Ipad as Missal/Lectionary

[Don_Ruggero]

I don’t disagree with you I was just giving my opinion on why we shouldn’t go towards electronic devices in the Mass. I’m no expert on this stuff just giving my opinion. I may be wrong about the whole setting apart thing, but personally if I saw a priest using a ipad missal instead of the Roman Missal, I would be concerned that something used in the liturgy is not being given due reverence outside of the liturgy. This would not include extraordinary circumstances where you may need to use an Ipad, because nothing else is available. This would be an extreme case, but how would you feel if a priest used the same Ipad to say the prayers of the mass, but also used that to look at inappropriate videos and images? This would be my concern, required to be set apart or not, doing something sinful with a object used for sacred use is dangerous. (Again this is all my personal opinion, I’m not going to go up to a priest and say, you shouldn’t be using your Ipad as a missal, I may ask him why are you doing that? Give him my own opinion but let him decide.)

About ibreviary, I like to use my own breviary and avoid using ibreviary, there is something about being able to use a book instead of a device. Also what happens if I get a call in the middle of praying one of the psalms? Sure it could be an emergency call, but if it is a personal call I would have to deny it, and than go back to my place. Again all personal decisions but I wouldn’t think it would be wise to only use your ibreviary to pray the LOTH and I wouldn’t think that is what the Church has in mind. Again nothing wrong with using it but at-least for me personally using the breviary is better than using my phone with ibreviary on it. But of course there are thousands if not millions of circumstances where using ibreviary is appropriate. (again all personal opinion)

Since I am now a happily retired professor of liturgy and sacraments and you are currently a seminarian, I shall leave it for you to ask the professor of your seminary who teaches in this particular field.

I, too, prefer my breviary to an electronic device although there are times when it is simply more practical to use something other than the breviary. But you have always to be careful about making sweeping conclusions. There are priests with, for example, macular degeneration for whom an electronic device with its ability to alter the print size and the illumination is the last breviary they will be able to see and use. What we may decide the Church has in mind may, in fact, be very far removed from reality.

I will answer your last concern. You will find it happens, for example, when you are in the confessional that you interrupted in mid-psalm. You stop and tend what needs tending and then you return to the half-finished psalm, complete it, and finish the hour that you are praying. Of course, the Office can also just as easily be interrupted by the emergency phone line ringing because you are needed at the hospital for a dying patient. The liturgy of the hours will still be there when you come back.

 

[catholictiger]

Since I am now a happily retired professor of liturgy and sacraments and you are currently a seminarian, I shall leave it for you to ask the professor of your seminary who teaches in this particular field.

I, too, prefer my breviary to an electronic device although there are times when it is simply more practical to use something other than the breviary. But you have always to be careful about making sweeping conclusions. There are priests with, for example, macular degeneration for whom an electronic device with its ability to alter the print size and the illumination is the last breviary they will be able to see and use. What we may decide the Church has in mind may, in fact, be very far removed from reality.

I will answer your last concern. You will find it happens, for example, when you are in the confessional that you interrupted in mid-psalm. You stop and tend what needs tending and then you return to the half-finished psalm, complete it, and finish the hour that you are praying. Of course, the Office can also just as easily be interrupted by the emergency phone line ringing because you are needed at the hospital for a dying patient. The liturgy of the hours will still be there when you come back.

As I said I was just giving my opinion on the matter, in no way do I claim to be an expert on the matter.

May God bless you.

 

[ProVobis]

…the only situation where an tablet or phone could be used in a liturgical setting is in extraordinary circumstances. Priest pulls up to a car accident, person is about to die, for what ever reason he doesn’t have his rites book, so he has to use his phone to pull up the prayers. (I doubt there are any priests who don’t carry around their prayers for the sick book in their car.) Maybe a priest gets stranded and wants to say a Mass in private, but he didn’t bring his Missal with him. Priest goes on youth group trip, and they forgot to pack the Missal. I could come up with more situations, but a ipad should only be used in an emergency in liturgical settings.

Not to worry. In 20 years the ipad will be as outdated as the 8-track.

 

[baliano]

I noticed on my Tablet App Breviary a statement that due to copyright laws the content may not match that of printed versions but will always attempt faithful portrayal, or words to that effect. Is/are there copyright legal media available such that they could be used in a Liturgical setting?

 

[E_7]

Oh boy, if we open that door, I don’t want to imagine the far future.

 

[twf]

Since I am now a happily retired professor of liturgy and sacraments and you are currently a seminarian, I shall leave it for you to ask the professor of your seminary who teaches in this particular field.

I, too, prefer my breviary to an electronic device although there are times when it is simply more practical to use something other than the breviary. But you have always to be careful about making sweeping conclusions. There are priests with, for example, macular degeneration for whom an electronic device with its ability to alter the print size and the illumination is the last breviary they will be able to see and use. What we may decide the Church has in mind may, in fact, be very far removed from reality.

I will answer your last concern. You will find it happens, for example, when you are in the confessional that you interrupted in mid-psalm. You stop and tend what needs tending and then you return to the half-finished psalm, complete it, and finish the hour that you are praying. Of course, the Office can also just as easily be interrupted by the emergency phone line ringing because you are needed at the hospital for a dying patient. The liturgy of the hours will still be there when you come back.

As a layman I am not bound to pray the office, but when I do it is typically on my iPhone out of sheer convenience. (I do have the four volume North American English set, and I do love using them… But with the iPhone i can pray the office on the train or wherever I feel so moved).
I know a priest who is a parish pastor who regularly prays his office on his iPhone. I imagine for busy parish priests and deacons it can be most convenient.
I remember some years ago I was at a dinner with the archbishop. The vicar general was showing His Grace how to use his new iPhone. When I informed His Grace that the above mentioned priest regularly prayed on his phone he responded: “Well, Father X is a modernist. I was at a conference and the priest to my left had his tablet. The priest to my right had his phone. And I had my breviary. I felt so righteous!” He was joking, of course, especially as the “modernist” iPhone praying priest in question is well known for preferring the EF to the OF