Being Driven Crazy at Mass

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Lara said:
For the record, I absolutely assume that using a smart phone in church is entirely inappropriate.
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But people aren’t required to conform to your personal preference. If I told you that you have to get the app because the flipping of book pages is distracting, you would have every right to tell me to mind my own business.
 
Because a book is one more thing I have to carry.
With the LOTH app on my phone, I can pray anytime, anywhere.
 
CilladeRoma said:
Because a book is one more thing I have to carry.
With the LOTH app on my phone, I can pray anytime, anywhere.
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Precisely.

I do have the LOTH book, but that doesn’t mean I carry it everywhere. I prefer the book, but I don’t hesitate to use the app.

I also have a missal, but I don’t hesitate to use the app if I decide to go to daily mass at the last minute. I’ll also use the app if I go to adoration unplanned and want/need to do some Lectio or if I want to read the scriptures associated with the rosary mysteries that day.

Having the apps is quite handy. In this day and age you really can’t assume that someone using a phone in the church is texting, on socials or surfing the web.
 
I use a book for the Mass readings. Is it really less distracting when I accidentally drop my book with the Mass readings than if I were to use a phone? I try to minimize the times that happens but with a toddler and older kids, it happens more often than I’d like.
 
Lara said:
To the people using an app, why not just go and buy a proper prayer book?
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Because most of my prayer books are antiques and extremely fragile.
Also, find me a prayer book that has the entire Bible available for reference in multiple translations as well as the current order of the Mass and historic books and texts from the various church fathers.

As a reference for my use at the Mass, my tablet cannot be beaten.

As to others judgement…that is their issue, not mine.
Those whose opinion matters already know what it is for.
 
Lara said:
For the record, I absolutely assume that using a smart phone in church is entirely inappropriate. I’m probably not the only one.
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I think that’s the problem of you and the other ones making unfair assumptions; not the people using their devices to pray.
 
The more I think about your judgemental attitude, I recall an incident a few years ago.
A woman in my parish, who had not nice things to say about other people and their behavior was caught reading a trashy romance novel that she had covered with an old Magnificat magazine cover during Mass.

Needless to say, she was quite embarrassed, and wonder of wonders, her nasty attitude seemed to disappear after that.
 
I know what you mean. Noise is very distracting, but if you were to wear earplugs maybe that would help. One lady at our church (poor thing probably wasn’t aware of it) was wearing a tunic to church without leggings or pants. It was a handkerchief style, longer in front but short in the back. It showed her underwear whenever she moved about. God may not mind a bit of underwear showing occasionally, but it would have been a mercy if someone told her. (I did not know her, so I kept my trap shut.)

Another time while going to a reconciliation service, I was shocked to see children running amok down the aisles where priests were hearing confessions in the pews. They did not seem aware of the fact that running in and out of aisles in this way was disrespectful. In this same instance, the kids who were making their first confessions had their parents escort them to the priest. It looked like they were hanging around while the kids were confessing. I wondered if the parents were going to confess with their kids hanging around. Oh, well!

Noise is everywhere. Since my husband died, I live by myself in a cozy little house. With my dear pets, I have found out there really is no place like home.
 
Where I live people wear t-shirts to church all the time.

I think writing could also be a prayer if it is addressed to God and allows you to think it out as to what you want to say.

I have always found it easier to write down things than express them in words because 1 - people don’t always listen to words and 2 - they seem more apt to misunderstand me when I try to talk to them.

For instance, I was talking to my husband while he was alive. I was explaining what a medium was. His answer was “A medium what? a medium size shirt, dress, or what?” He totally didn’t get it.

Now that he is gone, I miss those days.
 
woolycaterpillar said:
Where I live people wear t-shirts to church all the time.
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That was meant to be sarcastic. The OP also has issues with other people’s attire at Church, so I was saying that the T-shirt, in the eyes of the OP, is also part of the problem
 
I think it’s tragic to feel like you need your cell phone at all in church. Just meditate and listen to the priest and pray. Leave your homework on the Bible for later. Look around you. Look at others. To me, the cell phone addiction isn’t much different from other addictions. Discipline is what’s needed. And I’m going to judge you in the same way that you already judge me. That’s human nature.
 
A prayer book only has one purpose. To glance at the Eucharistic Prayer isn’t really a big deal to me. But people looking up Biblical passages on their cell phones when they’re at Mass–a Eucharistic Meal with fellow Catholics in which community matters–displays an inordinate lack of discipline. In general, cell phone users lack discipline. I don’t own one.

Think for a minute how they appear to me. You give somebody directions to your house on the phone. They forget them. They phone you just as the food is needing attention. Suddenly google map didn’t work for them. They need directions. Never mind that they’ve lived in your city for years. They never bothered to study a map. You have to nurse them through the directions again. Then they have to call you again to say they’ve arrived. If you’ve ever been on a bus, you will hear the most inane conversations possible on their cell phones. I do not have fond associations with cell phones.
 
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Perhaps you should think how you look to others based on the comments you’ve made here? I think that’s a bigger issue for you than people using their phones for prayer during Liturgy. And by the way, why are you looking at what others are doing anyway? Shouldn’t you be mediating or praying? Sounds kind of undisciplined to me.
 
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Lara said:
I think it’s tragic to feel like you need your cell phone at all in church. Just meditate and listen to the priest and pray.
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I think it’s tragic to feel like you need to judge how other people pray at all in church. Just meditate and listen to the priest and pray.

See? It works in the other direction, too.
 
Use the adoration chapel, if you have one, for quiet prayers, you will never change these others…
 
Lara said:
If you agree with the airline, you are being very judgemental according to your standards. To me, using your cell to check out Bible passages falls into this category.
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Except in that situation, the company that owned the plane and employed the passengers on board made a decision. If this was like your case, you, the passenger, would be telling the lady she couldn’t bring the peacock on the plane. Based on whose authority though? Yours? It’s not your plane or crew, what gives you the authority to make that call?

Perhaps I’m biased since I’m an electrical engineer, but tools are tools, even if they run on batteries. Books can be abused like cellphones can be.
 
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