I use my iPad or iPhone for the Liturgy of the Hours when I pray it privately or informally with others.
I despise when these are used for formal recitation or chanting in a church, oratory or chapel setting, especially if the Presider uses it.
I am horrified by the use of these for Mass and on the altar and I think the laity using these devises to participate at Mass makes people think they are texting or watching something inappropriate in a Church setting.
The liturgical books of the Church, especially the Liturgy of the Hours and the Roman Missals are sacramental and should be treated with dignity and only for sacred use.
What do you think?
7 comments:
Guilty. I agree that the presider should GENERALLY use a conventional book but I use my iPhone and iPad when I can hit a Mass while traveling or during work. I will use it it during Mass for special prayers and readings. The presumption that my neighbors are sinning woth their electronics is MY sin, not theirs. FWIW, there are lots of really old folks in our FSSP parish that use a tablet. I think they enlarge the text so that it is easier to read.
This electronic version was created members of our men’s prayer group. Importing it to Kindle saved about US$200.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07YNQ73YB/ref=nodl_?ref_=dbs_w_series&storeType=ebooks
I use an app to pray Prime and Compline -- the books are too expensive and too complicated.
I would agree that actual books should be used during mass or public recitations of the Hours, although surely an app could be used to consult the Ordo to properly set the page markers for those books since things do tend to get complicated in that regard. Actually, now that I think of it, the SSPX has a 1962 Ordo app that does just that.
"I use an app to pray Prime and Compline -- the books are too expensive and too complicated."
When we were introduced to the four volume Liturgy of the Hours in seminary, we were a bit taken aback by the complexity of flipping through all the necessary sections on feasts and memorials and such.
We referred to the presentation on how to get it done properly as "Ribbon Mechanics 101."
The best experiences were those that came when the presiding deacon at one of the hours in the seminary chapel started the whole thing with the wrong antiphon. Everyone knew he had not consulted the ordo....
Ribbon Mechanics 101 -- that's funny! It might take the entirety of a seminary education to learn that particular skill.
I had the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours for a while just after converting. Then I had the 3-volume 1962 English/Latin Breviary. Neither stuck with me for very long since I spent more time worried about whether I had the ribbons right than I did praying!
Now I use a free app called BrevMeum, which gives English/Latin versions of various historical breviaries -- I go back and forth between 1962 and Divino Afflatu these days.
A few years back the CDW ruled that the altar missal had to be a real book. This also applies to the epistolarium and evangelarium used at High Mass. I don't know about the NO lectionary, but presumably it applies to that as well. Otherwise, if it's useful, use it.
I would agree, in private recitation/usage, fine, but in a church eetting, real books.
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