A daily Bible reflection app, kept with a few others

Ordo is a daily Bible reflection app for iPhone, kept with a small group. Each day you read the scripture appointed for the season, write a short response and a reflection on the day’s prompt, and check in. When everyone in the group has written, the reflections are revealed together, like a shared scripture journal.

Why writing changes how you read

It is easy to read a chapter and remember nothing by lunchtime. Writing even three sentences in response slows you down: you notice a word, a question, a phrase that unsettles you. Christians have long read this way. The monastic practice of lectio divina reads slowly and listens; the Ignatian examen looks back over the day for where God was present. A good Bible reflection app makes room for both.

Reading in company adds something else. When four people respond to the same psalm on the same morning, you discover that a verse you skimmed was the one that stopped your friend in her tracks. Over a season, a small group that writes about scripture together learns to hear it more slowly, and learns a great deal about one another.

What to look for in a daily Bible reflection app

• A reading you did not choose. A shared, appointed passage keeps you from circling your favourite chapters.
• A prompt, not a script. Many devotional apps hand you someone else’s thoughts on the passage. A prompt invites your own.
• Somewhere your words go. A journal no one reads is easy to abandon. One read by a few trusted people is easier to keep honest.
• A record you can return to. Rereading a season’s reflections often shows more than any single day.
• No pressure to perform. If you can see others’ answers first, yours will drift toward theirs.

How Ordo works for Bible reflection

1. Join or start a small group. Groups are invitation-only. You agree a short rule of life together, with scripture as one of its six parts.
2. Read the day’s scripture. Readings follow the church year, so Advent sounds like Advent and Lent like Lent.
3. Write your response. A few honest lines on what you read, and a reflection on the day’s prompt.
4. Check in. A short check-in on the commitments in your rule.
5. The reveal. When every member has written, all the reflections open at once. You read how the same passage landed for each of them.
6. Look back. Your archive keeps every season, and a formation letter at the close of each season draws together what you wrote.

Who it is for

People who want scripture to be a daily practice rather than an occasional one, and who want company in it. Reformed, Presbyterian and Baptist Christians, with their strong tradition of personal Bible reading, often value writing a response each day. Anglicans and Lutherans may recognise the seasonal shape of the readings. Catholic and Orthodox Christians can keep it alongside the readings of their own church. Pentecostal and non-denominational small groups use it to keep a Bible study connected between meetings.

If your main interest is journaling, see Ordo as a Christian journal app. For a midweek Bible study group, see Ordo for small groups.

How Ordo differs

Most Bible apps are built for reading: many translations, plans and commentaries. Most devotional apps are built for receiving: a passage and a short reflection written by someone else. Ordo is built for responding, in writing, among a few people who are reading the same thing. It does not try to replace your Bible app or study tools.

There are no reading streaks or badges. If you miss a day, the next one is waiting. Ordo is in beta on iPhone; join the waitlist.