I Phone App: True Confessions

While thar' is an I-Pad app for the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office)
I woan't need the app for Confession that the Vatican approved--I already know how to go to confession an' how to examine mah conscience. Sr. Serena seen to that decades ago. The app ain't a substitute whar' ya can jes' call in to report yore sins. It's jes' a cheat sheet that "reminds" backsliders how to fruitfully examine they consciences an' how the format goes onc't ya git into the confessional to confess to a live, not virtual, priest.


Whenever I'se tempted to go light on mah sinful ways (which ways? Well, I ain't about to be confessin' heah!) thar' is a fella on a innernet channel I can dial into to git the hell scared outa me --he is more scary that Sister Stanislaus who tried to make me eat mah spinach in first grade.


However, I does frequently check in on the Vatican's YouTube channel.

BTW, the Vatican 's website is one of the world's most frequent targets fer hackers. Hackers should save their efforts, the whole thang is under the stewardship of the Archangel Gabriel, patron of communications.




What I could use? An app fer procrastination. That ain't the same BTW as the sin of sloth. Some folks labor (heh) under the misapprehension that sloth means not gettin' yore work done--if that be so then Martha had a case against Mary, I reckon.

Sloth --or more accurately, the Latin noun acedia, applies to the spiritual work we's all supposed to be doin--workin' toward greater holiness, ya know? Fail to do that? y'ain't nuthin' but a three toed sloth.




Ooops! I done it--I confessed. One of mah worst sins is one of the Seven Deadly's: Sloth. Mah favorite definition be this one: “sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good.” Bingo! Thas' me.

St. Thomas Aquinas has a grip on it, too, an' notes how Sloth is the temptation to a world-weariness. He speaks of bein' so put out wif' all the real evil, that thar' surely is, that ya git into a state of despair.

Yeah? No kiddin' St. T Aq!

Iffin' this world doan't make one weary, what would?

But ole' St. Thomas further coaches me, "sorrow, which is about a real evil, is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds. ( git that? if we let ourselves git overwhelmed by all the bad stuff, then we doan have the gumption to fight back wif' good thangs, thas' the evil effect Thomas means--the good we COULD have done, is left undone)


Hence the Apostle (2 Corinthians 2:7) did not wish those who repented to be “swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.”

Git aholt of that, now. Repent, but doan be so overly maudlin' repentant that youse "swallowed up with overmuch sorrow" 'cause too much sorrow or worry or anxiety paralyzes a soul such that they ain't able to git thangs together an' go forward. Folks is told by the scripture to repay what ya owe, make amends to those ya' wronged, an' restore what should be restored, but then move on. Move on to do well by others an' yoreself.



While this ain't a hall pass to "Don't worry, be happy" mindlessness, it is a reminder fer me to look for the good around me, to see whar' I can help, be encouragin', instructive, an uplifitin'. Huh? Heck NO, I doan feel like it--I see the same news on the box that youse seein'. But it is precisely when I doan "feel" like it an fail to act against that feelin' that I'se guilty of sloth. I let acedia take me over. Holiness ( what an ole'fashioned term) happens where we choose to transcend our feelin's (at some cost to our comfort) an git some good stuff goin'.

Bake a pie an' take it to a neighbor. Read a book to a shut in. Shovel snow fer the ole' fella across the street.Make a new friend. Be a better butcher/ baker/ candlestick maker.

Now if only I could invent an app like that--the Go Make A Good Thang Happen app.