Generation Y

[mkat83]

My husband and I are Gen Y as well… and several previous posts have hit it head on–

they are actually INTERESTED in sermons where you SPEAK THE HARD TRUTHS. They are sick of “Love God. God loves you.” They got that **** from Barney.

Don’t water down the faith! So many people make that mistake. Tell them about it straight; reach back into tradition. Kids really want Adoration, meditative prayer like the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet, a way to offer up their suffering. But they DON’T KNOW HOW. You have to teach this stuff from the basics, and start small. For example, try 5-10 minutes of Adoration at a time, with specifics of what to do (read the Bible, pray this prayer, etc.)

DO NOT do “Lifeteen” or “Guitar Masses” or anything like that. Those are old fashioned to us, but not in a way that shows the Church is timeless. Every Catholic my age, who actually cares about being Catholic, says that these things remind them of hippies and protestantism, neither of which we are. The ones who don’t care about being Catholic don’t attend Mass anyway. We want to be part of the Church. We want reverence and sanctity;

I agree with all these things. We recently started a young adults group at my parish, and one of the biggest things for us is that we feel like we were somehow cheated as kids. We were never taught a lot of the traditional parts of the faith, and we REALLY want to know about it. We are interested in the why behind the what. We want to understand the tradition.

We recently decided to go together to a Latin Mass that is held weekly in our town. We didn’t particularly care for it afterward, but at least we had the experience.

I went to a Holy Hour at my parish, and they prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet. I was completely lost. I needed someone to explain it to me. I want someone to explain those kinds of things to me.

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times from my peers, “We grew up with the ‘God is love,’ ‘puppy dogs and kittens’ junk, and we want the real stuff.”

Father, you could start by getting a group of young adults together, and ask them what they want. Then, see how you can help to meet those needs. If they want to learn more about a certain thing, say the parts of the Mass for example, how can you or someone else teach them about it?

 

[Captain_America]

The above post is very good, very spot-on.

I would add that at this point in their lives, you really need to address the multifacted question of how science and faith relate to one another.

This is because (a) young people question God’s existence and (b) so many anti-religious efforts use the tag “science” to justify their views and politics.

 

[Appleby]

My husband and I are Gen Y as well… and several previous posts have hit it head on–

I agree with all these things. We recently started a young adults group at my parish, and one of the biggest things for us is that we feel like we were somehow cheated as kids. We were never taught a lot of the traditional parts of the faith, and we REALLY want to know about it. We are interested in the why behind the what. We want to understand the tradition.

We recently decided to go together to a Latin Mass that is held weekly in our town. We didn’t particularly care for it afterward, but at least we had the experience.

I went to a Holy Hour at my parish, and they prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet. I was completely lost. I needed someone to explain it to me. I want someone to explain those kinds of things to me.

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times from my peers, “We grew up with the ‘God is love,’ ‘puppy dogs and kittens’ junk, and we want the real stuff.”

Father, you could start by getting a group of young adults together, and ask them what they want. Then, see how you can help to meet those needs. If they want to learn more about a certain thing, say the parts of the Mass for example, how can you or someone else teach them about it?

These are good suggestions. I would add "And make them turn off ALL binkies during the entire duration of the gathering. One of the things I see rapidly getting lost in Generations X and Y is the ability to interact with human beings without the medium of an electronic binkie intervening. (The mere suggestion by Father that they turn the blasted things off while in Church sends a surprising number of them from our parish pews into the anteroom where they are free to answer e-mail, exchange photo files and compare ring tones in peace.) In one of his novels, Isaac Asimov created a world where people interacted ONLY by means of electronics, and “personal presence” was considered filthy and perverted. I am convinced we are heading for that kind of world at warp speed.

So whatever you teach them, please begin by requiring that they turn all their binkies off and put them away.

 

[Liberanosamalo]

Binkies!

That’s WONDERFUL! Exactly!