October: Mobile Phone Month

The mobile phone is an extraordinary means of communication, usable all the time, almost everywhere. That's why we take it with us everywhere. It fits easily in a pocket or purse. Moreover, it must always be at hand, because we need it often.

When we leave home to go to work or to go shopping, we make sure not to forget it; on the contrary, we like to feel its presence. We must acquire the reflex of not being able to do without it, of taking it often in our hands. It is very easy to use, for young and old alike. No one can say: it's not for me, it's too complicated for me.

To confide our worries, solve a difficulty, comfort a friend from a distance, a quick call is enough. A call that we can repeat, several times a day, 3, 10, 150 times… We are sure that our interlocutor will hear our message and take care of us without delay. What could be better ?

This mobile costs nothing to use, and it's easy (although you have to admit that it sometimes takes effort). There is no subscription to pay, and it does not need to be recharged! The ideal is about an hour a day (three times 20 minutes).

However, experience proves how flexible the system is and how it adapts to everyone. Once we have tasted it, we generally increase its consumption. What matters above all is to stick to what we have set for ourselves, day after day, and to adopt good habits so that the use of the mobile becomes an achievement from which we will never go back.

This mobile does not disturb others, does not make people unsocial. It is true that it disturbs the selfish and the proud who always believe that they will manage on their own like grown-ups. Regulars, on the contrary, have noticed that we often transmit and receive better when there are several of us. In fact, the mobile brings people together. It even allows the carrying out of large enterprises, real crusades, while staying at home: it is not necessary to go to the end of the world!

No doubt it takes faith, and the hope of being listened to. It also requires perseverance in fatigue, weariness, and apparently one-way communications. You can’t expect something for nothing. But it's so easy to take your mobile out of your pocket and use it whenever you need it. Or simply because you love your interlocutor and want to spend some time with Him, with her.

In this month of the mobile, let us invest or reinvest in the mobile phone. That it’s no longer portable only, but worn assiduously.

The ideal would be to have Him carry us— a kind of permanent connection, so that we don’t spend all our time using our phone, but spend the rest of the time properly, so that these remote conversations are always softer, humble and holy, preludes of eternal face-to-face conversations.

Where there’s no need for cell phones.

Fr. Hervé Gresland