Technology is coming to a Church near you. Could it be that in the future, there will be no need for paper missals and missalettes or even hymnals. An IPAD or its equivalent could be used at the altar instead of the missal we have been using for centuries. Everyone would bring their own Ipad to Mass and thus there would be no need for any worship aids in the pews. For special event Masses, the parish could post all that is needed for the sung and spoken parts of the laity on an IPAD site.
This would be just like the time before Vatican II when everyone brought their St. Joseph Missal to Mass to follow and understand the EF Latin Mass. And just imagine, people forgetting their IPADS in the pews, like they did their personal missals and the priest getting to keep them! Just like umbrellas. I have some nice ones, umbrellas that is, that others left in the church and never claimed. I can't wait.
Or, we would simply put IPADs in all the hymnal racks in the pews for people to use so they wouldn't have to bring their own and we'd hire cops to make sure no one stole them from the Church. How does that sound to you?
Two stories or commentaries on this wonderful electronic, liturgical possibility:
PRESS HERE
and
PRESS HERE
4 comments:
While no Luddite, I am not as enamored of the technological society as the masses, espcially the "hand-held" phenomena. We have increased the levels of mediation between ourselves, the world, and each other to an alarming degree. We talk and text with no real communication, we live vicariously through computers and games, and we mistake information (data) for knowledge and knowledge for wisdom.
I vote to keep the hand held nonsense out of the Mass. Heck, Fr., we have enough trouble getting idiots to turn off their cell phones! Let 'em bring computers to Church and the morons will be playing shoot 'em up during Communion. Then, people like me will have a strong desire to choke them or throw them down the wonderful marble steps of the Church and have to come to Confeassion. Please do not tempt a brother to fall...
I didn't live in the 'bring your own missalete to mass' era.
And I definitely missed out on a lot.
I was spoon fed by having it in the pew for me and therefore had no thought to take any responsibilty myself. And noone told me to or instructed me to either.
Also, it denied me the opportunity to understand and connect with the Mass as well as my pre-Vatican 2 predecessors did.
I say bring back the 'bring your own missalete to Mass' era.
Now whether it should be paper or electronic is open to debate. Electronic will allow a in a new temptation as so well articulated by pinanv525, yet if it is a venue by which to get the laity to take individual ownership and to understand the Mass and thereby become better Catholics, then that's a good thing.
Personally speaking, paper that one touches and feels gives a fuller experience.
If the Catholic Church holds on to paper while the rest of the world discards it, then the Church will be viewed one day as an anchor and refuge in the everchanging sea and storms out there.
Hmm..isn't that what it already is? Isn't that what Tradition provides?
Well, I have the Breviary on my iPhone and I love it. I do feel awkward using it while inside the Church, though, because I feel like anyone who sees me staring at my phone will probably think I'm playing a game. However, the breviary for iPhone only cost $.99 instead of well over $100 for the print version!
This comment posted from my iPhone, by the way!
Some day I can actually see it, but hopefully not in my life time.
I will say this though, before the EF I never owned a missal. Well, actually I received one at my first Communion becasue it was tradition but I was never shown how to use it, or why I would want to. When I started going to the EF Mass I decided I wanted my own MR1962 which my wife bought for me as a Birthday present in 2008 and I was awestruck. Yes it contained the Mass, but it contained so much more. It was a missal not just for Sunday Mass, it was a guide for daily prayer, and prayers for all occasions, and when and how to prayer them. Once again I was bowled over by how the traditional ways of our faith made sense, were connected and every moment a teaching moment. Once again the traditional ways showed themselves to be more orthodox and far superior to anything I had been exposed to doing the formative years of my life.
My wife has an android phone and it has some wonderful applications for the Rosary in Latin, and Daily Prayer, which she finds handy and useful, although she has gotten a look or two in adoration as she uses her cell phone.
Like many things in life technology can be a boon, but their are many traps and pitfalls that come with it, and it takes a strong spiritual grounding to go through the looking glass and come away unscathed.
One last thought (sorry they just keep coming). As man gets more and more access to data, it seems to me even more important that the classic method of education be restored. With data pooring in at terabyte speeds the ability to analyze and make sound choices will be far more important than merely an eduction in a specific field.
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