Google Glass & the New Evangelization – Potential Applications for Catholics

There it was in my inbox this morning: another invitation to plop down $1,500 to be an “explorer” in the Google Glass Explorer Program.

If you’re a regular reader here, you know how this taunts me. I’m a huge geek, so the idea of wearing Glass is thrilling. But I’m also a realist who understands just how much the technology will improve over the next few years, and also how very limited my budget for “tech toys” is.

So instead of clicking “sign me up”, I’ve been daydreaming about some potential ways that Catholics could use Glass to share our faith with others. I’ve come up with a few:

• Put Glass on a Swiss Guard who will have a great view of the upcoming canonizations and give the world an insider’s perspective on the day.
• Have a baby’s Godparent wear Glass to the child’s Baptism so that out of town relatives can be present for the sacrament.
• Challenge teens or young adults to wear Glass while sharing their faith on campus, along the sports field, or at a social event. Let their parents and teachers observe some of the major challenges they face living as a Catholic in today’s world.
• Give a seminarian Glass and let him broadcast the cool things he experiences along the path to priesthood, and yes, some of the trials as well — perhaps this could encourage some vocations along the way.
• Parishes could use Glass to provide training videos for Liturgical ministers — some folks hesitate to sign up for Lectoring or other ministries out of fear of the unknown. Watching a video made with Glass could perhaps ease their nerves and encourage them to get involved.
• Respectfully use Glass to share some lesser-known Catholic traditions to teach the rest of the world what we’re doing inside our churches, for example, have a priest wear Glass on Holy Thursday as he washes the feet of the faithful.

These are just a few of the brainstorms I’ve had. I would love to hear your ideas on how we might incorporate this new technology into the New Evangelization.

And hey, if Google’s reading this and wants a Catholic blogger to experiment with a complimentary Glass, sign me up!

Image by Hattanas Kumchai / Shutterstock.com