PRAYER OVER A NEW COMPUTER

A kind soul sent me the following (edited and my emphases):

I was just reading Bishop Robert Finn’s pastoral letter on pornography and noticed that at the end of the letter there is the following blessing to be said over a new computer:

PRAYER OVER A NEW COMPUTER                                                                                                          

Loving God and Father, source of all good and knowledge, we praise you for your loving kindness shown to us through your Son Jesus Christ who became flesh and dwelt among us and through your Holy Spirit poured forth into our hearts. Grant that this new computer may be used in service to you and all truth.  May it be an instrument that serves to lift up and not to tear down. May pornography, hatred or any other such evil never appear on this screen. May I and all who use this computer do so with purity of heart and free from all evil. May my work on this computer serve to glorify your name and build up your kingdom. Lead us through this life to share in the perfect love and joy you share with Jesus Christ your Son our Lord and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.  Amen.

I just ordered a new laptop so this is quite timely indeed! However, do you know if there is a "Latin Ritual" version of this prayer that I can give to my priest to use (for the last 33 years I have only gone to the Latin Mass). Also, I understand that there is a specific blessing in the ritual that is used to bless the tools that one uses to make a living. Being a computer programmer, is it appropriate to have my laptop blessed with that blessing even though I’ll be using it for a lot of things that are not directly related to making a living (like, say, upgrading and updating www.HeartlandCatholic.com)? Basically, I want to have this new machine blessed with every blessing that is possible and appropriate so as to get it as close to sacramental status as possible.

PS: If you use a blessed laptop to commit a sin, (1) is that considered a sacrilege and (2) does the laptop need to be blessed all over again?

LOL! Good stuff and good questions!  I would be careful about sprinkling it with too much Holy Water, by the way.

I believe the official De Benedictionibus has entries for Instrumentorum technicorum peculiarium.  On the other hand, the "blessings in the new book don’t really bless things, in a constitutive way, but rather wish for good thoughts about people who walk near them, etc.

I am all for H.E. Bishop Finn’s initiative.  However, I would add the prayer I wrote years ago that has made its way around the internet, and in different languages:

A prayer before logging onto the internet:
Almighty and eternal God,
who created us in Thine image
and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful,
especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
grant, we beseech Thee,
that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor,
during our journeys through the internet
we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee
and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter.
Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

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5 Comments

  1. Andrew says:

    How about a Latin version (please improve on it sicut tibi videatur opportunum):

    Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
    Qui nos secundum imaginem Tuam creasti
    jubens nos omne bonum, verum, pulchrum quaerere,
    imprimis in Filio Tuo Unigenito, Domino nostro Jesu Christo
    concede propitius,
    ut per intercessionem Sancti Isidoris, Episcopi et Doctoris,
    nos per interretem peregrinantes
    manus nostras oculosque ad placita coram te tantummodo convertamur
    atque omnem animam nobis occurentem caritate et benevolentia excipiamus
    per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

  2. Already have one. I originally wrote it in Latin, you see.

  3. Keith Kenney says:

    Fr. Z:

    Is the problem also with the latin typical edition of De Benedictionibus? I had thought that it was just the English version.

  4. Keith: No, the problem is with the Latin edition also.

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