Disturbing Night At Youth Mass! Please Read

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gregory24
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Gregory24

Guest
I attended a “youth mass” tonight because I didn’t attend my normal church in the morning. I am 24 years old and converted 3 years ago and am in love with the catholic church. However I was greatly upset tonight. I walked into this 6 pm mass. And there was very loud music playing by in the front of the church. When I attempted to pray I couldn’t even hear myself think and this started things badly. The sanctuary was louder and people were talking more than I have ever seen at a church it was very distracting. Most of the people there were teenagers. I noticed they were high fiving each other and even sitting on top of the pews while talking. I couldn’t believe the lack of reverence in the presence of the eucharist. The mass was supposed to start at 6 pm however we practiced all these songs until 6:15. I noticed that they didn’t follow the music in the missal but had there own, and the profession of faith was completely different. I went to church tonight w/ my wife and sister both non-catholics and I decided to leave after the second reading. I was so upset at the lack of reverence I felt was in the church. The one thing that I love about the church since I have joined is the sameness of it. No matter where I go I get the same thing. As soon as we exited the church my sister and wife asked me what was wrong and I was overwhelmed by tears, and believe me I don’t cry very often. I can’t tell you exactly what overcame of me. But I was saddened by the whole scene tonight. On the way home I tried to explain to my sister how I believe that christ is truely present in the eucharist which is located in the tabernacle and that is why I was so disturbbed to see what I saw. I don’t know if I should have left mass or not but I did. Can anyone relate to this? What do you think? ?
 
I feel for you. Unfortunately, there are those who believe they can alter the Catholic liturgy in order to appeal to young people. But such practices that you describe are liturgical abuses and very much discouraged (for the very reasons that you were offended).

For the most part, such blatant liturgical abuses are uncommon. Though some more liberal Catholic priests and parishes definitely “push the envelope” of what is acceptable. You might want to talk to a more faithful priest about your concerns. Or perhaps you might share your concerns in a letter to the diocese–recognizing that they will deal with it in the way the diocesan officials deem appropriate.

Don’t let your frustration with this experience turn you off the Church. Instead, try to discern what it is teaching you about the Church and your faith. God bless.

By the way, I absolutely can relate to what you describe. We attended a parish that tried to reach out to fallen away Catholics, gays, divorced, and other disaffected Catholics. My husband and I, although “cradle Catholics”, were turned off by many of the same practices you describe. We grew increasingly uncomfortable at that parish and felt it was all about the disaffected Catholics rather than the traditional Catholics. So we became parishioners at another local parish and were much more comfortable with a more traditional Catholic liturgy and parish. Live and learn. And we did! (We learned about ourselves, our faith, and liturgical abuses in the Church. And we are more faithful Catholics as a result.)
 
Helloo its a youth mass. Its for young people. Thats why all the old people hate it.
 
40.png
Bill_A:
Helloo its a youth mass. Its for young people. Thats why all the old people hate it.
Click to expand...
Well, geez, Bill, you and I may be old but at 24 the original poster is certainly not old! He still is young and an appropriate audience for a “youth mass”.
 
Greetings

I think you might call me an “old people”! I am 68 yrs old and a mom and granma. I do not agree with what you say.

Since this poster has chosen to post in every group using the same discussion title and pasted the same opening post, I invite you to find the one that I posted my answer in.

I think this poster is out of line. Holy Mother Church reaches out to all members of Christ’s Body, not just the ones who want things all their way.
 
I think it is great that teen agers and young adults feel able to come to a Catholic church to socialize in God’s presence and to celebrate him, when the service begins. This is something I rarely have the pleasure to observe, as most of the people who attend the masses where I live are those with one foot in the grave; older people have more selfish motivations to attend mass than do younger people. It’s nice to know there are Catholic churches that do not disenfranchise their non-senior citizen community.

And these people here too often start mass late too, because they practices terrible music for the service before it beigns. The loud out of pitch caucophony is nerve grating. I was annoyed too that when I was trying to pay my respects, I could barely hear my self think, because in addition ot the terrible singer, some of the older people who thought they were whispering about medical ailments and medications were in acutality very loud behind me, before the service.

