Align: Helen Roy
Most Americans are overfed and undernourished by the things and thoughts with which we fill our homes and heads. I talk often about decluttering and how an overabundance of physical items creates a subconscious mental to-do list that becomes the real source of overwhelm. Along this vein, I, consummate Twitter addict, was wondering this week whether the overabundance of information at my fingertips might be having a similar effect on my ability to focus, form cogent thoughts, and in general, be at peace. To ask is to answer.
Now, I don’t necessarily think this means we need to go full Luddite, trashing our phones and technology entirely (although intentional periods of abstinence are both sanctifying and mentally refreshing). Day to day, as Aristotle and Aquinas inform us, virtue lies in the middle…in simply being a good steward of your time, your mind, and your property. Basically, doing the right things, for the right reason, in the right moment, appropriate to your station in life. Nothing too extreme in any direction. For that reason, I’m happy to endorse a few different meditation and prayer apps, designed to help you design and keep a manageable prayer schedule, among other things.
Hallow App, endorsed by Father Mike Schmitz (of the Bible in a Year podcast) as well as Matt Fradd (of Pints with Aquinas), is a prayer, meditation, and journaling app, and totally customizable for individuals and families. It helps users to develop not just a schedule for prayer and meditation, but offers the techniques that help you stick to it: it’s about building the habit. MORE HERE
We are fed too much bull shit on the internet, so here are more apps for your phone.
Makes perfect sense…..
My phone has 1 app….I flip it open to call & flip it closed when I’m done.
The cord gets tangled when my phone flips.
^^^ Yew must have the Western Electric App…
I “declutter” in the gym for an hour to an hour and a half. Six days a week. Cell phone stays in the truck.
Dave Huff,
Off the subject but I saw a nice little collection for sale with your name on it. Could it be yours?
I have no apps on my phone. I will keep it that way as long as possible, and I have a Bible with pages I can turn.
A good place to start with are the essays and stories of Wendell Berry in his books. The unsettling of America and What are people for, a book of essays about contemporary America and the economic challenges we face in today’s society. I highly recommend his good old-fashioned common-sense books about our society and how we have changed in going from an older agrarian society to a fast-paced consumer driven/anxiety ridden America where in big cities in particular most people do not have any connection to our common culture or past anymore, being obsessed with all the latest technology and forgetting where we came from. I have been reading Wendell Berry’s books since the late 70’s and enjoy his commentary on our society from an 88- year-old man who is still alive and kicking and writing books of essays and poetry about American life.
When the churches shut down during covid, many small parishes and congregations scurried to provide online video services and sermons to their faithful. Suddenly, there were LOTS of options for Sunday worship as well as all sorts of meditations, Bible study, music, and more on demand anytime.
I sampled Masses from all over my diocese and the country –and realized I was no longer a captive audience to my local church. I found some brilliant homilists and beautiful church interiors in parishes I would never have been able to visit otherwise.
The problem for the institutional church now is how to entice the faithful back to their local pews…