In Mass today we had a visiting Priest who gave a stirring and wonderful homily directly in tune both with advent and with the Eucharistic Year. While he was speaking to us the woman directly in front of us spent the majority of the homily talking, albeit quietly into her cell phone. Has she no sense of priorities? Is she unaware of what her example teaches the three children she was with? If it were an emergency, why not take it outside the Church?
I don't know the nature or the meaning of the conversation; however, I will be praying especially hard for this woman and for her three children.
Now that's a whopper! I know, we don't really know why she did that. Perhaps there is a very good reason she felt that she should sit right in Church and talk on her cell phone. Perhaps it was an emergency and she didn't feel like she could leave her 3 children there by themselves. I'm assuming it was just her and the 3.
Apart from that, pretty clueless. But, and I have to remind myself of this constantly, especially while driving, we don't live in a perfect world. You just have to roll with what comes your way.
oh, you are sooo much more holy than i am. perhaps that is why i've been protected from 0close proximity to such behavior. i would have said something -- probably something rude enough to get me slapped.
we did have a young kid visiting last Christmas. his cellphone went off AT the Communion rail. sad but true.
This priest had the right idea, I think. ;-)
Dear Smockmomma,
Thank you for the compliment, but it simply isn't true. Your reaction is the better one. Sometimes we just have to engage in tough love to let people know the sheer vastness of the horror of what they are doing. Saying something rude enough to get you slapped (although I'm certain you would say it in the best possible way) is exactly the reaction this probably calls for.
I see my forbearance in this case as a weakness. Charitable correction is necessary and I will pray for the strength to eventually get there.
shalom,
Steven
I've heard of churches where they install cell phone jammers in the church so that people are unable to use them. Of course there are those few people like doctors who may need to use their cell phone while on the premises, but they could just walk out into the narthex or parking lot.
Every Sunday, just before Mass one of the cantors/choir members at my parish makes an announcement for people to turn off their cell phones/pagers. And, every Sunday, during some part of Mass one of those devices goes off.
I can be forgetful at times, so I can understand some cell phone/pager ringing every now & then. But, when there's an explicit reminder EVERY time before Mass starts, people don't have an excuse.
And people forget that most every device these days has an option to vibrate instead of ring, so if you absolutely have to keep the device on, it can be set to vibrate.