Should You Use Your Phone to Follow Along with the Mass? (Special Podcast Highlight)
The Patrick Madrid Show
Relevant Radio
4.8 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you use the missalette at Mass? Or do you follow along on your phone?
In a recent episode of The Patrick Madrid Show, a riveting discussion unfolded around the use of traditional missalettes versus digital devices during Mass. Here's the breakdown:
Patrick Madrid explored the purpose of the missalette - that little book filled with Mass readings, prayers, and rituals. It's a handy guide for you to participate in the Mass.
📱 Digital Dilemma: A tweet sparked debate: Is it appropriate to use a phone as a missal during Mass? One churchgoer tried to offer a traditional missalette to a fellow parishioner engrossed in his phone, suggesting it was less distracting. The response? A decline, emphasizing personal preference and sparking a broader conversation on modernity in Mass.
Patrick leans into the evolution of tech in prayer and worship, acknowledging the convenience of apps and electronic missals. He acknowledges the practicality of digital devices, from enlarging text to housing multiple resources in one's pocket. Yet, he advises discretion to avoid distracting fellow worshippers.
🤔 Etiquette & Empathy: The consensus? While tradition holds its charm, the integration of technology in worship is an undeniable trend. The key lies in balancing respect for individual worship needs. Suggestions ranged from using phones discreetly to possibly designating tech-friendly seating areas in churches.
What's your call on this? Should the tech stay or go at Mass?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Do you use the Missalette at church on Sunday when you go to Mass? Missalette, for those who are not |
| 0:06.3 | Catholic, is the readings and the prayers and the mass information for that month. And so, I mean, |
| 0:14.8 | you could bring your Bible with you to Mass. Very few Catholics do that. And one reason is because |
| 0:20.4 | it's all there in the Missile. |
| 0:22.8 | You can follow along, you can read the readings, the prayers, everything that's there. |
| 0:26.6 | I tend not to use the Missalette. I tend to just do everything by memory. I mean, if you go to |
| 0:33.1 | Mass often enough, those parts of the Mass, you can master very quickly. And the missile, of course, |
| 0:40.4 | is the name of the big book on the altar that the priest is using, also known as a sacramentary. |
| 0:47.5 | But it contains all the prayers for the mass, et cetera. I saw this on Twitter, and I thought I might bring it to your attention, |
| 0:56.8 | because I have a few thoughts on it. I'm curious if you have any. This is Catholic friends. |
| 1:01.6 | I have a dilemma and a question. Today at Mass, a gentleman sitting alone was using his phone |
| 1:07.1 | as his missile. This was quite distracting. So I went and got him a missile book, opened it to |
| 1:13.9 | the date of that mass, quietly tapped him on the shoulder and said, you can use this to help you |
| 1:19.3 | follow along. He said, I have my phone, thanks. To which I replied, it's just quite distracting. To whom? |
| 1:31.1 | To me? Well, then move. He finished in a matter of fact kind of way. That was it. We both made a point of saying, peace be with you when the |
| 1:36.1 | time came. And by all accounts, he was a regular. I've just never sat behind him, I guess. |
| 1:41.4 | Anyway, my question is, was I out of bounds for asking him to use a missile |
| 1:46.8 | booklet instead of his phone? So you can picture the scenario. And I don't know if you have an |
| 1:53.1 | opinion on this, I'll give you mine. Because for one thing, more and more now, people, and these |
| 1:59.3 | were some of the things that were brought up in the |
| 2:01.0 | comments but my initial reaction when I read this and didn't have any I didn't have a chance to |
| 2:06.0 | look at the comments I thought well like it or not we live in an era now where more and more |
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