The following story is just one of those bizarre things you run across – not a synchro, but an expression of the digital age in which we live.
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The newest app for smartphones is a confession app- and supposedly it’s the first of its kind that’s approved by the Catholic church. Yes, you read that correctly. You can now download this nifty app, which is being touted as “the perfect aid for every penitent,” and even take it into the confessional with you.
It’s been a long time since I was a Catholic, but if memory serves, confession was something we would do once a month, so that we could take communion on Sundays. If you’d been really wicked, then you confessed once a week. I never really saw the point of it. I mean, how many sins can a ten-year-old commit? So I would always try to come up with a list of sins before that monthly confession, but usually had to make some up. I suppose that was a sin, too. At any rate, how nice it would have been to have this nifty app.
According to Digital Life, “it creates a customized and password-protected examination of conscience based on a person’s age, sex, vocation, and time elapsed – in days, weeks, months of years – since the last confession.” And, get this: the app offers seven acts of contrition. Price? $1.99.
The original story is here.
I have to say,while we're on the subject of the Roman Catholic Church,that my Right Brain is deeply attracted to the ritual and religious artwork and architecture of the Catholic Church,but my Left Brain is deeply repulsed by the dogma of the Church.Which is why I joined The Liberal Catholic Church in my 20's.It has the ritual,without all the dogmatic things like confession, penance, sin,etc.And also lets you believe in reincarnation if you want to (which I do).
The Roman Catholic Church is symbolically rich,which is where the beauty and mystery is…but it's dogma leaves a lot to be desired.
Leah, right there with ya, my first labor was 44 hours my second was…wait for it 4 days! Then I delivered her without even a tylenol.
Every time I ever thought of having a third my husband and I both relived these labors and would always say nope!
In regards to Wii, I have lost 10lbs. in the last 3 weeks and the one game I play because it is fun, easy on my arthritic joints and because of the weather cannot get out to walk is "Just Dance" love it!
My take on the Catholic church is they are in it for the money. When I was young my mother and father divorced, I was terrified of my father he hit all of us. I was 8 at the time and I have 2 older sisters (by this marriage 2 younger brothers by moms second marriage whom I adore). When I was in High School my father wanted to get an annulment from my mother so that he could remarry his second wife in the Catholic Church. They put my poor mom through hell, called her a whore also. As the process went on I was in college and desperately needed money to pay tuition, my Dad told me that he couldn't help me out because he had spent that money on getting the annulment. Wow. My sisters and I all paid for our own education.
My question has always been (and my sisters too), how can you get an annullment after 15 years of marriage and 3 children?
It is all about the money!
Now, I did marry someone who really wanted to raise our kids catholic so I agreed BUT I have always been honest with them about how I feel and we never pushed them to go to church. Where I live it was almost popular to be a part of our Catholic Church which is actually a pretty cool church. I wanted my psychic children to be educated enough to decide for themselves. Of course the day my daughter had a teacher who said that all psychics are the devils pawns etc. I quickly got her out and taught her myself, although I was pleased that the church themselves were shocked.
Of course how do you push religion on children who like me were always saying to me, "this doesnt' make sense to me?" and I agreed. I actually ended up teaching 5 kids whose parents knew how I was teaching them. God is everywhere, you can talk to God anywhere and then I took them out into my backyard where the energy is amazing (one reason we bought this house)and let them feel god. They all met my crystals etc.
The funniest thing is how do you push this when your kids are telling you they think they are part alien!
Both of my daughters from young ages made up alien names and still feel today, and they are 18 and 21 that they are not from here.
When I told them that I also have always felt that I am not from Earth, they totally agreed.
Sooo, I wasn't at all surprised to see this app and that it is NOT A FREE APP! I laughed, of course it costs.
And that is my sermon for the day. LOL.
