Ah, but if the woman was opposite you, how do you know she was reading messages? Wouldn't it be a kick in the head if what she had there on the iPhone was a rosary app?
February 15, 2016
"Recently while riding the B train northward, I noticed the hands of the two people sitting opposite me."
"They were both engaged in moving their thumbs in the same pushing motion. The young woman was scrolling through her cellphone messages. The man was holding his rosary and gently moving his beads."
Ah, but if the woman was opposite you, how do you know she was reading messages? Wouldn't it be a kick in the head if what she had there on the iPhone was a rosary app?
Ah, but if the woman was opposite you, how do you know she was reading messages? Wouldn't it be a kick in the head if what she had there on the iPhone was a rosary app?
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29 comments:
Or she could have been reading her Bible. There are numerous Bible apps.
https://www.bible.com/app#!
Digital prayer wheels. What hath God wrought? Just keep them out of the Holy Water or the insurance doesn't pay off.
People do this all the time. Rosary apps are pretty common, and popular with younger Catholics—you'll sometimes see people with missal apps on their iPads, too. I wouldn't use them, and I rather look down on them—I'm very chary of the intangible and ephemeral in liturgical or devotional use—but it happens.
I was channel surfing the other day and came upon the broadcast of the Pope saying a high mass in Mexico. The mass was in Spanish, but I thought I heard Latin at certain points. In any event, being a lapsed Catholic, I could still follow along with the celebration. It was quite moving. Tremendous to see so many deeply religious people. I should start praying again, can't hurt.
Maybe she was reacting to what she was reading in a way that suggested it was email messages. You know, "That'll be the day!" and "Suck my dick!" Of course, that could have been in reaction to certain Biblical passages.
I have several Rosary apps. Not out of the question.
I have an app with daily mass readings and the liturgy of the hours.
The thumb moves in a limited number of ways. Two people (out of how many?) were making similar movements. What are the odds?
Not out of the question, but nothing to bet the mortgage money on.
"Simon said...Rosary apps are pretty common, and popular with younger Catholics—you'll sometimes see people with missal apps on their iPads, too"
I was curious when a law student had their iPad open during Mass, peeked over, it was the missal app. Nifty. I might try it.
Or maybe the two people were just a rhetorical device, juxtaposing two different ways of spending those minutes of downtime.
Would rolling cigarettes or (or something similar to smoke) also require the same thumb movements? Having never done it, I'm not certain, but I suspect so.
The apps (or website as I sometimes use) are helpful for those of us who need visual focus. Other than that, nothing (including beads) is really needed. I generally use my fingers to keep the count.
C Stanley said...Or maybe the two people were just a rhetorical device, juxtaposing two different ways of spending those minutes of downtime.
I took it as a statement about similarity of religious devotion to many other supposedly secular activities.
I'm just saying, you never really know what's in someone else's head.
Maybe the guy with the rosary was using it to enumerate and reflect upon the people he'd like to murder.
"I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer... How can they meet us face to face till we have Facebook?" --C.S. Lewis
Maybe the guy with the rosary was using it to enumerate and reflect upon the people he'd like to murder.
I wouldn't bet the mortgage money on that, either.
I'm just saying, you never really know what's in someone else's head.
Old joke:
Attorney is walking down the hall in the county courthouse and sees an old friend, an elderly, kind hearted, cultured man sitting in a waiting area reading Mein Kampf. The attorney is appalled, especially since he knows his friend is Jewish. He rushes over to his friend sits down next to him and asks him, "what are you doing?"
The elderly gentleman asks, "what do you mean?"
"Why are you sitting here in the courthouse reading Mein Kampf!"
The elderly gentleman replied, "I have been summoned for jury duty."
"But," the attorney asked, "why are you reading Mein Kampf where everyone can see you!?"
"Oh that, would you select someone for jury duty who reads Mein Kampf in public?"
Koran?
Theranter said...
"Simon said...Rosary apps are pretty common, and popular with younger Catholics—you'll sometimes see people with missal apps on their iPads, too. I was curious when a law student had their iPad open during Mass, peeked over, it was the missal app. Nifty. I might try it."
For me, I'd rather have the physical book. (Or the actual rosary; I don't pray the rosary very often, but when I do, I want the actual beads.) That said, however, I think that if one was minded to pray the (Catholic) hours, something like iBreviary would be a significant boon over the physical breviary, which is just a pain in the ass, exemplifying what Cranmer said in the preface to the original BCP about the missal having become so intricate that it took more time to work out what was to be read than it took to read it.
@simon- there is an iBreviary and I think an iMissal too. I recently downloaded the former, haven't started using it yet though.
I can only pray that the Rosary user wasn't manspreading!
Ron @ 2:27pm,
Funny. But it's so much easier these days when you can just sit there wearing a FIJA button.
Ann Althouse said...
"I'm just saying, you never really know what's in someone else's head.
Maybe the guy with the rosary was using it to enumerate and reflect upon the people he'd like to murder."
So Althouse has gone Full Laslo.
Noted.
I am Laslo.
Oh, yeah?
well,
While riding on a train goin'west
I fell asleep to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad..
I take my tablet to Mass to read part of the breviary on it, and to supplement the new rite with prayers &c from the old (or to support my following the old rite, when I get to it). On the other hand, I wouldn't think of saying the Rosary via an app; quite apart from the fact that my beads are blessed by Pope St John Paul, I don't see how the app would be more convenient to use than the physical beads.
A rosary app is very convenient to use while driving. I can listen and pray along while driving and I don't have to manipulate beads or do anything else to keep track of where I am in the prayer. It also works well when the hubby and I are praying together. He tends to pray much faster than I and if we are praying along with the app it's a good compromise.
Simon, agree re the actual book, but reason I may try the iPad Is I can enlarge the text and not have to deal with the reading glasses.
I do have the Raccolta on the iPad, and it's nice to be able to access it at any time.
I do see your points, Susan at 9:02 pm. The papist cabal here should arrange a pray the Rosary for Althouse once a month....
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