I could not hear all of the homily either becuase the old people continuously made rude comments sbout the priest’s accent during the homily, so that I heard very little of it, because the microphone for the alter was much weeker than that used by the cantor. Maybe some one forgot to turn it on.

However, if I (and maye you too) had a stronger regular practice of mental prayer, then maybe my (and your) concentration would have been able to better focus on the reason I was there. My grandmother use to tell me a story about how a bird got caught inside the church once and my uncle (as a boy)was the only one who never noticed, because he was so absorbed in the priest’s actions. I am aspiring for that type of concentration, but I am still lacking.

Music chosen to pay homage at any given service will differ according to the generation that is gathered for the service. My and your opinon of “reverent,” and music that is “appropriately celebratory” and “inspirational” are not the definite word on the subject, and we should eb respectful fo the majority gathered. I am surprised that you are not more respectful of others’ perspectives, since you are so young and they are much closer to your demographic group than mine.

We are not there for the music or to people watch. It is not our job to judge. Only God knows people’s true intentions. And where ever people gather it is unrealistic to expect total silence unless in a trappist community. I think you missed the point. You are there to be with God. And he was still there.
 
You are not alone!

Try this thread:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=27593&highlight=teen+mass

also, do a search on “teen mass” in the search at the screen top.
You’ll have plenty of company.

This may have been a 1-time event, but it can be habitual.
It’s not unlike bringing your friends home to meet the family and finding your father drunk and routy. Quite an embaressment.

In my case it got to be habitual, and migrated to the other masses.

I finally got fed up and left for a while.
One day, I accidently found a Church that listed the “Latin Mass”.
I went to the High Mass, and it was the most sublime experience…this was Catholic at its best.
Furthermore, it was loaded with teens and toddlers…with 6 altar boys!
I’ve been hooked ever since, and proud to bring any non-cathaolic to it at any time, especially Christmas.
God Bless
 
40.png
Gregory24:
I attended a “youth mass” tonight because I didn’t attend my normal church in the morning. I am 24 years old and converted 3 years ago and am in love with the catholic church. However I was greatly upset tonight. I walked into this 6 pm mass. And there was very loud music playing by in the front of the church. When I attempted to pray I couldn’t even hear myself think and this started things badly. The sanctuary was louder and people were talking more than I have ever seen at a church it was very distracting. Most of the people there were teenagers. I noticed they were high fiving each other and even sitting on top of the pews while talking. I couldn’t believe the lack of reverence in the presence of the eucharist. The mass was supposed to start at 6 pm however we practiced all these songs until 6:15. I noticed that they didn’t follow the music in the missal but had there own, and the profession of faith was completely different. I went to church tonight w/ my wife and sister both non-catholics and I decided to leave after the second reading. I was so upset at the lack of reverence I felt was in the church. The one thing that I love about the church since I have joined is the sameness of it. No matter where I go I get the same thing. As soon as we exited the church my sister and wife asked me what was wrong and I was overwhelmed by tears, and believe me I don’t cry very often. I can’t tell you exactly what overcame of me. But I was saddened by the whole scene tonight. On the way home I tried to explain to my sister how I believe that christ is truely present in the eucharist which is located in the tabernacle and that is why I was so disturbbed to see what I saw. I don’t know if I should have left mass or not but I did. Can anyone relate to this? What do you think? ?
Click to expand...
I’ve seen just as much lack of reverence in my own parish, but I have to ask you if speaking in front of the taberacle is a grave disrespect, as you may see it? Is this not Christ in his body, blood, soul & divinity? The same Christ that once walked the earth & spoke with people & had people speak to him? Has Jesus somehow become so reserved that we must tip-toe about his Blessed Sacrament as not to disturb him? I’m not saying jump up & down like a loon, but come on… Jesus isn’t going to strike someone down for speaking in his presence.

