This is definitely encouraging but probably not enough to turn the tide that will witness the demise of the Novus Ordo in the next 30 years since it does not appear to be translating into vocations to the degree necessary to sustain the diocesan structure.
In our archdiocese (one of the largest on the East Coast of the US), there was one ordination in the last two years. Contrast that to most Traditional (both regularized and SSPX) seminaries (those that exclusively use the EF), most of which are bursting at the seams with seminarians. My son is in a seminary where there are 3 seminarians to each room and they can’t expand quickly enough.
Anecdotally, and in line with the topic of the thread, my wife and I ran into a family from my wife’s parish (my wife is the guitar Mass leader in a Novus Ordo church) while we were out to dinner. The wife, speaking of her pre-teen and teenage children, said to my wife “my kids are totally bored with the 9am (non-musical) Mass but they love the 5PM Guitar Mass.” My wife slightly cringed at the comment that anyone would be bored with Christ’s sacrifice. But there you have it … the “community” needs to be entertained by music that is fun to sing, they need to interact with one another during the Mass, the sermons need to be short and interesting, and Masses can’t be too long. This is not the breeding ground of vocations.
So, if you hate the Mass, just wait a bit and you may not have anything to hate sooner than you think.
I respectfully suggest that you are confusing “entertainment” with “communication.”
When someone cannot understand what is said and done, they will be bored. It has nothing to do with entertainment. I have attended concerts, lectures, and other events that were highly entertaining to those who understood what was going on, but utterly boring to me because I had no clue what was happening and I didn’t understand the presentation.
For example, some of the microbiology conferences that I have attended have been so far above my head that I literally didn’t understand anything other than a few words here and there, and I was bored. Meanwhile all the other doctors and scientists are chuckling and nodding and vigourously writing down notes and asking questions. I’m just watching the clock and thinking about lunch!
But a translation or a different method of presenting the event will dissipate boredom.
I’ve attended other microbiology lectures where I understood everything that was said and wrote notes as fast as I could write. I wasn’t bored at all, but very caught up in the lecture and soaking in the information. Sometimes the lecturer presents little “cartoons” instead of just doing biochemical formulae–this helps me to understand. It has nothing to do with entertainment. What has happened is that the presentation is made in a “language” and “style” that makes sense to me.
I suppose you could say that I should try harder to be as smart as the doctors and scientists. OK. I’ll try. But for various reasons, “Trying” might not work and somehow, the information still needs to be communicated to me.
Perhaps a teenager doesn’t understand" “Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, Quae sub his figuris, vere latitas”
You can label the teenager as a product of dumbed-down culture if you wish. Include me in that category, as I don’t understand Latin at all, even after taking a year of it in high school (many many moons ago!).
And then you add a pipe organ and a rather lugubrious chanting melody with no time signature–and the teenager (and me! has no clue what is going on.
But take that same theme–God with Hidden Majesty–and re-phrase it this way: “Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power and love, Our God is an awesome God,” and add a rock score and a fairly simple, rhythmic melody line–and all of sudden that teenager is going to sit up and say, “I understand this. I get it now!”
**It’s not entertainment at all! It’s speaking in a vernacular that can be understood. **
Now some teens DO understand Latin and some teens DO “get” chant. Wonderful! Kudos to them, their parents, and their teachers.
But it is not right to judge all teenager by these exceptional teenagers. That’s like expecting all non-Americans to understand English just because some non-Americans do understand English. And yelling the English LOUDER doesn’t help! If someone doesn’t understand, they don’t understand.
And if no one helps them to understand, they will eventually stop listening and turn away in frustration and even anger.
Again, it has nothing to do with “entertainment.” It’s all about “speaking” clearly.
