Pope Francis: Bible Should Be Carried, Read, Revered Like Smartphones

Do you read your Bible as often as your smartphone? Pope Francis wants you to.

“What would happen,” asked the pontiff during an address Sunday at St. Peter's Square, Reuters said, “if we treated the Bible like we do our mobile phones? If we turned around to retrieve it when we forgot it? If we carried it with us always, even a small pocket version? If we read God’s messages in the Bible like we read messages on the mobile phone?”

Francis has also called the internet, including social media and text messages, “a gift of God” when they are used wisely.

This was the last appearance by the pope before he and other top Curia members begin a weeklong Lenten retreat. The impending time of isolation and solitude may have contributed to his frame of mind.

Pope Francis reminded listeners that “the Bible contains the word of God, which is always topical and effective,” CNN reported. Cell phones become obsolete in a year or two, on the other hand.

The pope often poses for selfies on his travels to visit with Catholics around the world, and his Twitter pages in English and Spanish have more than 23 million followers.

For those Christians who want the best of both worlds, there are cell phone apps that contain the Bible, and even more apps that will send inspirational quotes and scriptures to your phone each day. Whether or not individuals will look at them as much as they do Facebook or Twitter, however, might be a different story entirely.

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