You are a convert & I have a tremendous amount of respect for you, but be careful that you are not led too far to the right or left. Those super conservative right-wing catholics are just as much in error & sin as those off in left field. Jesus told us to be holy as he is holy, but he didn’t say be holy & angelic, we are still human. Humans need to live & grow & communicate with God & one another. Gathering together as the people of God is supposed to be joyous, not a boring, dreary ultra solemn occasion, despite what some people here believe. God is alive, not dead. We need to stop “going” to church as if we were going to a funeral & start living in the hope & love that Christ has given us.

As far as the sitting on pews…personally I think having pews in church are a waste of space. We should be praising God, not sitting on our fat cans, thumbing through the missal & completely forgetting that Jesus is alive in our hearts & souls. If Christ within us is not cause for joy I don’t know what is.

St. Paul said me should immitate him & be all things to all men. How can we put restrictions on the youth of our church & force them to experience God as we do? How can we ever expect to grow as a church if we take 2 steps backwards with each foot that goes forward? Forcing young people to sing the same old hymns the church sang in the dark ages is just setting another dark age in motion, & I guarantee that less & less young people will attend our church services. How do I know this? I am not only a fromer choir director, but I am also a former assistant youth director. I say the ups & downs of the youth of my parish & I’ll tell you that it was very hard to get these young people excited about our church & their relationship with God without trying to force a conservative spirituality on them. At the same time I had to remind them that the liberal views of the world had no place in the Church of God.

Rememeber, young people learn by example. Maybe the Lord is challenging you to set the good example for a few of these youngsters. Pray about it & don’t give the evil one a chance to discourage you in your walk with the Lord. God Bless.
 
Dear friend

If there is one important lesson I have learnt in my journey in faith so far, it is to retain inner peace no matter what and to stop trying to think what I want from God and instead to think what God wants from me, to let God be God and not place restrictions on Him in my very small finite mind, when God is infinite.

The church has grown and changed over the last 2000 years where the bread was broken at home and people gathered prior. The Holy Spirit leads the church and we cannot remain entirely in the past, this doesn’t mean abuses of liturgy are tolerable, they are not, but the liturgy here was not abused. From what you say the noise level was more than you could bear and the young kids lacked what is known as reverence before the Blessed Sacrament. They are kids, they will learn and they hopefully have a whole lifetime of journeying in faith to do that. Please God. A high five is the modern day handshake, would you have been annoyed to see young men 50 years ago shaking hands in greeting? My guess is the answer would be ‘no’. There is only one thing that will keep you young at heart and that is the Holy Spirit, continually teaching the heart and keeping us as little children ever in awe of God’s Wisdom.

Nothing that happens in Mass, a crying child, noisy chatter, a russling bag etc etc should divert you from being in God’s presence. It is the retaining of Christ’s peace within you and the serenity of His Mother Mary that will keep you from being affected by those things at church. I cannot imagine for one minute that the first Mass was totally silent, at the Last Supper people spoke, there was coming and going.

Now I am not saying that we should be irreverent, we should show reverence to Our Lord of course! We should be pious. The Church has told us how to do this.

I think these young people would be horrified to know that you think they were irreverent, they would not want to be nor would they want anyone to be angry at them. They were at that Mass because the Holy Spirit led them there, they were there because they love God, they do not want to offend God. They are young and inexperienced and for some of them it may have been a rare visit to church. They were there though!
You are the one who did not celebrate Mass, which is a solemn party, a celebration, a thanksgiving to God! You left and you left Jesus truly Present that day. You left because you put your feelings before your love of God. God knows your heart and He knows why you did it and that your intention was GOOD but He also knows the hearts of those kids too and that their intention is GOOD.

Go back to church and love God and in loving Him you must love those kids too.

God bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
40.png
Bill_A:
Helloo its a youth mass. Its for young people. Thats why all the old people hate it.
Click to expand...
Hello… youth have been in the Church for 2000 years, the traditional Mass was good enough for youth all over the world for centuries, so why is it in the past few years that someone thinks Mass has be turned into an irreverant circus? Why is that?

