The miracle of the digital rosary.
credit: chingchong
This article is about religion. Maybe. Because in front of some things – we have to confess it – we honestly remain a little bit baffled. Do you remember the Saint Rosary? The necklace with little prayer beads that our grandmas used – precisely – to pray? Well, today the same Saint Rosary with little prayer beads used to pray and meditate is on sale – yeah, that’s true!- in a lot of different digital formats. If you think that I’m joking (and you could be right), you are going to change your mind.
The digital rosary, we have to say it immediately, speaks. In a few words it does everything instead of you (in the teeth of the saint sacrifice that praying demands). You turn it on and, like a miracle, the tech item “innovative, cosy and portable” (like advertising describes) says all the entire rosary through a soloist with even a replying choir. But don’t worry: for the happiness of less lazy people, the digital rosary permits to reply at the Ave Maria like usual. But that’s not all. When you buy it, the digital rosary comes to you with hands-free kit and headphones, interchangeable memory card of the “Mystery of the Marian’s Rosary” performance in different languages and a trendy suitcase to put it away. Then, if you ask for it, you can choose also from different colors and aesthetical designs, very important things when it comes to pray. Well, then, how do you want your digital rosary? Blue? Red? With the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or with the Sacred Heart of Maria? These are real problems…
The fact is that now (with the blessing of our grandmas who came back exhausted and voiceless after the effort and the penitence of the rosary practice) it’s possible to “pray” even in the subway, with earphones and our digital rosary sparkling more then a new IPod. What has all this to do with religion, sacrifice and prayer it’s difficult to say. Or maybe it can be plain explained by a New York Times online sentence: “In the future, all religious duty shall be performed by machines, leaving humanity’s time free for more sinning.” Totally clear. Amen.