killiney

Mankind has always communicated with the gods using virtual systems. Prayer and meditation have their basis in introspection. The pandemic obliges if not compels the faithful into remoter collaboration than is normal. I heard a Catholic priest on the radio this morning talking about the sermons he’s giving from his empty churches to a home based congregation. I could accuse his interviewer of trying to make it sound like something new but I know he’s smarter than that. We know that religious broadcasts were scheduled almost as soon as radio was invented and they have enabled a diaspora of sick, elderly and migrated to maintain their worships even if not in co-located flocks. Bells have long served to broadcast the time of day and the times of prayer. Loudspeakers call the faithful to prayer more frequently than to assembly. It’s nothing new to worship and receive instruction and guidance at home but perhaps some think it’s unsavoury to be using a business or entertainment device to commune with their god. Could it be that the computer isn’t as impersonal or trusted a device as a radio or a TV? Thinking between Easter and Ramadan, perhaps there’s a worry that computer is listening too?