Back to the app and 7 acts of contrition for $1.99… (had to skip all the awesome comments and not lose my train of thought)
… In the past you could "buy" forgiveness for sins. There was a specific word in medieval times – escapes me now – for "forgiveness" purchased from the Catholic Church to be forgiven almost everything, including adultery and murder.
If you were rich enough, you were assured you could pay your way into heaven. I wonder if this is where the tithing practice began, since we are all tainted with sin and should pay to clear our souls on a regular basis. 😀
Now the CC is again collecting cash to clear sins with a $1.99 app. This explains why they are one of the richest tax free businesses on earth. Many will happily pay the fee and avoid the priest.
Go Leah! My first labour was 22 hours and a broken back bone too! I used to describe it as crapping a block of flats though……..guess you have slightly more pain tolerance than I do.LOLOL
Daz~ Lololol
Mike ~ lololol
Confession app?~ Pffft!
Love the app story. My favorite memory of confession is when I learned the act of contrition at 7 years of age. "O my God, I am heartily sorry" in my mind was "Oh my God, I am hardly sorry" and that's how I said it, every time. Perhaps the priest wasn't listening because I was never corrected. Ah, the wisdom of a child.
Mike – showing my ignorance here. I had to go look up Wii!
Daz – laughed out loud at your watermelon story, coming on the heels of Leah's.
Leah, I swear I nearly fell out of my chair laughing! Our first son weighed in at 11 pounds 6 ounces….I had carried him for ten months before the doctor quack FINALLY induced my labor! And I had no sedatives because the doctor didn't want to "slow the labor down". A watermelon, indeed!! I was the only protestant in my catholic nursing school, and let me tell you, for three years that was some kind of trip for a girl raised in a baptist home! Our nursing school priest, Father John, was older then God, and Fr John carried a flask of whiskey hidden in the folds of his skirt. He'd think he was "hiding" behind a corner and would sneak the flask out to take a snort. We caught him in the act many many times and the poor fellow was on the receiving end of many pranks by us student nurses. Some of the filthiest (and funniest) jokes I've
ever heard in my entire life were told by Sister Mary Catherine, who was the supervisor in the OR, and she would break out with these hilarious jokes over the sleeping patient on the operating table! You should try to keep steady hands and a straight face in such circumstances! Can't be done! Let me tell you, those priests and nuns are NOT as pious as they want their flocks (sheep) to believe they are!
You say about an app for the gym – what about Wii?
Leah,
Re:
"Father Brian, if you crapped an entire Watermelon one day sir, tell me when you'd be wanting to do it again would you?"
I nearly choked twice while reading this comment,because I've just spent the day at the Gold Coast (Queensland,Australia) with my brother,and we planned to have lunch down there,but never got around to anything more substantial than an espresso frappe each.It was so close to dinner time when I got home,that I really didn't want to spoil my appetite,so I was looking for something light to tide over the hunger without making me full,and there in a container,in the fridge, was some food cut into chunks that my wife had left,which seemed like the perfect food for the occasion…so I took a few chunks and sat down at the computer to see what was happening at Rob and Trish's blog (apart from some very nasty hacking) and I read this comment…and nearly had to spit out my WATERMELON… (it's summer over here BTW).
Of all the foods I could have read about while eating watermelon…and under such circumstances BTW…this is one food I never would have bet on.
P.S. Just in case you have more stories to tell about childbirth,I'll be eating my dinner at the table.-)
What looks and acts evil doesn't scare me nearly as much as what comes disguised as go(o)d. I am sure there are many good and kind hearted priests and nuns in the Catholic church, but I also know that religion, especially Christianity, is like a magnet to many sociopaths because it gives them power over others – or because they hope to gain better impulse control and try to develop what they don't have: the ability to love. Not that I am accusing anyone in your stories of being sociopaths…
@3322mathaddict-
Those were the questions that started my leaving of the church. That and the contradictions. How could God be so good when everything I did he was sending me to hell for. When I realized it was more a guilt based money making country club I decided to bail and find Source myself…
Two things did it for me:
There was a woman who was the most hateful gossip I had ever known. Mean spirited and always spreading black magic with her words. They made her a eucharistic minster. THIS horrible person was supposed to give me the body of Christ? No thanks and I never took it there again.
