I expected the Verbum Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) to allow me to replace the need for carrying a hard copy and with powerful integration into the Verbum Ecosystem similar to how the Roman Daily Missal is integrated into the dashboard. In my mind it was going to be superior to the various apps containing the LOTH hours by virtue of available cross references and study tools on a platform that can be utilized across most major mobile and desktop ecosystems. The Verbum Edition of the Liturgy of the Hours failed to meet my expectations. A lot of my confusion centers around the current product description that reads “Flipping back and forth between different sections of a printed volume are streamlined into a single, easy-to-use interface.” I like others thought this meant the readings and hours would be automatically rendered into a readable format without the need for flipping, clicking, or tabbing between the various sections of the books. Currently this is not the case. The only streamlined interface you have to use is Verbum itself. You can display the table of contents and flip between sections but if I am going to have to do that I would rather just have a book with ribbons. Its disenchanting on the desktop version and not remotely worth the effort if you have hoped to use it on a mobile device to pray the hours.

As it stands the Verbum Edition of the LOTHs might only be useful to you if you want to do a detailed study of a particular area or passage. If you got this version of the the LOTH in a package you might find it interesting to have. If you are contemplating buying the standalone you will need to seriously consider and manage your expectations. If Verbum updates this resource to create a streamlined experience where you can select which hour you want to read with a click and that be it I would drastically change my rating and review.