Just got back from Steubenville

[ac_claire]

Ack is the one that brought up the Festival of Praises, that was what I was addressing.

I know, that’s what I said in my first sentence. The FOP is just one example of the kind of charismatic youth conferences that take place at Stuebenville. (The conferences that I attended were at Steubenville and elsewhere.)

And many people in this thread have already pointed out that the experiences depended upon the location, but that hasn’t stopped some people from actually attacking the University and any experience I’ve had at the actual University, have been nothing but respectful and relevant.

Well, blanket attacks of the whole university aren’t fair, and are beside the point that the OP brought up. I’m glad your own experiences have been good in any case.

 

[Emily2009]

I didn’t think there was anything unclear about her statement.

If you ever go to a conference or a similar event (such as a Festival of Praise) at Steubenville, you’ll see what I mean. The mood of the adoration hour is extremely charismatic. Many people are fainting, speaking in tongues, or walking around strangely. There is an emphasis on miracles (healings, etc) and there is an expectation that such things will happen at the adoration.

Now, strictly speaking, nothing is wrong with this – if you aren’t interested in charismatic worship, you don’t have to participate. However, in some cases, things during the adoration begin getting out of control. There were some problems at Steubenville (during the time period that the original poster referred to) where an advisor stopped the adoration early, because they felt like people were going beyond charismatic worship and were falling into mass hysteria.

Hopefully, Steubenville has corrected these problems, and these situations no longer occur.

This is what I was talking about… Sorry that I didn’t explain better [it’s not something I like to think about often]. I don’t know exactly what my response was… I know I was scared and I left a hand-print shaped bruise on a friend’s leg [from grabbing on]. It brought me further away from faith than towards it… my youth minister ended up taking five or six of us outside to wait. No one from my church has gone back, my youth minister won’t take people. And I was scared to death of adoration for YEARS, until NDVI last year…I make rosaries [and I made one at adoration] and my boyfriend promised nothing would happen to me and if something did that we’d leave.

But, as far as I know, Steubenville is supposed to have changed adoration.

 

[Lollipopshazam]

I also just got back from a Steubenville conference and I didn’t like how all it was was a “fun time” I learned absolutely nothing about God and didn’t grow closer to him at all. Everyone in my group had these so called “amazing” stories about how the Holy Spirit touched their lives but honestly they were really generic. Don’t get me wrong I had a very fun time, but that was it. All it was was a fun group trip. Also the speakers only gave us about 30 seconds of silent prayer every day as if we couldn’t handle any more time then that. and the rest was all praise and worship. During adoration they played loud music the whole time! so I couldn’t talk to God because I couldn’t concintrate with all the noise and the people all around me either laughing to get attention or passing out and when they passed out people told me they were “slain in the spirit” … yeah right… so anyway all it was to me was a fun group trip nothing more.

 

[lilred5]

I also just got back from a Steubenville conference and I didn’t like how all it was was a “fun time” I learned absolutely nothing about God and didn’t grow closer to him at all. Everyone in my group had these so called “amazing” stories about how the Holy Spirit touched their lives but honestly they were really generic. Don’t get me wrong I had a very fun time, but that was it. All it was was a fun group trip. Also the speakers only gave us about 30 seconds of silent prayer every day as if we couldn’t handle any more time then that. and the rest was all praise and worship. During adoration they played loud music the whole time! so I couldn’t talk to God because I couldn’t concintrate with all the noise and the people all around me either laughing to get attention or passing out and when they passed out people told me they were “slain in the spirit” … yeah right… so anyway all it was to me was a fun group trip nothing more.

Yea, I get what you’re saying. I think they have individual fruits within it but it could be executed a bit better. They asked for a review and one of the things I recommended was turning down the music during adoration, it’s just hard to focus. But maybe that’s just us.

 

[catblaine]

I just wanted to also comment on this post like many others and I just browsed everyone elses comments so if I am saying something that other people have said, I’m sorry. I just wanted to say that the negative aspects that you mentioned from Steubenville are either specific to your region or they aren’t and you should just be OK with the fact that it wasn’t for you. At ours, they had an altar call during adoration. Yes Mass and the Eucharist are our altar calls every weekend but a public display of our dedication to Christ is different form the norm and can be beneficial. It isn’t a replacement of the Eucharist but it is something that might stir up the Holy Spirit within us. It wasn’t until I did one of those altar calls at a Steubenville conference years ago that I then had a close enough relationship with Jesus that I was open to the Church’s teachings of the Eucharist and could appreciate what it means even more. They aren’t for everyone but they do have merit for some of the kids. As far as the Bishop preaching right after the readings, I’m not sure where you go to Mass but around here I have rarely had the privilege of sitting and reflecting for any amount of time before the homily. Count yourself blessed if you do get to experience a priest who takes the time to pause and reflect after the readings. Also, Mass tends to be pretty long at those conferences because of the long communion lines, longer homily, and more music, so they are on a pretty tight schedule as it is. Also, kids are tired, coming off an emotional high from the night before and tired from kneeling on hard pavement the whole weekend. The Bishop going into the homily a little early shouldn’t even be worth commenting on.

It just seems that you need to understand that the Steubenville conference has thousands of attendants and because of its special circumstance, things are going to be done a little differently than it would if it were for a smaller community. People need to go to the bathroom because they have been sitting for a couple hours before Mass listening and participating in their seats.

The main advice I would give you is that it is OK to not get that spiritual growth that others tend to get at the conference. It isn’t for everyone but I would say just stay positive about it and pick out what you liked (you seemed to have done that already) but also just ignore the other things that you didn’t like because more than likely they were beneficial for someone else. Just be reasonable and let your aunt know that you personally didn’t like some of the stuff, but you saw that it had merit for others and that you did get some things out of the weekend. You sound like you already feel this way so it isn’t so much advice as just affirmation that it is OK to not like parts of it. Just make sure and don’t let it have a negative effect on you.

I got a lot out of it this last year because I was a chaperone and I didn’t feel like I had to be like all the teens who were emotionally caught up in it. I just appreciated that there was something out there for those teens who gained a lot spiritually that weekend. It is a different kind of approach to Catholic spiritually and one that really isn’t my cup of tea either. But I like to experience all sorts of different ways to worship in our faith and was OK with the fact that I didn’t have the same reaction as many of the teens and other chaperons. I still gave everything I had during it and because of that, I got a lot out of it.

 

[dconklin]

Nothing is for everyone. As many people have problems with contemporary Masses as there are people who just cannot get into the Latin Mass.

I attended Steubenville many years ago and there were some kids that could not get into what was going on there. That was OK. Many kids got rides to go to a much more traditional Mass at St Peter’s downtown. That was OK too.

Back in the day we would set-up three large circus tents. One was where the Masses, Adoration and talk were held. The other two were the girls and boys sleeping tents.

Our youth group recently attended Steubenville Atlanta. They loved it!

If a few more kids are brought back into the fold, awesome. If thousands of kids a worshiping and praising God, woohoo! I know the people that run the conferences. They are wonderful and holy people.

 

[verdantmemories]

I do believe you are my long lost twin. I just got back from Steubenville North and felt the same way; but I already knew I was too traditional for it

 

[lilred5]

Well, thank you for all the responses but it seems like this question needed not to be asked anyway. My aunt didn’t ask my opinion of the conference so the whole thing was avoided. Some comments made it seem as if I was being to judgmental and I do recognize that may be true- it is a problem of mine that I know I have and am working on. So, thank you for your replies but I don’t think this discussion really needs to go any further seeing as the situation is no longer existant.