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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

IF A GOLF TOURNAMENT CAN DO IT, WHY NOT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?????

If you go here:

You can't have this or a tablet of any kind! In fact this first one is absolutely forbidden!


I am taking Easter Tuesday off in Augusta, the golf capitol of the world, especially this week which is Masters' Week! In fact the town house where I am (my mother's)the Augusta National is about three or four miles from here and here is about 3/4's of a mile from the infamous Washington Road where the main entrance to Augusta National is, Magnolia Drive. And yes it is lined with Magnolia trees.

But I digress. If you are blessed enough to have a ticket to the practice rounds and doubly blessed by God, the Blessed Mother and all the angels and saints in heaven, and have a ticket to the actual tourament (and please say it the in the proper Augusta southern accent: toon-ah-mint), you will not be allowed to bring a cell phone or tablet (iPad) onto the golf course.

COULD I GET AWAY WITH THIS SIGN AT SAINT JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MACON? IF NOT HOW IN THE NAME OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY CAN THE AUGUSTA NATIONAL GET AWAY WITH IT? IS IT MORE SACRED THAN A CATHOLIC CHURCH? I ASK, YOU ANSWER!

23 comments:

Rood Screen said...

If it rings during Mass, then that means it needs to be baptized by total immersion.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding? Even at St. John Cansius in Chicago I'll hear an occasional cell phone ring, and more and more I see someone or another looking at their smart (!) phone during Mass (or services). I pray they are referring to their phone to follow along, hopefully using some app that applies to the liturgy going on at the altar. Because to imagine someone is bored and surfing the web or texting somebody or checking emails during Mass or a Holy Week service is just too much for me!

And who would enforce the restriction? The same people enforcing the dress code?

Paul said...

Perhaps the people are even less considerate with cell phones ringing at Augusta National than at Mass. If so, I can understand why the tournament would ban them.

Since the tablets and phones also make shutter noises and some flash when the camera is used, that would only add to the noise.

I can also imagine someone "live streaming" from the tournament which would, probably, be in violation of the ticketholder agreement and not to enforce the ban be in violation with whatever agreement the tournament has with the broadcasting networks.

Enjoy the tournament. My father and mother had the opportunity to attend the practice rounds for many years and had a great time.

Anonymous said...

A legendary story---can't recall where I heard it---is that in the early days of the tournament, the Masters often coincided with Easter, to the dismay of the local clergy, who were offended by golf being played on the holiest of days. When asked about that, Clifford Roberts, the longtime chairman (1934-1977) responded, "well, why don't they change the date of Easter?" Thankfully I don't think the two coincide again for 5 more years!

I'll be down there Thursday so I hope Father has said some prayers for majestic weather the opening day!

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

No tickets for me, I am content just to have the smell of the famous golfers and the pollen laden air from the National waft westward from the course to this most humble townhome on the Augusta-Martinez boundary. And be sure to pronounce Martinez properly, "Mart-N-nezz. Must say fast!

Anonymous said...

I will often have the readings pulled up on my phone so i can follow along and read the text where the readings skip one poignant verse right in the middle (something I do not understand), but it does concern me that people might be distracted by the glow. The last thing I want to do is anger others by my perceived lack of reverence. Other times, I may take a tablet to Adoration because it contains the meditations I am working through. Again, I would prefer to use paper copy, but it is much less likely I would have it with me. Missal + 4 Volumes of Mystical City of God + Bible or just a tablet on silent?

Steven

Anonymous said...

Does not happen where there are TLM's!!!!!

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

happened at my Easter Sunday EF Mass, phone rang!

rcg said...

I have heard a cell phone ring in our Masses (FSSP Parish). It is rare, however. I suspect it is one of our many visitors from neighboring parishes that visit. We get quite a few.

Has anyone used iPieta? It is a wonderful tool and I think I would use it in Mass if I knew our priest would allow. I have seen some of the university students using tablets that I think had the Missal or perhaps prayers on them.

Anonymous said...

A golf tournament can do it and the Catholic Church can't because going to the Masters once a year is more important, more fun, more exciting to people than going to Mass every week. It's a bigger deal....I don't think people travel from around the world and pay outrageous sums for lodging to attend your EF Mass. Do they?

Some of the priorities here are a bit skewed from the real world.

Православный физик said...

rcg, I use I pieta when I pray outside of Mass or what not, it's a good app. I do use it to follow the readings (and to tune out Haugen-Haas greatest hits)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 4:13pm said:
"Some of the priorities here are a bit skewed from the real world."

Jesus said, where your treasure is, there is where your heart will be.

John Nolan said...

When it goes off, it's always during the Canon. Should I forget to turn mine off, I have a Gregorian ring-tone so it shouldn't be too offensive. There's a special one for when the wife calls - 'Dies irae, dies illa ...'

Anonymous said...

When "the wife" calls. That's how you refer to her? What a romantic you are ....

Anonymous said...

"The Wife" is the accepted phraseology of the Latin-praying non-philistinic snooty classes. Ain't that right, guvnuh?

Paul said...

There's also an Android app called Laudate. Free, no ads.

rcg said...

Anonymous, yes and in sotto lest she recognize your voice.

Mordacil said...

Ringing cell phones was one of many crazy things I witnessed at this years easter vigil. This completed my neophyte year in the Church and after seeing the way mass is treated out here, I really miss the atmosphere of St. Joseph. I've been in basic military training for the last few weeks and finally reached my first duty station out in California. I was afraid that once I left St. Joe's I'd be stuck with the craziness I read about in this blog and unfortunately I have seen it here.

We had "ministers of gesture" during the vigil. No quiet or reverence at all for prayer before it began. Most shocking of all to me was that no one knelt during the consecration. I couldn't help it, I had to kneel. It felt so wrong to stand. Even after the vigil, the tabernacle was way off in the corner, as if to get it out of the way of the choir and flower arrangements. People walked right past it, completely ignoring it as just a box in the corner behind the chairs in the room.

I just want to say that I appreciate the beauty and reverence of St. Joe's liturgy even more after seeing this mass and others like it. I hope I can find a better celebration of the sacraments somewhere out here.

John Nolan said...

Just an idiom, like the trouble and strife, 'er indoors, or (if one wants to sound posh) the memsahib. The Day of Wrath can be averted by letting it go to voicemail, which it does when it gets to 'Quantus tremor est futurus'.

An Irishman bought his first cellphone. It rang while he was in the pub. 'Hi Pat, it's Seamus'. 'Seamus, how the heck did you know I was here?'

Rood Screen said...

Very witty, John Nolan! If only your anonymous detractors here had something humorous to say, or at least something intelligent.

rcg said...

I read the Irish joke three times and still don't get it. FrAJM, please email an explanation to me but wait til I get home. I am not allowed to read my iPad at work.

Anonymous said...

I think rcg is a theology major.

WSquared said...

Father, some of us use our iPhones to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (at Adoration, for example), or even follow the Latin Mass readings for the low Mass (when the priest hasn't read them in the vernacular for our edification).

And yes, I actually do these things-- it's the only time I ever look at my iPhone in church.