First reactions of teenage boys to the traditional Latin Mass

[Peeps]

Compared to how many total weekend Masses in that city, at how many different churches? Trust me, you cannot draw much in the way of valid conclusions from those two different data sets.

There are eight parishes in our city, and they each offer at least 3 morning Masses on Sundays. Two of those parishes are non-English speaking. Our parish has five Sunday morning Masses, and also a Sat. vigil Mass and a Sunday evening Mass.

Our city is not that big, and the Latin Mass parish is in the center of the city, so I really don’t think it’s a stretch that Catholics could attend Mass there on any given Sunday, if they wished to. It’s been in the city for more than 30 years, with the full blessing of the bishop (actually, two bishops have presided in those 30 years–one dear apostle died about ten years ago-R.I.P. , and a new bishop was appointed).

I think that its reasonable to conclude that most Catholics in our city are not particularly interested in a Latin Mass.

 

[ProVobis]

Yes but it appears 75% aren’t interested in any Mass.

 

[snarflemike]

I keep hearing comments like this. And have for years. Yet I don’t see any extra trad parishes starting anywhere near me, nor has there been for 20+ years.

I wonder if it is wishful thinking in all honesty.

Out of curiosity I did a bit of googling, and found FSSP numbers from 2017 for the past 30 years. In 2017 they had four times as many priests as 20 years earlier. I figure all those new priests must be saying Masses somewhere. And the average age of their priests is 38. What is it for parish priests? I’m guessing 15-20 years older.

 

[poche]

I think what the young people want is what is authentic.

 

[CaptFun]

Per OT readings not being included in (some) liturgies:

Most of the year OT readings ARE included. During the recently concluded “Easter Season” the first readings DO include some from the book of Acts or other New Testament readings.

Almost always (always?) there is a responsorial psalm from the OT book of Psalms.

I DO like how almost each day’s liturgy that include OT readings show reflections of OT fulfillments or echoes in the NT Gospels and Epistles written hundreds of years later.

Per the overall topic: As a teenage boy in the late 1960s I lived at a time where the Traditional Latin Mass began to be replaced more and more by the newer version that included the vernacular (mass in English) and many new songs that … while I enjoyed them … many could not sing for awhile.

Christ remained the focus I thought. While it was novel and jarring to have the priest face the congregation rather than the altar and tabernacle and cross … I was ok with that … reasoning that Jesus at the Last Supper probably faced the apostles … who likely spent the whole time at the same table/altar.

I have missed some aspects of the reverence of the mass being removed.
Kneeling while receiving communion at a communion rail and receiving from the blessed hands of a priest … I am more than fine with. I received my first communion that way … and in truth may have been a more pure, innocent believer back then.

I shake my head over the relocation of the tabernacle(s) being cast to the side or out of sight … and consider all excuses for that (in my mind seeming demotion) lame and disingenuous.

Whoever called novel relocation of the blessed sacrament to regions other than “front and center” or “the most prominent place” … playing “Where’s Waldo?” with the Eucharist … rang a chord with me.

 

[ReaderT]

I do think there is a longing for the sacred

I agree 100%

It’s embarrassing to review Scripture and realize that from Exodus to Revelation worship is clothed in gold, silver, precious stones, embroidery, robes of gorgeous fabric, bells and candles; I don’t know of an instance of scriptural worship that doesn’t include incense. God ordered beauty, even extravagant beauty, in worship even while his people were still wandering the desert in tents.
-Frederica Mathewes-Green

 

[Genesis315]

The only fair test would be to have one weekly sung EF at every parish, and then see what happens. I said fair test, not practical scenario. The scales now are so far tilted that it’s impossible to draw valid conclusions about what young people would or would not choose.

Not to mention, to be fair, the “experiment” with tradition should be given at least 50 years to see what would happen like the novel has been given (even though the novel emptied the pews, rectories, seminaries, and monasteries much more quickly than that, building up is always more difficult than destruction).

 

[Genesis315]

I keep hearing comments like this. And have for years. Yet I don’t see any extra trad parishes starting anywhere near me, nor has there been for 20+ years.

Even if trad Masses and parishes are on a very slow upswing or even a holding pattern, that’s better than “non-trad” parishes which during those 20+ years have been closing left and right. And to be fair, those were almost all “trad” parishes with full pews and more vocations when they were started and then, after switching over to novelty (which, to be fair, was imposed on them), their pews have been emptying, vocations drying up, and they are being merged and closed.

 

[snarflemike]

As David says in scripture, “I will not offer a sacrifice to the Lord which costs me nothing.”