Check out the invitee list. Pray Tell isn’t invited to that one either.

One wonders: Will the confessors have to follow the same app? Will the results of the examination of conscience REALLY be wiped out, or could someone with enough motivation and skill gain access to this personal information? Who decides what’s in the examination of conscience?

On the other hand, if a step-by-step guide prompts both penitents and confessors to follow the Rite of Penance more fully, which is beautiful but too often truncated in practice, this could be a benefit. The technology might be a help for some.

What do you think?

UPDATE:  New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd notes today that this app stands at #42 on the iTunes bestseller list, making it a “global success.”

Pray Tell reader Michelle M. Francl-Donnay shares this lovely “Not A Homily” – what she as a laywoman would preach at the Mass at Dawn of Christmas.

If you haven’t seen these yet, here is a digital Christmas, and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” in a shopping mall.

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Obj 1: Twitter is inappropriate for any serious endeavor. The ST is a serious endeavor. Therefore it should not be tweeted.

Obj 2: 140 characters is not enough to get any real theology done.

Obj 3: People on Twitter are unlikely to appreciate the substance and depth of Thomas Aquinas’ great work.

Contra: “The Master of Catholic Truth ought not only to teach the proficient, but also to instruct beginners” (ST Prologue). Therefore http://twitter.com/summatheologiae.

Resp: I think it’s an interesting way to provide a taste of the ST to get people interested in the larger work. It has the potential to benefit two — no, three! — kinds of readers. First, those who are interested in the thought of Thomas Aquinas but are not sure what part of the work they would be most interested in reading. Second, those who read a part of the ST without its context but would like a larger picture of the work. Third, those who have no interest in the ST itself but are willing to slowly cruise through this greatly abridged version. Our lives will be enriched, I hope. (And if not, it was only 140 characters.)

Ad 1: Twitter is not just for frivolous pursuits, and although theology is a serious endeavor, it is one that can be relevant to every new medium of communication. [Also see ad 2.]

Ad 2: We’ll just have to see about that.

Ad 3: If you jump on and follow, that won’t be a concern anymore, will it? http://twitter.com/summatheologiae

As of Easter this year Apple reported having sold 3 million iPads, 20 million iPod touches, and 50 million iPhones—and that’s not counting the several million more recently released G4 iPhones already sold. Even if we assume that many of these are not distinct users we have something on the order of 50 million iOS devices out there. If users of iPhones and iPods are a representative sample of the US population then 22%, or at least 11 million, of those users are Catholic. How different would our parish life be if all of these users had and used on their devices, for example, a copy of the Universalis app? Universalis is a no-frills website offering the official Liturgy of the Hours to everyone with a computer and not just those with handhelds. Historically praying the Liturgy of the Hours was the domain of monastics and clerics especially since the books needed to pray the Divine Office were (and remain) expensive and are not the easiest to use. A website like Universalis and its iOS application allows anyone to Pray without ceasing. So while FIFA remains trenchant in its opposition to the use of technology because of the difficulty in using it at the grassroots level of play, in the case of the Liturgy of the Hours technology is empowering precisely those at the grassroots level to pray in an official, liturgical way that was previously available only to those willing to pray for the pricey four volume set. How else might we use technology in order to prepare the faithful for that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations?

“Indeed, right from Apostolic Times New Roman this virtue has been thriving and flourishing in the garden of the Church.” (3)

“This truth, so full of encouragement, We recall to those also whose will has been weakened by upset nerves and whom some doctors, someTimes New Roman even Catholic doctors, are too quick to persuade that they should be freed from such an obligation, advancing the specious reason that they cannot preserve their chastity without suffering some harm to their mental balance.” (51)

“All holy men and women have most carefully guarded the movements of their senses and their passions, and at Times New Roman have very harshly crushed them.” (53)

“All the more reason why the young clergy, because they are to be trained in the spiritual life, in sacerdotal and religious perfection, must be separated from the tumult of the world before entering the lists of combat; for long years they must remain in a Seminary or Scholasticate where they receive a sound and careful education which provides them with a gradual approach to and a prudent knowledge of those problems which our Times New Roman have brought to the fore.” (57)

“In modern Times New Roman however there are some teachers and educators who too frequently think it their duty to initiate innocent boys and girls into the secrets of human generation in such a way as to offend their sense of shame.” (59)

*Cicero, very loosely, “O the times! O the morals!”

The Rev. Canon David Parrott blessed a symbolic heap of laptops and smart phones on the altar of London’s 17th-century St. Lawrence Jewry church Monday. An effort, he said, to remind the capital’s busy office workers that God’s grace can reach them in many ways.

Invoking God’s blessing on the world around us is nothing new, and a variety of such blessings can be found in the service books of many Christian churches, including the Book of Blessings of the Roman Ritual, and the Episcopal Church’s Book of Occasional Services. Such blessings are part of the Christian’s confession of faith that God created the world as good, and redeemed the world in Jesus Christ from within the created order. Given our day-to-day reliance for information and entertainment on laptop and desktop computers, cellular telephones and a host of other devices, I’m frankly surprised that such a public blessing of the gizmos and gadgets didn’t gain media attention earlier!