.- On Wednesday, a fiery Pope Francis chastised those who spend Mass talking to others, looking at their phone or even taking pictures during papal liturgies, saying these are distractions that take focus away from the “heart of the Church,” which is the Eucharist. 
 
 “The Mass is not a show: it is to go to meet the passion and resurrection of the Lord,” the Pope said Nov. 8. “The Lord is here with us, present. Many times we go there, we look at things and chat among ourselves while the priest celebrates the Eucharist... But it is the Lord!” 
 
 In particular, Francis condemned the use of cell phones to take photos at papal Masses. At one point during the Mass the priest says, “we lift up our hearts,” he said. “He does not say, ‘We lift up our phones to take photographs!’” 
 
 “It’s a bad thing! And I tell you that it gives me so much sadness when I celebrate here in the Piazza or Basilica and I see so many raised cellphones, not just of the faithful, even of some priests and even bishops.” 
 
 “But think: when you go to Mass, the Lord is there! And you're distracted. (But) it is the Lord!” 
 
 During the general audience, Pope Francis said the Eucharist would be the new focus of his weekly catechesis for the year, because “it is fundamental for us Christians to understand well the value and meaning of the Holy Mass to live more and more fully our relationship with God.” 
 
 In the Eucharist we rediscover, through our senses, what is essential, he said. Just as the Apostle Thomas asked to see and touch the wounds of Jesus after his resurrection, we need the same thing: “to see him and touch him to be able to recognize him.” 
 
 In this way, the Sacraments meet this very "human need" of ours, he said. And in the Eucharist, in particular, we find a privileged way to meet God and his love. 
 
 The Second Vatican Council was inspired by the desire to help Christians understand the beauty of the encounter in the Eucharist even better, he continued. This is why “it was necessary first to implement, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, an adequate renewal of the liturgy.” 
 
 A central theme emphasized at Vatican II was the liturgical formation of the faithful, which Francis said is also the aim of the series of catechesis he began today: to help people “grow in the knowledge of this great gift God has given us in the Eucharist.” 
 
 As a side note, Francis asked if people had noticed the chaotic way children make the sign of cross at Mass, moving their hand all over their chest, and asked people to teach children to make the sign of the cross well. 
 
 “We need to teach children to do the sign of the cross well,” he said, noting that this is how Mass begins, because just as Mass begins this way, “so life begins, so the day begins.” 
 
 Concluding his reflection on the Mass and the Eucharist, Pope Francis said that he hopes that through these brief weekly lessons, everyone will rediscover the beauty "hidden in the Eucharistic celebration, and which, when revealed, gives a full meaning to the life of everyone." ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many pilgrims try to get pictures of the Pope at his audiences 
 
 Pope Francis has chided the Catholic faithful for using their mobile phones during Mass. 
 
 He said it made him sad when many phones were held up, and even priests and bishops were taking photos. 
 
 The pontiff is not known to have used a mobile phone in public since his election and once asked young people to carry Bibles instead of phones. 
 
 However, he is an avid user of social media and regularly allows himself to be snapped with pilgrims for selfies. 
 
 He has millions of followers on Twitter. 
 
 Speaking at his weekly audience in St Peter's Square in Rome, Pope Francis said that Mass was a time for prayer and not a show. 
 
 "At a certain point the priest leading the ceremony says 'lift up our hearts'. He doesn't say 'lift up our mobile phones to take photographs' - it's a very ugly thing," he said. 
 
 "It's so sad when I'm celebrating mass here or inside the basilica and I see lots of phones held up - not just by the faithful, but also by priests and bishops! Please!" ||||| (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday called on Christians to consult the Bible with the same frequency as they might consult their cellphones for messages. 
 
 Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: 
 
 Speaking to the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square following his weekly Angelus blessing, the Pope urged those present to give the Bible the same place in daily life as cellphones and asked: “What would happen if we turned back when we forget it, if we opened it more times a day, if we read the message of God contained in the Bible the way we read messages on our cellphones?” 
 
 The Bible, he explained, contains the Word of God, the most effective tool in fighting evil and keeping us close to God. 
 
 Clearly, Francis said, the comparison between the Bible and the cellphone is paradoxical, but it induces us to reflect. 
 
 “If we always carried God’s Word in our hearts, no temptation would distance us from the Father, and no obstacle would take us off the path towards good” he said. 
 
 He pointed out that in this first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel of Matthew tells of Jesus’s forty days in the desert and of how he was tempted by the devil. 
 
 With his temptations, the Pope said, Satan wanted to divert Jesus from the path of obedience and humbleness – because he knew that this was the way to conquer evil – and he wanted him to take the false shortcut towards glory and success. 
 
 “But the devil’s poisonous darts are all ‘blocked’ by Jesus with the shield provided by God’s Word” he said, pointing out that Jesus never uses his own words but only God’s Word, and thus, filled with the force of the Holy Spirit, he victoriously crosses the desert. 
 
 Pope Francis invited all Christians to follow in Jesus’ footsteps during the forty days of Lent and to confront the spiritual battle against evil with the strength of God’s Word. 
 
 “That’s why, he said, it is necessary to become familiar with the Bible: read it often, reflect upon it, assimilate it. The Bible contains the Word of God which is always topical and effective” he said. 
 
 Inviting the faithful to carry a pocket-sized Gospel all the time, the Pope concluded with the words: “don’t forget what would happen if we treated the Bible as we treat our cellphone, always with us, always close to us!”
– When the priest says "lift up your hearts" during Mass, you'd better put your cellphone down while you do it. That was Pope Francis' message Wednesday during his weekly address in St. Peter's Square, calling it a "very ugly thing" to see worshippers—even other men of the cloth—with their phones out while he leads services, the BBC reports. "Please! Mass is not a show!" he said, per the Washington Post, with the Catholic News Service tweeting that the pope is "exasperated." Another beef the pontiff brought up: kids not knowing how to do the sign of the cross, instead "moving their hand all over their chest," per the Catholic News Agency. Applause can be heard from the audience in a video of his remarks. Francis has taken on the subject of phones before, telling the faithful earlier this year to swap out their phones for Bibles and warning in last year's apostolic exhortation of the damage to relationships that cellphones can cause. Per CBS New York, locals there mostly agree with the pope's stance, though one churchgoer tries to justify her own phone use. "I have my Bible in my cellphone," she says. "So I'm looking at it, but I'm reading my Bible or finding the Scripture." Not that the pontiff is a total Luddite: The BBC notes his penchant for tweeting and taking selfies with admirers.