www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Cell Phones In Church

Dear Father Mike,

I am very sorry to hear about your news. I pray that you will continue to get well...

I am happy to see you back.

In Christ,
Alice

EEK!

I am happy to report that we hardly ever have a cell-phone go
off in church. However, there was a brief period of time when
one went off,and loudly, several times. And whose was it?
Matushka's! A daughter-in-law was in labor (and I think having
problems).

Edmac

Father Mike,

My prayers for your continued good health and that God grant you many years,

Neil

As it turns out, my mom forgot to turn her cell phone off at last night's compline service, (she has it for emergencies) and generally it rarely, if ever rings, but sure enough.....You guessed it!!!! (and to complicate things further, she couldn't find it in her bag)!!!

Alice

I was going to confession once, and the *priest's* cell phone went off in the middle of my confession!
"Can I take this? It's the hospital, and I'm on call."

I mean it kind makes a moral dilemma, but
a) what would the hospital do if they didn't have cell phones?
b) In a parish with three priests, couldn't one of the others have taken confession duty if this priest was on call with the hospital?
c) Can't he call them back?

I never understand why phones have to be answered *immediately* in our society. Why do we have caller ID, voicemail and all this other stuff if we're just going to grab the phone 2 seconds after it rings?

OTOH, "gadgets" can be very helpful in the spiritual life. My cell phone is an LG Rumor, and it has an MP3 player function. I have several MP3 rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Angelus and hymns saved on it.

Recently, we were at a park, and I was praying the Rosary using my phone. My wife, seeing me on the cell phone, asked, "Who are you talking to?"

"God," I said.

People's reactions to the sound of a ringing telephone can be quite interesting. More than once it has happened that I have had very welcome guests for dinner and the telephone had the impudence to ring during our animated conversation. If I ignore the telephone the dinner guests become remarkably upset. "Father, the phone's ringing!" "Yes; I can hear it." "Well, aren't you going to answer it?" "No." "Do you want one of us to answer it?" "Certainly not!" Drives them crazy.

If it's important; they'll call back. If it's not important, you may be certain that they'll call back!

Fr. Serge

My wife and I were at a Latin Catholic wedding once and the same thing happened. The priest skipped from the Our Father to Communion to the Nuptial Blessing and was out the door before the second picture could be taken. Never saw anyone skip so much and finish so fast in my life.

BOB

Father Bless!

I couldn't agree more! It drives my wife nuts, but I don't care if I get to the phone in time. We have an answering machine and if I don't get there to answer it, the machine will. That would be why we bought the machine, isn't it??

The same thing at work.My class was three hours long. My office phone would go off and the students all expected me to stop and answer it. When I didn't they would ask. And I would reply--The University spent thousands and thousands of dollars putting voice mail on everyone's phone. What right do I have to waste that money?

Tim

I used to describe to my classes a watch with which I had been entrusted and ordered by the bride to destroy should it make a sound. As this would have made me a hero back at law school, where it constantly interrupted classes, I looked forward to grinding it under the heel of my boot.

Unfortunately, it remained silent. I'm still waiting for my chance. Now, about cell phones . . .

I did acknowledge that males expecting a call on childbirth (of their own childe) should let me know ahead of time and leave them on, but that women were expected to figure this issue out on their own . . .

I only recall one phone going off in six years. My hands were full of large foam dice (a statistics class). I slowly started throwing them at her until it stopped.

(The next class, my boss was in for a review and sat next to her. He told me not to do that again . . . )

A day later, I realized that I should have taken the phone, and answered it with "Jenny's phone, Jenny's professor speaking. No, she can't talk right now; almost fifty people are waiting for class to start again."

hawk