The Miracle of Technology

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/1/13 | Peggy Noonan

[marshmallow]

Here I will tell a story that I suppose is rather personal but what the heck, today’s not a bad day for the personal. Yesterday I went to St. Patrick’s for confession and mass, to start the year off on the right foot. Walking through the cathedral—it was jammed with tourists taking pictures of statues and architecture and also, and with some startling excitement, of the regular New Yorkers in the pews taking part in the noon mass—I remembered something I experienced there last summer, at confession.

I add here that I like going to confession; I always find it quenching or refreshing or inspiring. Usually I go at my local church. But sometimes if I’m walking by St. Pat’s and it’s confession time I’ll go right in, because the great thing about St. Pat’s is that in terms of priests you never know what you’ll get—a gruff old Irishman from Boston, a mystic from the Philippines, a young intellectual just out of seminary in Rome. Once I think I heard, through the screen, the jolly voice of New York’s cardinal. But whoever I get always seems to say something I need to hear.

Anyway, last summer I’m at St Patrick’s on a weekday afternoon and I go to the confessional area and stand on line. In the confessionals at St. Pat’s you kneel in a small, darkened booth and speak through a screen. You can sort of see the shadow of the priest on the other side.

The door opens and I enter and kneel. I outline my sins as I see them, share whatever confusion or turmoil or happiness I’m feeling. Then I was silent, waiting to see what bubbled up. What bubbled up was a persistent problem that was spiritual at its core. We talked about it.....

[Ole Okie]

Even though I am not Catholic, I like this writing of Noonan’s. Time marches on, and technology does so exponentially.

[Incorrigible]

If only Peggy had a Windows Phone 8. She could have bookmarked the readings using the Catholic Companion app:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/catholic-companion/cbb74b4b-fb20-42d7-a5b7-24ef56ae43a0

[Biggirl]

Even my parish priest has his own iPhone. :)

[roamer_1]

From the Article:
It was so modern and wonderful. Genius technology enters the confessional in a great cathedral in 2012. “And God saw the light, and it was good.”

While the article is an amusing anecdote, I sometimes wonder if technology isn't the 'false wonders and miracles' that so many will follow to their doom...

It might be instructive to consider what all this would look like to someone from the 1700's (or anytime prior to it's use).

Antichrist? There's an app for that...

[left that other site]

That is a sweet story.

It IS possible to use technology without being enslaved to it.

I am very happy that the Good Priest provided Bible Verses instead of just issuing a penance.

Happy and Blessed new year, marchmallow.

[johngrace]

I have been to St Patrick’s confessional. The last time the priest I met was a tough one. He told me to throw out the computer with the scant woman on it with advertising. Lol!