1. I’m not going the read the “vision” document you cite–I have more urgent things not to do.
- Young people like to be countercultural. Instead of trying to placate them by intruding secular elements into the Mass, why not challenge them by having them work on a Mass that incorporates more of the traditional elements than their parents have seen in a decade? This really would be countercultural!
Imagine a parish where teens and college-age youth are trained, over a period of weeks or months (whatever it takes) to sing traditional hymns with gusto and to use extensive chant …
Where they do the readings in a stately and modulated way …
Where they bring in the incense (lots of it!), processional candles, and the like …
Where they ring joyous altar bells joyously …
Where they dress up (prom-quality, but modest) instead of down …
Where they bow deeply before the altar and genuflect gracefully before the tabernacle …
Where it looks as though their every motion were choreographed by Agnes De Mille …
Where those who are altar servers are in albs with black shoes instead of tennis shoes poking out at the bottom …
I think all this is possible. Years ago, when I visited Lincoln, NE, then-bishop Glennon Flavin invited me to attend the 10:00 p.m. weekday Mass at the University of Nebraska Newman Center. Well aware of the reputation of Newman Centers, I was not expecting to be edified.
Quite the contrary. That probably was the most reverent Mass I ever have attended, in terms of the reverence of the congregation. I was so impressed that I didn’t pay much attention to what was going on at the altar–I couldn’t believe how well the college students had been trained.
Something similar–and even more impressive–could be done at any parish, if there were a will to do so.
