iPod in church

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I just got a CD of the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet and I’d like to put them on my iPod to pray before mass. There’s often a lot of commotion as people come in and listening to the Rosary through earbuds might help me to concentrate.

Obviously, I’d put my iPod away before mass starts.

Is this acceptable?
 
Personally, I wouldn’t want to create distraction by listening to iPod. I might as well distract people …making them thinking I am listening to Rap or something. 😃

I just need to learn how to pray when there is distraction around me.
 
I don’t see a problem with it as long as you have a rosary in your hand. That way people can see that you are praying the rosary and nothing else 🙂
 
KCT said:
What difference does it make what people might think? —KCT
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So people don’t become distracted or believe false things and everything gets blown out of proportion. It really doesn’t matter what they believe. There are just some “what ifs”.
 
Epsilon_Omega said:
So people don’t become distracted or believe false things and everything gets blown out of proportion. It really doesn’t matter what they believe. There are just some “what ifs”.
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that’s true. It also might create scandal - kids might think it is ok to listen to music and they start to listen to ipods during Mass.
 
It’s interesting that I came across this post. There was a young man sitting in front of me and he was listening to an iPod before Mass started. My first reaction was, “How rude”. But when Mass started he took them off and was as pious as ever. He may have been listening to the Rosary or Catholic Christian music for all I know. I don’t see anything intrinsictly wrong with this other than having people like me judging your actions. Thanks for the wake up call…God Bless…teachccd
 
iStumble said:
I just got a CD of the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet and I’d like to put them on my iPod to pray before mass. There’s often a lot of commotion as people come in and listening to the Rosary through earbuds might help me to concentrate.

Obviously, I’d put my iPod away before mass starts.

Is this acceptable?
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if you are my CCD student I will probably be approaching you with a suggestion that you stow it before I confiscate it so I would not suggest you try this here.
 
puzzleannie said:
if you are my CCD student I will probably be approaching you with a suggestion that you stow it before I confiscate it so I would not suggest you try this here.
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Well thank goodness I’m not your CCD student. I was just looking for some serious replies, but thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
iStumble said:
Well thank goodness I’m not your CCD student. I was just looking for some serious replies, but thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
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Also, ask your priest, and see what he says about the matter.
 
Geez, do we really spend this much time looking around the church to see what everyone else is doing? And is it really that important to worry what others might think? If your heart is in the right place, then what’s the problem?
 
This thread is interesting to me, as I recently made a “do-it-myself” retreat in a little town near here. Basically, I brought some recordings of a retreat Bishop Sheen gave in the late 70s – which I downloaded onto my MP3 player from the Internet for $15 (I’d be glad to share info on this if anyone is interested) – and listened to them in front of the Blessed Sacrament at a beautiful old church that is open all day. As I felt the urge, I would pause it and pray or jot a note down in my journal. It worked pretty well for me, as I have been unable with family and financial concerns to make a “real” retreat this year and Bishop Sheen was one of the best retreat masters ever.

However, I had the same concern as the OP about what others visiting Our Lord might think I was doing with my MP3 player in church, that is, whether I would be causing distraction or scandal. This is why I stayed in the un-airconditioned church rather than joining others in using the little perpetual adoration chapel nearby, which did have AC. The way I resolved my problem was to listen as unobtrusively as I could (with only one ear bud in my ear) and try to keep a reverent/attentive posture in the pew. Aside from that, I decided that what others might think of what I was doing was not my concern, as I was not flaunting my MP3 player in front of them. Frankly, if someone is examining me or my behavior that closely in church, I would think that s/he is the one with a problem, not me!

So, I think that as long as one is discreet and indicates by posture (attentiveness, holding a rosary, etc.) that s/he is praying, others’ reactions should not be of much concern.

Hope this helps.

Kristen
 
Epsilon_Omega said:
So people don’t become distracted or believe false things and everything gets blown out of proportion. It really doesn’t matter what they believe. There are just some “what ifs”.
Click to expand...
If it’s turned down, how can anyone be distracted? People should learn to think the best of others. This would give them the opportunity 😉 . —KCT
 
iStumble said:
I just got a CD of the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet and I’d like to put them on my iPod to pray before mass. There’s often a lot of commotion as people come in and listening to the Rosary through earbuds might help me to concentrate.