The next was when I got married…that's when i left for good. My husband wanted to get married in the church where his dad was buried and his daughter baptized. It was important so I of course wanted to. So off we went to this Luthern Church and got married. I go back to my church for confession a few weeks later and the priest tells me I am a whore and and adultress because I didn't marry in the Catholic Church…I am living in sin because they don't recognize our marriage. THEN he says, your sins are not forgiven and you can never recieve the body or blood of Christ but you can tithe sister. Now, I was nutty pissed. I stood up and said, so, I'm a whore who's not good enough to breathe the same air as you but my freaking money is just fine here? Is that what you're telling me….to still pay my dues to your sick country club? The rest I won't repeat because it went a little down hill from there…I was hot! This was before all the sex abuse crap but I already knew what they were and prtty much wrote off organized religion at that point.
Hi, my name is Leah and I am also a recovering Catholic… (cue applause and the Hi Leah!)
This made me laugh outloud because I wasn't a crappy kid but there was the temptation to throw a shocker in there when you were forced to meet the priest in the gym on the portable kneelers they brought out for (gasp) CONFESSION. It was the fear of Sister Mary Ugly who would kick my arse all the way back to end of the line and make me do it again that knicked my humor.
I laughed again when I read about you making up sins because I used to do it too…we're in freaking Catholic school…how much crap could you do? Ugh!!! Until I was able to break free and realize that it's nothing more than guilt based mind washing I was sure I was going to hell.
As I was figuring out I wanted to leave the church I had a run in with our priest right after I had Austin. After 22 hrs of labor and a broken tailbone, the priest comes up and says…we'll be looking forward to many more fine looking boys from you Mrs Carrico. I looked up and simply said, Father Brian, if you crapped an entire Watermelon one day sir, tell me when you'd be wanting to do it again would you? STILL waiting for an answer and Austin's 15!
Too funny how many parallels we have!
Love and light!
Wow, that really shows what the Catholic confession is about; more a tradition and a habit than anything that has to do with remorse and soul searching.
If you can get a gym ap, will it actually do the work for you? I'd rather not move too much ^^
And Wv is 'thong' and I have this thing I always say: There is nothing I really hate except perhaps men in tights and thongs – so haha, very amusing 😛
🙂
oh, but if anyone does come up with an app to replace the gym, i'll be in line there…..
not a catholic in this life and not a high-tech comment here, either – however, i always wondered what sins those guys in the long flowing gowns who were married to a spirit were hiding – and to whom did/do they confess? now, that's just me, but……….
I am so glad you are back!
Isn't "wii" trying to replace the gym, the golf course, tennis, etc?
There's ap to talk to spirits, now, too. (Some of us don't need an ap for that).
Oh geez, that's so funny! A gym ap! Wonder how that would work??
If it does, I'm all for it!
Funny, Mike, that we won't have to go anywhere anymore. I wonder if there will be an app for the gym!
Having never been a Catholic in this ife, but having many friends who either are or have been, I've never been able to wrap my mind around the concept that we must have someone to intercede for us in contacts with the Source. I've always gone directly there, without feeling a need for assistance from a priest or pastor or whatever. But, that's just me. And I agree with Mike: soon we will be able to live our lives inside our homes. Schools will probably have aps for students to access their lessons instead of attending classrooms, as many colleges alreay have. What a shame, in a way, to lose one-on-one connections with our fellow humans! We've gained so much technologically, and with the gain, we are losing much of our human sense of community. I wonder
if the trade-off is worth it.
Hmmm, and we all know how password protected things are…
Glad you're up and running!
Soon we won't have to leave our homes for anything. Our Jehovah Witness neighbour says she can get her Sunday service direct to her phone to save her going to the Kingdom Hall.