the big yikes is that I personally would consider that on the that it rude to God boredline as we are in church to worship God and any personal study can be done at home any time. We can’t be in church anytime. It not about anyone seeing him and whether it makes a noise etc it just to me simply rude. I read the kindle during communion when nothing else is happening. I read because my thoughts end up all over the place which were getting me distressed and wanted them to stop. I am not reading when someone else is speaking etc and I do 100% use it as my way of connecting with God which in a round about way, I was doing before but unhappy etc. I don’t mind someone writing the odd note of a sermon down to look it up later but to start looking before the sermon has ended. For me it just feels rude that someone would start looking up the sermon points before the priest has finished and can’t wait till actually get home to do private study then. Okay I know I read but I really do read to stop the awful questions that had started to go around and I read with permission too though was given easily enough and I don’t care who sees and is quiet because it is a kindle. I understand about the need to concentrate on the service. But to to do one own private study on a sermon before the sermon is finished leaves me feeling suprised and unfair on the amount of work that the priest has put into it. We are in church to worship God as a community and our private self for me at least does come into that a lot but we can do lot of private study all the way through the week if we want to and look it up then. Just the way I see it, sorry
I’ve been thinking about how to best respond to this.
My husband and I were raised Evangelical Protestant, and just because we converted to Catholicism, we have not cast aside the values and traditions that we practiced for 47 years.
In the Evangelical Protestant tradition, STUDY is worship, and study can be “corporate” worship, because worship is seeking to
know and honor God, and we can best honor Him when we know Him.
II Timothy 2:15 say, “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
To me and my husband, the BEST way to listen to the priest is to fully engage ourselves in what he is saying and to not only pay attention, but to seek to understand it
as he is talking. To just let his homily wash over us is “rude.” And to just listen to him without any idea of what he is talking about is “rude,” too.
Let’s use the example of a conversation with a friend. Your friend is telling you all about their favorite activity, synchronized skating. The friend goes on and on about this wonderful activity, and you…well, you have no idea what synchronized skating is! You’re not sure whether it’s a sport or an exercise (like aerobics), or done on ice or on a roller rink. You’re just standing there smiling and nodding, but inside, you’re shaking your head and wondering what in the world your friend is talking about.
So what do you do? Do you allow your friend to go on and on, and just stand there and listen politely? And then later on, go look it up online?
That’s one approach. And it’s quiet. And IMO, it’s not very nice, because you are letting your friend go on and on, and not bothering to find out what she’s talking about and why it’s important to her. That’s “rude.” It demonstrates that you really don’t care.
Why not simply stop your friend and say, “Hey, this sounds exciting, but forgive me, I don’t know what synchronized skating is. Can you please explain what you’re talking about?”
And I guarantee that your friend will be absolutely THRILLED to explain synchronized skating to you! Your friend will be so glad that you asked, and so appreciative of your desire to learn more and share her enthusiasm, or at least understand her enthusiasm, even if you don’t share it.
And once you know what your friend is talking about, the two of you will be better able to understand each other, and YOU can listen to your friend with BETTER UNDERSTANDING of what she is talking about. You won’t just be standing there nodding and smiling with no clue of what she’s flapping her lips about.
I hope that this analogy helps you to see why we don’t think it’s rude to listen intently to the priest and attempt to understand what he’s talking about during his homily, instead of listening to the entire homily in ignorance.
We don’t do this all the time, and we certainly don’t make a big deal about it. But when there is talk of history, we are as ignorant as cats, and I think it makes a lot of sense to look up the history and scan through it as the priest talks, rather than just sit there and say, “Oh, well, we have no clue what he’s talking about, but we’ll be polite and just sit here and stare at him and PRETEND that we’re engaged.”
One of the constant litanies here on CAF is the lack of catechesis of many Catholics in the pews. I would say that one of the reasons why Catholics are ignorant is that they DON’T study enough, and they DON’T ask questions, but instead, they just sit there and let it all wash over them. And then they wonder why a Protestant shreds them in a debate. I would say that if using an electronic device can help Catholics become better catechized, then that is a good thing.
I know fully what I am doing and for me it has 100% worked!
Though I am either Singing or Serving at full Eucharists so am too occupied to have time to study further. The nearest I get is very badly picking out the tune to the hymn we are not singing 
The priest’s lavalier went out today so he had to practically shout to be heard until the choir director took care of the problem. I never did find out if the problem was with batteries or radio transmission. Fortunately such problems are rare.