Cell Phones at Mass

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Laura_B

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…I wouldn’t have believed it:

Yesterday at the school Mass at our relatively conservative church, a cell phone rang at the beginning of Communion. An older woman (at least 50s) just coming back from receiving Our Lord and Savior pulled out her phone and answered it in a normal-to-slightly-loud speaking voice: “Yeah?” “I’m in church.” (The Communion songs hadn’t started yet so there was absolutely nothing to mask the distraction. Thankfully, it was my turn to go to Communion so I don’t know how much longer the conversation lasted but…Oh My! Please pray for her – and for me.
 
My pastor told me the story of a woman extending her hand to receive Communion while she was on the cell phone. What can you do? Just pray for the them!:o
 
I would HOPE that would be a valid reason to deny communion to that person at that point in time.
 
Laura_B said:
…I wouldn’t have believed it:

Yesterday at the school Mass at our relatively conservative church, a cell phone rang at the beginning of Communion. An older woman (at least 50s) just coming back from receiving Our Lord and Savior pulled out her phone and answered it in a normal-to-slightly-loud speaking voice: “Yeah?” “I’m in church.” (The Communion songs hadn’t started yet so there was absolutely nothing to mask the distraction. Thankfully, it was my turn to go to Communion so I don’t know how much longer the conversation lasted but…Oh My! Please pray for her – and for me.
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:eek: maybe someone spoke to her about it!
 
A few weeks ago at a 6:00 pm Sunday Mass, Father was just about to begin the homily, when HIS cell phone rang. He said " Oh who could be calling me now?" He immediately turned it off and apologized for forgetting to turn it off prior to Mass. Of course, the congregation got a big chuckle.
 
Maybe she has been on an organ transplant list and that was the call to tell her to get to the hospital NOW?!!!

That’s always what I try to tell myself when someone is talking without a care about anyone around them. I was once driving behind someone - we were going about 45 mph when she got a call on her cell… she slowed down to talk - not kidding - to 10 mph. I couldn’t pass so there we creeped along.

I was thinking such terrible thoughts until I came up with the organ transplant thing.

I hope she’s doing well with her new kidney.
 
Indyann said:
A few weeks ago at a 6:00 pm Sunday Mass, Father was just about to begin the homily, when HIS cell phone rang. He said " Oh who could be calling me now?" He immediately turned it off and apologized for forgetting to turn it off prior to Mass. Of course, the congregation got a big chuckle.
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Happened to me in the middle of confession once—the priest’s phone rang—he excused himself–had a short conversation—then we continued with my confession.
 
carol_marie said:
Maybe she has been on an organ transplant list and that was the call to tell her to get to the hospital NOW?!!!

That’s always what I try to tell myself when someone is talking without a care about anyone around them. I was once driving behind someone - we were going about 45 mph when she got a call on her cell… she slowed down to talk - not kidding - to 10 mph. I couldn’t pass so there we creeped along.

I was thinking such terrible thoughts until I came up with the organ transplant thing.

I hope she’s doing well with her new kidney.
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Yes, I suppose we should always look for the most charitable explaination of someones behavior, instead of the worst. Wouldn’t we want someone to do the same for us?
 
The cantor announces every Sunday before Mass the need to turn off cell phones and still, with great regularity, someone’s still rings. It happened 2 times during the homily, at which point our priest gruffly asked that it be turned off and once during the consecration. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of the look Father fired from the altar.

I can see the point about medical emergencies, but then the phones need to be turned to vibrate.
 
My Cell rang while I was lectoring at daily mass. I usually leave it in the car but had forgotten to d so this time. .I reached down and turned it off while cntinuing to read . After Mass Father stopped me and told me he suspected it was the “Spirit” calling me to tell me I had mispronounced Hezekiah…
 
when i used to attend a protestant church, one of the elder’s had a pager that was always going off. no one said a word to him about it because that pager was strictly for work. he’s a doctor, so we all understood.
 
A ringing phone during his homily one day once led a priest to ask if that was the Good Humor man passing by.
 
estesbob said:
My Cell rang while I was lectoring at daily mass. I usually leave it in the car but had forgotten to d so this time. .I reached down and turned it off while cntinuing to read . After Mass Father stopped me and told me he suspected it was the “Spirit” calling me to tell me I had mispronounced Hezekiah…
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That’s pretty funny! 😃

Some of those OT names and places can be mouthfuls!
 
estesbob said:
My Cell rang while I was lectoring at daily mass. I usually leave it in the car but had forgotten to d so this time. .I reached down and turned it off while cntinuing to read . After Mass Father stopped me and told me he suspected it was the “Spirit” calling me to tell me I had mispronounced Hezekiah…
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LOL!😃 It seems that when I serve as a lector, I ALWAYS get the reading that has all the tongue-twisting place names and Hebrew words. The most common mispronunciations I hear are the “ten stringed lee-ray” instead of “lyre” (same as “liar”) and “dee-adem” instead of “diadem” (dye-a-dem). And then, there is the annual “eloi, eloi, lama sabacthani,” which one priest always pronounced “sa-bak-TACK-anny” like some town in Massachusetts.

One parish I attended had a lot of volunteer firemen who attended the same Mass. Every other week, pagers would go off all over the church and people would quietly excuse themselves and leave. A minute later, the air horns on city hall would start blasting.

A priest in Spain gained worldwide attention when he installed a cell phone jammer in his church which prevented making or receiving calls inside the building. Unfortunately, this is illegal in the USA because of things like emergency pages. I have noticed that Spanish Masses are particularly notorious for cell phone conversations in the middle of Mass. Once I watched as a lady in front of me answered her phone during the Sanctus and held a normal-volume conversation throughout the Consecration. Not to hijack the thread, but I would like to see more priests try to bring order to Spanish Masses in American parishes, where often so many people are chatting that the priest cannot be heard preaching, and children are running amok all over the place. In Mexico, priests generally don’t tolerate this kind of disruptive behaviour.
 
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