Obviously, I’d put my iPod away before mass starts.

Is this acceptable?
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Our priest actually suggested this!.. He went on to explain that not only could we listen to the Rosary but also Bible readings, sermons, Divine Mercy, sacred music etc. Personally I find this very helpful, especially before the 7am Mass when the Rosary isn’t said. I like to pray with people and my ipod gives the feeling of this.
When you have a rosary in your hand or a Bible open in front of you, nobody is going to think you are listening to rap.

Gearoidin
 
Kristen said:
This thread is interesting to me, as I recently made a “do-it-myself” retreat in a little town near here. Basically, I brought some recordings of a retreat Bishop Sheen gave in the late 70s – which I downloaded onto my MP3 player from the Internet for $15 (I’d be glad to share info on this if anyone is interested) – and listened to them in front of the Blessed Sacrament at a beautiful old church that is open all day. As I felt the urge, I would pause it and pray or jot a note down in my journal. It worked pretty well for me, as I have been unable with family and financial concerns to make a “real” retreat this year and Bishop Sheen was one of the best retreat masters ever.

Kristen
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This is a wonderful idea! I haven’t been on a retreat in years but never though of a DIY retreat. All the retreats are run by the Neocat commu ity in my parish and it just isn’t my style.
Thanks for sharing, Kristen.

Gearoidin
 
this is just another form of media. Is bringing a book on the rosary in Church offensive?? Oh well, I’m sure there was much to say when the microphone was invented…teachccd:)
 
I first saw someone listening to an MP3 player at Eucharistic Adoration about 6 months ago. She was obviously ‘doing something reverent’ and prayerful. Whatever she was listening to was putting her in a very recollected state. As I watched her, I realized I was being inappropriately curious, and should be paying attention to the Lord instead. But I liked her idea.

Two weeks ago, I took my own MP3 player to adoration and listened to the daily Mass readings and a lectio on the readings from the Jesuit site Pray-as-you-Go. I found that I didn’t enjoy it as much as the silence. For me, it was too much noise. I probably won’t take my MP3 player to adoration again, but am not bothered by anyone else doing so.
 
Mary3 said:
As I watched her, I realized I was being inappropriately curious, and should be paying attention to the Lord instead. But I liked her idea.
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This is one of my concerns - others will be distracted when seeing someone with the device - which is not commonly used inside the Church.
 
water said:
This is one of my concerns - others will be distracted when seeing someone with the device - which is not commonly used inside the Church.
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I know this thread hasn’t been commented on in about two weeks, but I just came across it and had an interesting thought. The argument put up here against iPods isn’t that they can’t be helpful prayer aids, but that they will be distracting because they aren’t common in church. But at one time the prayerbooks, lives of the saints, even personal bibles and other printed devotional material which we don’t think twice about when we see someone reading in Church were uncommon for Church. These things couldn’t become common until the printing press was widely used and the population became more literate. If we had used the same line of reasoning, we wouldn’t be able to use any devotional material to pray in church.

iPods as prayer aids aren’t for everyone. But for those who find that it helps them in prayer, I see know reason why they shouldn’t be used for praying in Church. We have no more reason to think someone listening to an iPod before Mass is listening to inappropriate music than we do to think that someone reading a prayer book is reading a comic book or trashy romance novel. The scandal isn’t in the person with the iPod but our uncharitable nature which jumps to think the worst about our neighbors.

Given the way that Catholic podcasting is growing, we have no good reason to assume that someone isn’t listening to that day’s liturgy of the hours or a Cardinal Arinze podcast or some other devotional material. Of course, one interesting question is if it’s wrong to have pop songs with inappropriate content stored on your iPod even though you only listen to Catholic stuff in church. If you’ve got media stored on your iPod which would offend our Lord, you shouldn’t take it to church with you.
 
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