Anima Refinery
Prayer, reflection, and discernment.
Let your life become prayer.
Bring the overflow, the silence, and the ache of the day into the light of Christ — and let grace shape what is growing.
Today with the Church
Today’s Reflection
Today’s readings, woven with your life and your prayers.
Prayers you are carrying
What are you praying today, this week, and this month?
A note before you begin. Anima Refinery is a devotional and discernment companion - not a replacement for the sacraments, confession, Mass, a spiritual director, or mental health care. It does not give absolution. It does not replace a priest. If you are in crisis, please reach out to a human you trust.
Everything you write is stored only on this device. The words you choose to send for a reflection go to the AI provider (Anthropic) to create your response; our servers do not store them.
What is overflowing?
Write freely. Worries, tasks, relationships, fears, hopes, noise.
Your unsaved reflection is still here — it was kept for you.
Add a photo of the place, candle, sky, rain, desk, walk, or moment connected to this entry. Photos are saved locally with your entry and are not sent to AI unless you choose an image reflection feature later.
What did the silence reveal?
After prayer, adoration, contemplation, or stillness - what surfaced?
Your unsaved reflection is still here — it was kept for you.
Add a photo of the place, candle, sky, rain, desk, walk, or moment connected to this entry. Photos are saved locally with your entry and are not sent to AI unless you choose an image reflection feature later.
How was your day with God?
Look back over the day gently, without harshness - and let grace meet you.
Your unsaved reflection is still here — it was kept for you.
Add a photo of the place, candle, sky, sunset, or moment from your day. Photos are saved locally with your entry and are not sent to AI unless you choose an image reflection feature later.
The record of your journey.
Soul Overflow, Desert Whisper, evening Examen, and the prayers you are carrying - one sacred timeline.
A place to talk.
Ask anything about the faith, or simply talk - a warm, patient Catholic friend. Not a priest or confession.
The Companion is a warm Catholic friend and patient catechist - not a priest, confession, a sacrament, or a replacement for spiritual direction, therapy, or medical care.
Make it yours.
Readability
A comfortable size and font for prayers, reflections, and journal entries. Applies everywhere.
Lord, I bring You this day. Purify what is anxious, strengthen what is weak, and bless what is good.
Reading aloud
Hear reflections and prayers read aloud - useful while driving or resting your eyes. A small "Listen" button appears on each reflection and prayer.
The Natural voice is not enabled on this server yet. Once a Google Text-to-Speech key is added, it will turn on here. The free device voice works now.
Reading aloud is not available in this browser.
The Device voice uses your browser's built-in voices, which vary by device - and on iPhone the web cannot use Apple's premium voices. For the most natural, consistent voice on any device, choose Natural. Reading with the Natural voice securely sends the text to Google's Text-to-Speech to create the audio; nothing is stored.
Prayer Review
Prayer Review is always manual - you generate prayers yourself from the Home page. Optionally, let the app quietly draft prayers on a schedule. Auto-drafts are saved as drafts and never overwrite a prayer you have saved.
Prayer voice
By default, prayers are written in the first person, for you to pray yourself (“Lord, I bring You…”). Turn this on and each prayer will include both: first a short prayer for you to pray, then a short prayer of intercession offered for you (“Lord, watch over them…”). You can switch it off anytime.
Daily Liturgy
A small "Today with the Church" card on the Home page shows the date, liturgical season, and - when an official source is connected for your region - the day, feast, and reading references, with a link to the full readings. Official readings are never reproduced here or invented. Your personal daily reflection lives in its own "Today's Reflection" box just beneath it, and is written the moment you tap it.
United States (USCCB) is the default and links to the official U.S. daily readings. United States — Universalis shows the readings inline using Universalis's U.S. calendar, with the official USCCB page kept for cross-checking. General Roman calendar follows the universal calendar, which can differ from the U.S. on some days (for example, the U.S. transfers Corpus Christi, the Ascension, and the Epiphany to a Sunday). More regions can be added later, each from its own bishops' conference or a licensed source.
