Culture of Convenience

In the past year I have heard over and over the declaration that we are in the midst of a so-called "Cancel Culture". As we move toward the year anniversary of what most call a "Lockdown" to slow the spread of COVID-19, my mind ponders another cultural shift. After working in the past year as the social media strategist for a Catholic parish in Southern California, what I've seen in the past year is people want things to be easy to do or access.

Take for instance attending Mass, before the pandemic we offered one live streamed Sunday morning Mass. Now, like many parishes we are providing online Masses daily and encouraging spiritual communion experiences as well as Eucharistic ones. Guess what? People are watching them live or the recording when it's convenient. My millennial niece who has received her sacraments and was educated in Catholic schools, but has now fallen away once told me the reason she stopped going to Mass and watching Joel Osteen, was she could watch him in her pajamas to hear a positive uplifting message. In her mind our beloved Church was not providing an evocative experience.

While many conferences were cancelled because of the restrictions that mandated no large gatherings, they did produce virtual ones. Some organizations saw a significant increase in the numbers of attendees because there were no travel, lodging or exorbitant fees associated with the experience. While the in person experience will certainly be back this summer or in 2022 most organizations will probably offer different tracks for an online and physical attendance going forward. Again, convenience wins!

This year, like many people I want to read the bible in a year, but am following Fr. Micheal Schmitz podcast to get it done. Like most people my past attempts have been unsuccessful, because my method was to read it in a linear way. Listening to podcast that weaves the chapters of various books each day is working for me and even when I fell behind a couple of days - catching up was easy. It's working for me and millions of others as it has rocketed to #1 for podcasts on Apple.

Praying the rosary is powerful, but many of the faithful find praying it with others or through technological means to be easier and more convenient. Every weekday my parish offers a rosary for an end to the virus on our Facebook page Live at 11:00am. We also offer virtual and in-person Adoration from 9am - 4pm. While the numbers are not huge they are consistent and having a daily routine helps people to know where they can find prayerful experiences online. A parish in Florida streams Adoration 24/7 and there are always hundreds of people watching and posting prayers in the space - beautiful.

Another thing that is helping the faithful Catholic be more prayerful is the awesome Catholic App "Hallow", which offers challenges, prayer goals, sleeping prayers, litanies, music, minute meditations and more to allow users to tap into spirituality from the palm of their hands.

I mean now instead of worrying about heading to the grocery store in person, shopping online is what is now more convenient. While driving home and begrudging making dinner, I order from Postmates or do a drive by for takeout. Workouts online help me fold exercise into my day and now reading more books thanks to another app called Audible.

As we move toward re-opening and things return to some sense of normalcy, it begs the question if the need for convenience will outweigh the need to resume habits that we once had or shift to new ones?