Having our cell phones in the front pocket of our trousers is problematic. When this is the case, our literal right-hand-man is an electronic device. Out of anxiety or habit or both, we sneak our dominant hands down to that hidden place, not visible to those around us, and make contact with our beloved phone screens. At first, we experience this as a blessed communion which makes us feel connected and secure, but as time passes, however, the awful weight of attachment sets in as we realize that a perpetual feedback loop of algorithms, which we are helpless in outsmarting, keeps us stuck in ourselves without the possibility of transcendence. Let’s therefore be practical in the new year. Let’s move our phones to our back pockets and place a rosary, a prayer card, a religious medal, a cross, a picture of a loved one, or something meaningful in our front pockets. We will begin to reach down during those anxious moments and develop the quiet habit of prayer which, unlike certain faddy new year’s resolutions, will become the steady diet that saves our souls. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
