By Subhasis Chattopadhyay –
2020 is here and like so many past years, it will be another toxic year wasted in ill-health, addictions and an increasing distance from God unless we act now. Here are a few tips regarding Apps which may help you abide in God. Since no good things happen without God’s help, we begin with two Apps which will help you pray more. What is humanly impossible is made possible through prayer.
Universalis is the go-to app for every Catholic or anyone who wants to pray the Office of the Hours. This is the universal prayer of the Church. It is in prayer that wo/men of all faiths are united. The Truth is One, though sages call it by many names. Universalis is a cross-platform app and the pricing varies.
There may be a misconception that only priests and consecrated wo/men are required by Canon Law to say the Offices of the Hours. But all members of the Church militant are invited to pray the Holy Office. Breviaries are too huge to carry, and this is where Universalis comes in handy.
While Universalis is pricey and minimalistic, Laudate serves pretty much the same purpose as Universalis minus the offline capabilities of Universalis. I would go with Laudate rather than Universalis in India, since we have internet coverage 24*7 in most parts of our country. If you have poor internet connection, then a Universalis license is the right option for you. Either way, it helps to have either Laudate or Universalis on your phone. Laudate has a more elaborate lay out and all for free. Laudate has all the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary too among many other features.
The problem with both Universalis and Laudate is that they do not support most Indian Feast Days and indigenous Indian Congregations’ holy days. The special readings are mostly Western. One hopes that as more Indians use these two Apps, their developers will incorporate more Indian liturgies in the three rites: Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and the Latin Rite. Universalis and Laudate do not have any Syro-Malabar or Syro-Malankara content. It is time that coders from these two Rites develop similar Apps for their respective Rites, preferably in both English and in Indian vernaculars.
This is the App to build and stick to new habits, like using Laudate daily! This App’s free version is sufficient to change or build new core habits. St. Ignatius of Loyola, post his interior-conversion at Manresa, used to imitate one virtue of any one Saint for days at a time. Used in this manner, HabitBull, will make us more restrained. It has graphs etc. to track your progress and the learning curve is low. One can, for example, use this App to de-addict oneself from alcohol and cigarettes. Or, build good habits like studying a new subject daily for a fixed hour. This App is one of the best in its category for changing one’s life. Other small actions which help in the long run can be practiced using HabitBull: drinking more water, walking/exercising more etc.
We need to get rid of some Apps since in the name of being more connected, we are seeking shortcuts to happiness and interior fulfilment. Our emptiness will never disappear unless we make serious efforts to make space for God in our hearts. Only God can bring us that peace which surpasses understanding and it is only God who can free us from all anxieties. Just knowing this won’t help; we must do something concrete about this: thus, we need to delete (and not merely deactivate or uninstall) at least two apps from all our electronic devices:
- Facebook Messenger/ Facebook.
Very few people can disconnect themselves from either FaceBook or WhatsApp since they are made to be addictive. Research shows that FaceBook increases anxiety and decreases attention spans. The Jones’ have it better syndrome, the selfie-syndrome and find new/old flames syndromes are destroying families, marriages and are making our kids zombies. I am not asking anyone to be a Luddite and live like the Amish in America. I am proposing that we live more authentic lives where we do not have hundreds of virtual friends without having any real friend.
Ridding ourselves of FaceBook and WhatsApp, and using Laudate, here’s wishing all a blessed 2018. Let us enter the restful economy of God and consciously escape the anxiety-prone meaningless economy of the Pharaoh. In Exodus the emperor of Egypt wanted the Israelites to work seven days a week and whipped them to become increasingly productive for the heck of working the Israelites to death. May God use our cell phones to redeem us from the anxieties of our days.
Happy 2020!
Subhasis Chattopadhyay is a blogger and an Assistant Professor in English (UG & PG Departments of English) at Narasinha Dutt College affiliated to the University of Calcutta. He has additional qualifications in Biblical Studies and separately, Spiritual Psychology. He also studied the Minor Upanishads separately. He remains a staunch Hindu. He had written extensively for the Catholic Herald published from Calcutta. From 2010 he reviews books for the Ramakrishna Mission and his reviews have been showcased in Ivy League Press-websites.