirty Days of Small Love practice — thirty hidden acts of love, one each day, in the spirit of St. Thérèse. Lay it over the final thirty days before the Easter Vigil. There's a printable version too.
Prayer for one another in the Garden intensifies during the Scrutinies.

STAGE FOUR

Mystagogy (the Easter Season after initiation)

The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. New Catholics are now fully initiated and beginning to live their Catholic life. The pastoral need is deepening and integration — making the daily practices stick.

Spiritual bouquets to sponsors — newly initiated Catholics offer a bouquet of prayers, Masses, and small sacrifices to their godparents in thanksgiving for walking the journey with them.
Continue the daily examen and morning offering — these are now lifelong habits, not OCIA assignments.
Finish the Story of a Soul reading plan — most cohorts will be on the final twenty days during Mystagogy. End the plan together at Pentecost.
The Garden continues — many OCIA cohorts keep their Garden alive after Mystagogy ends, becoming a permanent prayer community for the formerly-catechumens.

The Story of a Soul reading plan as an OCIA companion

St. Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the most universally accessible Doctors of the Church. Story of a Soul, her spiritual autobiography, is many catechumens' first sustained encounter with Catholic spirituality after the catechism itself. It's short enough to actually finish, beautiful enough to keep reading, and theologically deep enough to repay a lifetime of return.

The Little Way app includes a free 80-day reading plan built around the public-domain Taylor 1912 translation. Each day pairs one short passage with an editorial annotation explaining the historical and spiritual context. There are no signups, no paywalls, and no email captures.

It's also available as a free printable PDF — six pages, with a checkbox beside each day, designed to be hung on a fridge or kept in a missal.

For OCIA cohorts, eighty days slots cleanly into the Catechumenate-through-Mystagogy span. Read one passage per day. Talk about it at your weekly OCIA meeting. Let St. Thérèse become your cohort's first Doctor of the Church.

Spiritual bouquets for OCIA sponsors

In OCIA, sponsors and godparents play an irreplaceable role. They walk alongside the catechumen for months or years, witness the sacraments, and remain spiritual companions for life. The traditional way to thank a sponsor is through a spiritual bouquet — a gathered collection of prayers, Masses, Rosaries, holy hours, and small sacrifices, offered for them as a gift.

The Little Way app has a built-in spiritual bouquet feature. A catechumen (or the whole cohort) can:

Choose their sponsor by name
Add prayers, Masses, Rosaries, and small sacrifices to the bouquet over the course of the catechumenate
Send the completed bouquet as a beautiful digital card to the sponsor on the day of the Easter Vigil — or the morning after, or anytime in Mystagogy

This is one of the most beloved features of Little Way and one of the most natural fits for OCIA. If your cohort does nothing else with the app, do this.

Free printable companion materials

Three free PDFs that work alongside the app — or completely independently. Hand them out at your next OCIA meeting.

Story of a Soul Reading Plan

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

The Rose Journal

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

Thirty Days of Small Love

Thirty hidden acts of love — one for each day of the final month before initiation.

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 use. No per-candidate licenses, no cohort caps, no annual renewals. Use Little Way with your 2026 cohort, your 2027 cohort, and every cohort after that — free, without asking permission.
There are no parish accounts to manage and no contracts to sign. Your candidates 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 Story of a Soul reading plan, the printables, or any of the core prayer tools.
Some advanced individual features (cloud backup across devices, certain premium prayer experiences) are available through a small individual subscription. Nothing your OCIA program needs is gated behind that.
Little Way doesn't sell data, run ads, or push parish members toward upsells inside the experience.

Want to see it before recommending it to your catechumens?

Download the free app and walk through it as a candidate would. Everything you'd use for your program — Garden, the daily examen, the morning offering, the Story of a Soul reading plan, spiritual bouquets, 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 converted to the Catholic Church about five years ago through an OCIA program myself, and I built this app as a Catholic husband and dad who wanted a single quiet place to walk the Little Way of St. Thérèse.

I'm sharing it freely with parish OCIA programs because the tool I'm describing on this page is the tool I wish my own cohort had had. 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.

GET IN TOUCH

Want to use Little Way with your OCIA cohort?

If you lead an OCIA or RCIA program at a Catholic parish and you'd like to use Little Way with your next cohort, I'd love to hear from you. Tell me a little about your program — what kind of parish, how many candidates, what stage you're in this year — and I'll write back personally.

If you're already using Little Way with an OCIA cohort and have feedback (good or bad), I want to hear that too. The strongest features in Little Way come from real coordinators telling me what they need.

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

Last updated April 2026