Does it annoy you when you spot someone checking their iPhone at inappropriate times? You're in a meeting, and you see the guy across the table, thumbs flying, doing something that can't possibly be work related, right? Well, the WiFi lines are starting to blur. First there was the advent of an application that provided the Liturgy of the Hours on a hand-held screen at the click of a button, then Mass and Rosary applications.
Now the Vatican has approved the use of iPads on the altar, thanks to an application developed by an Italian priest, according to a story from the Associated Press today:
Can you imagine your parish priest reading from in iPad instead of a traditional sacramentary? It's a brave new liturgical world out there folks. Although I'm fairly high-tech at home, I tend to stick to an old-fashioned missal and prayer book in church, or at the very least my monthly subscription to Magnificat (which also happens to have a prayer app). I have to admit that the Rosary and Liturgy of the Hours apps have tempted me, in part because I struggle with those prayers so having audio-visual assistance at my fingertips might help.
"The Rev. Paolo Padrini, a consultant with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said Friday the free application will be launched in July in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin.
"Two years ago, Padrini developed the iBreviary, an application that brought the book of daily prayers used by priests onto iPhones. To date, some 200,000 people have downloaded the application, he said.
"The iPad application is similar but also contains the complete missal — containing all that is said and sung during Mass throughout the liturgical year. Upgrades are expected to feature audio as well as commentaries and suggestions for homilies and a musical accompaniment, he said.
"'Paper books will never disappear,' he said in a phone interview from his home parish in Tortona, in Italy's northern Piemonte region. But at the same time 'we shouldn't be scandalized that on altars there are these instruments in support of prayer.'"
What do you think of this development? Are you using high-tech applications for prayer? Tell us in the comment section how you feel about this blend of faith and function. To read the AP in its entirety, click HERE.
