Question on iPhones during Mass

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otjm said:
it isn’t all that difficult to act like a grownup and use the missal.
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Not sure if I am the only one, but I certainly agree. The missals are not that hard to follow.

If choosing to use an ipad or iphone, I would definitely make sure to have it set so nothing pops up, notifications, text messages, phone calls or whatever so you don’t find yourself spending your time trying to correct a situation, rather than pay attention at Mass.
 
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SMHW said:
A number of my fellow choir members use tablets rather than our parish hymnals. The four part harmony hymnals used by the choir are heavy so a lighter tablet is nice. Plus we can take them home and practice. We have to buy our own electronic hymnal but it’s worth it.
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I think that’s different.
 
One of our priests did homily about why we should turn off our phones during mass. He said, don’t just put them on vibrate, completely turn them off.

He’s only 38 years old, diocesan priest. So he’s not old, anti-technology person; actually he loves technology and loves using it in the parish. But he strongly feels that we should use mass time to 100% disconnect from the secular world and focus on Heaven, and that our smartphone and tablets (even when we are using them as a missal) are tethers to the secular world.

God Bless
 
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Nope, not there. There is one parish near by that puts out separate missals in their daily chapel for weekday masses that have the readings. None of the normal missals in any of the parishes around here have the weekday readings. Some of them have the antiphons and responsorial psalm, but that’s it.
 
Lifeisbeautiful3 said:
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otjm:
it isn’t all that difficult to act like a grownup and use the missal.
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It isn’t difficult to focus while fellow congregants are reading along on an iPhone, either.
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Yeah, but the 8 year old kid doesn’t see that and doesn’t say “oh, Mr. John Doe is using the iPhone as a missal.” He looks around and says “mom, that’s no fair, Mr. Doe gets to use his iPhone during mass, why can I use yours?”
 
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That’s when mom has to say “there are missal apps that people use on their iphones to follow along”.
 
DeniseNY said:
That’s when mom has to say “there are missal apps that people use on their iphones to follow along”.
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Yeap, while big brother is pretending to following along while reading SportsCenter.

As my priest said, it also a great temptation to quickly check an email, sports score, answer a text, etc.

If we allow it, 20 years from now, everyone will be using them during mass and 1/2 the people will not be doing what they are supposed to be doing.

It kind of reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Bart puts a comic in his hymnal (or at least I think it was Bart in the Simpsons).

In general, I think it’s a slippery slope. I think it would be far better for the parishes to invest in missel books for the pews instead.
 
OCP publishes more than one version of its “Breaking Bread” missal/hymnal. One has Sunday readings but the other only gives a synopsis of the readings. If you actually want to see the text of the readings you need to look it up from a different source. I don’t think it has the week day readings at all.

My parish used the synopsis only version before they decided to ditch the missalette idea altogether. Now we have a hard cover hymnal. We have a few hardcover books for praying the LOTH on weekdays but we provide nothing for the Sunday and weekday Mass readings.

My parish gives kind of a mixed message when it comes to electronic readers. Our website lists the guest WiFi address and password and the bulletin provides the link to the USCCB daily readings. Do we actually encourage people to follow the readings electronically? I don’t know the current pastor’s opinion but the previous ones encouraged us to read ahead of time and to just listen during Mass.
 
phil19034 said:
If we allow it, 20 years from now, everyone will be using them during mass and 1/2 the people will not be doing what they are supposed to be doing.
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Just because someone is holding a missal, it doesn’t meant they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. The can still be mentally checked out. I wonder how many people remember their pastor’s homily from last week?
 
DeniseNY said:
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phil19034:
If we allow it, 20 years from now, everyone will be using them during mass and 1/2 the people will not be doing what they are supposed to be doing.
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Just because someone is holding a missal, it doesn’t meant they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. The can still be mentally checked out. I wonder how many people remember their pastor’s homily from last week?
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Yes, of course. But it’s not as easy to check sports scores when using the missal.
 
SMHW said:
but we provide nothing for the Sunday and weekday Mass readings.
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That’s a shame.

If you still have paper bulletins, your parish could publish the Sunday readings on the first two pages of the bulletin. I know that’s what the local FSSP parish does near me.

Unless, the priest & parish are against throwing the Word of God in the trash.

Or they could take up a special collection to buy a number of these for the pews:

www.catholiccompany.com

St. Joseph Sunday Missal - Complete Edition in Accordance with the Roman Missal

St. Joseph Sunday Missal: Complete Edition in Accordance with the Roman Missal Includes Sunday, Sunday vigil, and Holy Day Masses Complete 3-year cycle Complete Edition People's prayer responses in bold face This complete and permanent Saint Joseph Sunday Missal from Catholic Book Publishing is...
www.catholiccompany.com www.catholiccompany.com
 
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DeniseNY said:
But it’s just as easy to daydream
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Can’t control everything, but we can refrain from purposefully promoting use of a device that will tempt people to use it for something else.

Look, I never said, the parish should pass a law that says you are prohibited for using it. I’m saying it’s not a good idea to promote the use during mass.

Big distinction.
 
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My family and I were at Mass during a power outage. Being the in cryroom, we could not hear the readings ( the normal speakers were not functioning since the power was out). I took out my cell phone and read the readings to the attendees in the cry room. Our pastor came by the hall( the associate was saying Mass). He was seeing how Mass was coming along without power. He saw what I was doing, smiled and came in. He read the Gospel off of my cell phone and gave us our own homily 🙂 )
 
Brendan said:
My family and I were at Mass during a power outage. Being the in cryroom, we could not hear the readings ( the normal speakers were not functioning since the power was out). I took out my cell phone and read the readings to the attendees in the cry room. Our pastor came by the hall( the associate was saying Mass). He was seeing how Mass was coming along without power. He saw what I was doing, smiled and came in. He read the Gospel off of my cell phone and gave us our own homily 🙂 )
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That’s cool.
 
And the text on a phone screen is not even smaller?

I will boot back to a poster above, who noted the issue of keeping kinds (particularly teenagers) focused on the Mass and not their phone.

I don’t have a problem with someone using a tablet. A phone is simply not necessary - the missal works just fine, and if fingers are needed for the missal, so they are for the phone.

And the matter is that someone using their phone gives the impression they ar not attending Mass; so yes, they are giving the impression. It is on them; read the Gospels about giving scandal. According to you, Christ is wrong and it would be on the one scandalized. That is not how I read Christ’s words.
 
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