The Eucharist is the same now as it was when Thomas Aquinas, St Ignatius and Padre Pio were teenagers. It was good enough for them, why isn’t it good enough for the unpious youngsters of today?

Could this behavior be the result of those kids not knowing exactly who is in the tabernacle? (No Instruction) If this is permitted, what will the Mass for those in that town become in twenty years? This could have occured in any section of the country, I hope that disease doesn’t spread. What’s wrong with that Priest?
 
Exporter said:
**************************************************************************

Could this behavior be the result of those kids not knowing exactly who is in the tabernacle? (No Instruction) If this is permitted, what will the Mass for those in that town become in twenty years? This could have occured in any section of the country, I hope that disease doesn’t spread. What’s wrong with that Priest?
Click to expand...

…also, I wonder how many people have any idea of what Mass is and what it is not.

Mass is a re-presentation of Calvary in an unbloody manner. It is about God and what He does for us.

It is not about us and what we think we do for Him.

God has no need of our prayers…even the desire to praise Him is itself a gift from God.

We are formed by the Liturgy and in turn we are called to form all of humanity.

Maria
 
I once witnessed a very good and holy Priest, fed up with the constant socializing in the pews after mass, stand-up at the lecturn with tears streaming down his face and simply say: Stop.

People got the message real quick . . . the social hour has since moved elsewhere.
 
A little more on what the Mass ** is **:

Since we are formed by the liturgy, it is essential to always strive towards having a willed, knowing receptivity, a willed act on our part to unite ourselves, heart, mind and soul to the sacred action of the Mass.

Nothing should ever come between us and what God is offering us through the Liturgy.

Maria
 
Someone once told me that in Protestant churches the socializing is everything and in Catholic Churches people ignore one another by comparison. The difference is that all they have is each other while we can go straight into God’s house and physically touch Him. Would you high-five your friends and ignore the presence of any earthly king? God deserves all of our attention and we should not act as was described by Gregory24 at the foot of the Cross. Love God with … and your friends come second.
 
40.png
PopSmoke:
Someone once told me that in Protestant churches the socializing is everything and in Catholic Churches people ignore one another by comparison. The difference is that all they have is each other while we can go straight into God’s house and physically touch Him. Would you high-five your friends and ignore the presence of any earthly king? God deserves all of our attention and we should not act as was described by Gregory24 at the foot of the Cross. Love God with … and your friends come second.
Click to expand...
AMEN!!
 
I have relocated several times in the last five years and two parishes I lived in had very loud, emotional, theatric, performances for celebrations of the Mass. I was disgusted. I talked to my father about it and he said he is dealing with the same torment. I asked him what he does to endure it. He told me he writes the pastor occassionally to complain. I asked him it must be hard to stay. His response was yeah, but if God can put up with me, I can put up with His Church.

Peace,
Marv
 
40.png
DBT:
I once witnessed a very good and holy Priest, fed up with the constant socializing in the pews after mass, stand-up at the lecturn with tears streaming down his face and simply say: Stop.

People got the message real quick . . . the social hour has since moved elsewhere.
Click to expand...
wow! that man’s holy soul made real the Holy Spirit’s own grief…awesome
 
40.png
DBT:
I once witnessed a very good and holy Priest, fed up with the constant socializing in the pews after mass, stand-up at the lecturn with tears streaming down his face and simply say: Stop.

People got the message real quick . . . the social hour has since moved elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Too bad I wasn’t there to see that.
I would have come up to the priest afterwards and gave him a hug and thanked him for standing up for the respect of our Lord.

Go with God!
Edwin
 
Dj Roy Albert:
Rememeber, young people learn by example. Maybe the Lord is challenging you to set the good example for a few of these youngsters. Pray about it & don’t give the evil one a chance to discourage you in your walk with the Lord. God Bless.
Click to expand...
very true. When they learn to respect, to adore His Presence in the Tabernacle while they’re young, they appreciate even more when they’re older. There’s a time to play and there’s a time to pray.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top