How technology can enhance your spiritual life

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Martha Popson

Did you get a Kindle or iPad or Xoom Tablet for Christmas?   Wondering how (and if?) it can be used to enhance your spiritual life?   Read on!

First of course, you must know that you can read The Catholic Messenger on it.  Just go to   www.catholicmessenger.org  or, even easier, “like” it on Facebook.  The Vatican has a site, www.vatican.va. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at www.usccb.org has a most comprehensive one and is what I use most for Scripture reading, since the print is easily enlarged.  Use your search engine for almost any Catholic-related organization or topic and you will be overwhelmed at the resources available. A quick search of the applications tab on my iPad, using the word “Catholic,” yielded 263 results for iPad and 544 for iPhone. More specific terms will give you even more choices.

For those who have difficulty with regular printed materials due to eyesight, arthritis or other disabilities, this technology can open up a whole new world for us.  Don’t rule out showing your new toy to those elders who might benefit from it.  Many of these sites also have audio files which can be a true God-send to people who have had to give up reading the old-fashioned way.

Some of my favorites are:

epay

www.sacredspace.ie  Sacred Space, from the Irish Jesuits, has a daily prayer, along with some guidance on how to apply this to our own life.

www.liturgy.slu.edu     St. Louis University’s liturgy department offers weekly resources to use in preparing for Sunday’s readings.

Many people enjoy using a daily magazine such as Give Us This Day or Magnificat or Living Faith.  These are in digital format now.  Poke around a little and see if your favorite is online.

There are many, many versions of Sacred Scripture available.  I prefer to use the USCCB site, noted above.

Most Catholic magazines and newspapers are online.  So are the works of the great theologians, if you are so inclined.

www.divineoffice.org and www.universalis.org  These are for those of you who pray the Liturgy of the Hours or would like to begin praying morning and evening prayers along with the universal church.

Whatever your interests, there is a site for it.  I absolutely love to do research and hereby volunteer to help you find whatever it is for which you might be searching. Just write me in the comment section below.

How you pray and how you live because of that prayer is what matters, of course.  Our faith will never depend on a certain technology.  In the beginning was the Word.  Later on, Moses brought us the Old Testament version on tablets of stone; Guttenberg introduced the printed Word.  And now we are back to tablets (and Kindles and iPads and on and on.)  As my digital-based Scripture reminds us “all things work for good for those who love God.”   There is no footnote excluding use of technology.

Amen!

P.S.  What are your favorite apps?  Please let me know and we’ll spread the word in a later blog.


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