Is It OK To Text In Church?

In the Catholic Church, there are seven sacraments - outward signs of God's grace* given to you. Mass is one such and Matrimony is another. These are non-trivial things, they are direct connections to the grace of God through Christ. When I take the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass, I am directly connecting with Christ. It can be a beautiful thing if you lose yourself in it. When I take the Blood of Christ, it causes me to reflect upon my week and think of what sins I committed that added to His pain on the cross.

My marriage is a sacrament as well. My relationship with my wife is an outward sign of inward grace.It is no less holy than Mass or Confession or Baptism and unlike those, it is something I actively live every day. I contemplate my worthiness during Mass and reflect on ways I can be more like Christ. I don't usually do that with regards to my marriage.

But I should.

When Lent comes, I'm always unprepared. Most years, I don't know it's here until Ash Wednesday shows up and then I trot off to Church and wonder what I'll give up or do more of or such like. This year, we had a Mardi Gras party at our house on Fat Tuesday and while making Jambalaya, blasting my Southern Cooking Music throughout the house and downing Abita beers, I pondered what I might do for Lent. I always want something out of the ordinary and something that makes me a better version of myself, but I rarely can find the right thing, mostly because I wait until the last minute - coming out of church with ashes on my forehead.

I would never text or tweet in church. When we go to Mass, I turn my phone off and leave it in the car. When I'm driving with my wife or when we go out to lunch with the kids after Mass, I've got the phone on and respond to texts and tweets as they come in. There are some helpful moments where I use the phone to find information relevant to something we're discussing, but for the most part, I'm just texting and tweeting during Mass Matrimony.

For Lent, I'm giving up my phone when I'm alone with my wife. In the car, in a restaurant, out on a walk with the dogs, whatever. It's not OK to text in church.

An outward sign of inward grace.

* - The concept of grace is a fairly complicated one and this is a blog post, not a summary of the Catechism, so in the interest of brevity, I'll leave it to you to click around and discover the full meaning for yourself.