Personalization
Optional. Stored locally and used to personalize reflections so Anima can use the right name, pronouns, and tone. Do not enter anything you would not want saved in this app.
Backup & Privacy
Back up your journal
Save everything you have written. Full backup (ZIP) includes your entries, prayers, and photos. JSON is a smaller text-only copy (no photos).
If you encrypt, you'll need this exact password to restore - a lost password cannot be recovered.
Restore a backup
Bring your journal back from a backup file. Upload the whole .zip as-is (no need to unzip it) or a .json file. If it was encrypted, a password box appears below.
Storage on this device
Photos and your journal are stored only on this device.
Your privacy
Your journal, prayers, and photos are stored only on this device - we have no account or server database that holds them. When you ask for a reflection or prayer, the words you choose (and your Personalization profile, if you fill it in) are sent securely to Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI, to write the response; our servers do not store what you send or what comes back. The optional Natural reading voice sends the text being read to Google Text-to-Speech (not stored). Payments are handled entirely by Stripe; we never see your card details. Anima Refinery is a devotional companion - not a medical, clinical, or health-records service - so please don't enter anything you would treat as protected medical information.
Supporting Anima Refinery
Anima Refinery is kept alive by those who pray with it. A small monthly or yearly offering covers its quiet running costs and keeps it free of advertising. Your journal and prayers always remain yours, on your device.
Already subscribed?
If you subscribed on another device or cleared this browser, restore your access with the email you used at checkout - no password needed.
Keeping your access (new phone or tablet)
Your access lives on the device you are using, so there are no passwords to forget. A few gentle notes so you never feel locked out:
- Moving to a new phone or tablet? Open Anima Refinery on the new device, come to Settings › Support, and use Already subscribed? above - enter the email you used at checkout and tap Restore.
- Keep it one tap away. In Safari (iPhone/iPad), tap the Share button and choose Add to Home Screen; in Chrome (Android), tap the menu and choose Add to Home screen. The app then opens like any other app and your access stays put.
- One subscription, your own devices. You can restore to a new device a few times a day. If you ever hit that limit, just wait a day and try again - the limit is only there so one subscription cannot be shared around the world.
- Your writing is separate. Your journal, prayers, and photos are stored only on your device. To carry them to a new one, use Privacy & Backup to download a backup and restore it there.
Trial & billing
New here? A free trial lets you use the reflections and prayers before deciding. After that, a small offering keeps it going. You can cancel anytime from “Manage subscription,” and your access continues until the end of the period you paid for. Billing is handled securely by Stripe - we never see your card details - and your journal and prayers always stay on your device.
Share feedback
Found a glitch? Lost your access? Have an idea, or something that would help you pray? Tell us - we read every note. Your journal, prayers, and photos are never included; only what you type below is sent.
Prefer your own email app? You can also write to animarefinery@gmail.com.
About & a gentle note
Anima Refinery is in beta. It offers Catholic reflection and prayer support, but it is not confession, spiritual direction, therapy, medical care, or emergency support. If you are in crisis, please reach out to a human you trust - in the U.S., call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or 911 for immediate danger.
Anima Refinery supports prayer and reflection, but does not replace Mass, confession, a priest, a spiritual director, therapy, or medical care.
Contact & feedback
Questions, problems, or feedback during the beta are very welcome: email us.
Sources & attribution
Daily readings and the liturgical calendar for the United States are from the USCCB. Where shown, full Mass readings are displayed in your browser by Universalis (© Universalis Publishing Ltd.) via their webmaster service, with attribution - never copied to our servers or sent to the AI. Reading references and the day's title are the only liturgical details shared with the AI; the app never invents readings, feasts, or saints.
Terms & privacy
Terms of Service · Privacy Policy
Brand assets (internal) — preview and download the logo, app icon, and Linktree thumbnail.
Version —