Previously, we’ve talked about the growing use of technology in our parish centres – from the use of projectors replacing OHPs and songsheets, to the use of the internet to make the mass available anywhere you can get connected. An enterprising padre in Italy however is about to take technology in mass to a whole new level – the priest’s missal is about to get an upgrade!

The Rev Paolo Padrini, a consultant with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, originally developed iBreviary as an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This excellent application provides the book of daily prayers as used by Catholics worldwide, and has proved very popular – with around 200,000 installs. With the advent of the iPad, Apple’s new book sized device, however, Rev Padrini has rewritten the application to add the functionality of the complete missal – with all that is said in the Mass .

This has the potential to be a huge boon to priests worldwide. No longer would your priest have to flick through pages to find the appropriate prayer for the day. And our mobile priests will find it most useful, with this easily able to follow around with them on their journeys. While this will not replace the need and usefulness of paper books, it’s a fantastic example of how technology can aid prayer and remove distractions from the awesome sacredness of the mass.

Rev Padrini will be launching this in July, which should time in nicely with the launch of the iPad in New Zealand, due to launch So you could well be seeing this in a parish near you in the near future.

Have you seen other ways in which technology is being used effectively by the Church? Share them with all @ www.catholic.geek.nz!