I don’t want to contradict a priest.
Using your breviary & iPhone sounds fine but actually this whole discussion started with people using phones at Mass & the phones ringing & disturbing the sacred atmosphere of the church.It would be nice if the OP would actually clarify what happened. It seems there were two women involved one was “in the front” using the phone, and one was next to the OP when the phone rang and she “left flustered”, that would make me think this particular woman had honestly forgotten to turn the phone off or put it on “vibrate”, not arrogantly sitting there thinking “if the phone rings of course I’ll answer it, who cares if Jesus is watching?” Or was she expecting an important call such as how a family member was doing in the hospital?I don’t want to contradict a priest.
I was agreeing with you.
Fair enough.
It wasn’t quiet… the OP said it was ringing & disturbed people.
That’s what I also thought it was about.
Here is the original quote, I think this discussion is getting off track.
My cell phone contains the Breviary, the Bible, and a prayer site. I use it at Mass on Sundays to pray before Mass and I use it to follow the readings during Mass–it’s easier to use than our missal. I sure hate to think what you’d be thinking about me. When I pray my eye’s are usually closed (unless I’m praying one of the hours in which case they’re focused on my phone praying the prayer or reading the reading)–so I am not sure I would have noticed the person was on their phone, but if I did I would give them the benefit of the doubt as to how they were using it. Hey the ringing thing happens to people occasionally (we are all human and sometimes we miss doing something or think we’ve done something we haven’t) --in those situations I try to be understanding and forgiving–and I hope people are that way when I do something unintended.
Books were once the new technology–oh how distracting all that page turning and flipping must have been. Do you think people once found using the missals highly disrespectful? I’ve been to adoration chapels that have books there for people to use to aid their prayer time, but I don’t usually see threads about how distracting it is for people to be turning those pages or flipping through the book looking for a meditation. Is page turning and flipping really that much less off putting than scrolling on a phone–you don’t really hear the tapping and scrolling–it’s a lot more silent than page turning. Are we just assuming the worst about people simply because they might chose to use their phone for their meditation/prayer as opposed to a prayer book?Hi, I agree with you.When in Church, people need to get their phones put on silent or have them turned off. It might have been a mistake though, with the phone ringing, if it just happened this once, with this person.
In terms of the person using their phone the whole time - what did people do before technology. They managed. Tapping and fiddling is off-putting. Ultimately, all one can do is bring it up with the priest. Up to you if you do or not. But it is in his hands then. I sympathise. When one is in Church, one is there to pray. Period. Of course, they could have been using it to pray a long set of prayers, or something, but I still think there is something highly disrespectful about using phone technology in the Church.
Adoration is Adoration.
Exactly: called to see Him.
That’s a nice perspective only I think God calls us in a different way than to be conversing by phone especially during Adoration. In fact, I think the act of responding to God alone, would be be held in higher regard as the greater “call”.
Do people who can’t be bothered to check their phone usage in Church also draw people closer to God?
Actually, gentle correction can often be a duty - a work of mercy. Obviously, individual circumstances take discernment.
So, if someone is bothered, it is their fault, but the person who is not respectful is doing nothing wrong. This counter-argument is back-to-front.
The fact that we are all sinners does not stop people from being able to show annoyance in the correct way. If it is annoyance motivated simply from having had our own ways of doing things interrupted, then the annoyance would not be justified, but if this annoyance is for the sake of God, then this is righteous, as is it driven by the clear awareness of the difference between what is good and what is not.
Can you even consider that your judgment of someone “not being respectful” might, in fact, be only your opinion, rather than fact?
Books can be classed as technology - just not of a.computing or electronic sort.
I’m sorry, but NO ONE in the OP’s example was conversing in Church that we know of. One was silently using their phone - most likely to do some laudable activity like read prayers, scripture or spiritual reading - and while the other had their phone ring, there is zero indication that they answered it or used it to converse with anyone.
This is a bit relativist. Or stemming from it.
Obviously, the ways described as the reason for the thread, do demonstrate this.
I don’t answer areas of posts where people put words in my mouth.
We’re allowed our opinions even if you don’t like it. And I hold to them.
But your opinions are not based on facts, but on your feelings.
I find the misused phraseology ‘lack of charity’ quite astounding on this thread.But your opinions are not based on facts, but on your feelings.
The OP stated that someone was using their phone at adoration. He did not state how, just that they were using their phone. As you have been told, many people, including priests, use their phones to pray. Nothing at all wrong with it. If you don’t like it, don’t do it, but don’t tell me that I can’t.
As far as the woman who’s phone rang- I am sorry that that happened, but people make mistakes. The OP said she left the chapel flustered. I would have been too. It would never be my intention to intentionally disrupt someone’s prayer, but stuff happens.
To be honest, I find the lack of Christian charity on this thread to be appalling.
With attitudes like many shown here, it is no surprise that people are leaving the Church.
So, are you saying that if both of us are in the adoration chapel; and I am reading the breviary on my phone, and you are reading the breviary in book form, and we are both quietly praying and contemplating God, am I less respectful than you because I am using a phone?