misericordie:
This is what happens, the AMERICAN church hasd raised spoiled people who are into feeling good in mass and that’s it=this time of mass you are writing here of is to use the words of a priest i knew, a mass for ignorants.
While life teen masses do attract a large number of teens to the Mass, and without judging all life teen masses in general, one can only wonder if these “events” are more entertainment than mass; more fluff than substance. It seems to me that life teen suspends, bends or breaks a number of traditions, laws and dogma all in an effort (or under the guise) of bringing teens into the faith.
Hello:
I’m a Core member (read: adult volunteer) for our local parish who has attended many LifeTeen masses, events, and staffed for a month of their summer camps. I have seen LifeTeen for what it genuinely is. In other words, I speak with years of experience on this issue.
First of all, the aim of a LifeTeen mass is fundamentally to help bring more teens deeper into mass. That’s two fold: Bringing *more *teens in, and bringing them
deeper. In other words, we want all those teens who are not going to mass to come to mass, and we want those teens who come to mass to pray, sing, and participate deeper and more fully each time they come to mass. That’s the goal.
Listen to me very carefully here: the music and homilies that you hear are the least important aspects of the LifeTeen Mass. Yes, you heard me right - the Praise and Worship music and the youth-centered homily that a LifeTeen mass has are the least important things about that mass.
The way LifeTeen masses *really *accomplish their goals is through Christ-centered relational ministry. That is, the Core members, youth minister, and priest making a concerted effort to build relationships with the teens individually before, after, and outside mass - and building a relationship with them. It means sitting with them and their families during mass and being strong examples of prayer. It means encouraging them to be at mass - both as a friend and as a minister/mentor. Relationships, more than anything else, is the real reason that teens initially start coming to mass - because of the relationships that they have. When they were children, they came because of their parents. In the second stage of their childhood, they begin to come because of their friends and mentors. We, in turn, help lead them to a deeper prayer and help lead them closer to Christ – Christ does the rest.
Soon, after you help a teen make that first step to really getting into the mass, the mass takes them up - and they come for the sole reason of Christ.
So, you see that this isn’t the mass for “ignorants,” nor is it for those who just want to slack off and not really want to make a relationship with Christ - this is a mass that, because of the concerted effort of adults who care about the teens and their spiritual lives, encourages it’s congregation to go deeper in prayer than they have been before.
Nor is it a mass that is simply “entertainment.” It helps for certian aspects of the mass to be entertaining - who wants a boring homily? Who wants a hard-to-sing, drab processional song? But that’s not what it’s really about. What it’s really about is the true effort to bring teens closer to Christ on a one-on-one individualized basis, both inside and outside of mass.
