Life Teen: Mass or Entertainment

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I am not against LifeTeen or the Mass per se, but I am often against how it is implemented. The different music can be beneficial to worship if done right, but music is only part of the Mass, not the reason for being there. We have a guy who plays a guitar, often with added effects, and usually doing the whole long-intro/long-outro concert-style of playing; that’s great for the arena, but not for the church. Also, our church emphasized linking arms around each other’s shoulders around the altar, a practice that as a teen with no exposure to what should or shouldn’t be done looked okay, but now I look back on it and wish I had not disrespected the Mass in that way. I did not learn much about God or the sacraments.

I guess it highly depends on the priest, the youth ministers, and the CORE members; when they are in line with practices, it’s good, otherwise it’s not a great recipe for success.
 
I am a young adult that grew through the LifeTeen Mass at our church. I am so thankful for it. It gave me an outlet to be a teen around other Catholics and it is where I met my husband. We are now married and had two kids. We met playing in the band together, and it gave us a strong foundation. My husband still does the music at our local church (we learned about stewardship - especially giving our time and talent – from our experience in Life Teen). I initially went to mass so I could enjoy the music, sure, but the more often I sat there the more I started to appreciate my faith. When I sang with the band, we would pray together before we started playing the music for Mass. We would always pray that God use us as His instruments, always are prayerful in our music and that we choose music that supports the Liturgy and not the other way around. You also have to understand that musicians want to perform at their best at all times. Catholic musicians have added incentive to effectivly glorify God in the celebration of the Mass. The music is important during mass, it supports the liturgy.
 
You guys must have a pretty good program. I don’t mean to bash on music, because most choirs I’ve heard (at LifeTeen Masses and others) have been great. I’m just saying that some musicians don’t understand the right approach to music for Mass. Being a guitarist myself, and one who had been guilty of such show-off stuff a few years ago when I played in the choir, it’s easy to get caught up in focusing on oneself rather than the sacrifice of the Mass. However, four or five years ago we had a great jazz-trained pianist at our parish, and though he could’ve soloed all day if he wanted, he was great at effectively using the piano to glorify God. It just depends on the musician; some are better at keeping things under control than others.
 
I too am a Core member (on sabatical due to work requirements). Some may find that odd since I am an advocate of the Tridentine Liturgy. If find no contradiction because of what was said earlier. The purpose of Life Teen is to bring a Transformation into the heart of the youth. The Life Night if properly run is a great source of teaching and at the same time experiential foci of ones faith formation. However I am not without critique.

Many of us who have been Core members for a while have found that unfortunatelly even with our strident attempt to de-emphasise and emotional attachment to the faith it seems that it comes part and parcel to the Life Teen program. I believe that this is born from the liturgical aspect of Life Teen. While Deacon Ed’s comments are correct for my home parish as well (we select music that is very reverential and the rubrics of the mass are strongly held to) there is still a cathartic aspect to the more modern forms of music. We find that this manifests itself more when we have “Praise and Worship” sessions and even more when this is done during Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. I will not scandalize the people here with all the problems we have had with this. So, as a group we have been trying to move in a direction of a mature faith that does not evoke such an emotional response from the youth.

As an aside in reference to the title of the OP. While the youth attend the LT Mass and for them I don’t think that it is so much entertainment form but it is well suited to their situation in many aspects. However, I believe that for many of the older people that go to the LT mass it is entertainment and is experienced as such. In the case of the middle age and older persons attending the LT mass I am afraid that there is a deeper issue of emotionalism that happens that lends toward a latent fideism among the more mature members of the faith.
 
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Andrew_11:
Its entertainment as in, you laugh at it, not with it.
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The Life Teen Mass only becomes entertainment to those who do not understand the meaning and depth of the Divine Liturgy. If one knows what the mass is, he will be reverent and worshipful. Furthermore, the Tridintine mass, which I wish that the church would retrun to, is open to the same criticisims. It’s beaty and majesty can become nothing more than entertainment to the person who does not come to worship God but to get a feeling or an experience. Guardini talks of this very problem in his classic work “The Spirit of the Lirturgy”. It was a problem during his time, the time of the Tridinitine mass, as it is a problem now. Since it happens in both the Trinditine rite and Novus Ordo rite celebrated Life Teen style, I believe it is not a problem with the mass but a problem of cathecesis. People must be educated to understand what the Divine Liturgy is. Then, only then, will they worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
 
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Topher:
The Life Teen Mass only becomes entertainment to those who do not understand the meaning and depth of the Divine Liturgy. If one knows what the mass is, he will be reverent and worshipful. Furthermore, the Tridintine mass, which I wish that the church would retrun to, is open to the same criticisims. It’s beaty and majesty can become nothing more than entertainment to the person who does not come to worship God but to get a feeling or an experience. Guardini talks of this very problem in his classic work “The Spirit of the Lirturgy”. It was a problem during his time, the time of the Tridinitine mass, as it is a problem now. Since it happens in both the Trinditine rite and Novus Ordo rite celebrated Life Teen style, I believe it is not a problem with the mass but a problem of cathecesis. People must be educated to understand what the Divine Liturgy is. Then, only then, will they worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
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This is why Pope Saint Pius X revised the liturgy to eliminate the Romantic forms of liturgical music. A monk that I know, after attending an indult liturgy that Widor’s “Mass for two choirs and two organs,” that I sang in, was sung, was asked how he liked it and his statement was “Life Teen for adults of that age.”
 
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mosher:
This is why Pope Saint Pius X revised the liturgy to eliminate the Romantic forms of liturgical music. A monk that I know, after attending an indult liturgy that Widor’s “Mass for two choirs and two organs,” that I sang in, was sung, was asked how he liked it and his statement was “Life Teen for adults of that age.”
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Yes, but this does not change the fact that no matter how revised the liturgy becomes, it can still become nothing more than a show of feelng and experience for the person who does not know the meaning of the Divine Liturgy. Again, it is not a question of the celebrations of the mass as much as it is a question of teaching the people what the mass is. Furthermore, it is a matter of changing the attitudes of Catholics, so that they are not experience driven but are driven by faith and reason. This comes through education.
Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather return to the dignity of the old Liturgy. God derserves the best, but that will not make the problem go away.
 
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Topher:
The Life Teen Mass only becomes entertainment to those who do not understand the meaning and depth of the Divine Liturgy. If one knows what the mass is, he will be reverent and worshipful. Furthermore, the Tridintine mass, which I wish that the church would retrun to, is open to the same criticisims. It’s beaty and majesty can become nothing more than entertainment to the person who does not come to worship God but to get a feeling or an experience. Guardini talks of this very problem in his classic work “The Spirit of the Lirturgy”. It was a problem during his time, the time of the Tridinitine mass, as it is a problem now. Since it happens in both the Trinditine rite and Novus Ordo rite celebrated Life Teen style, I believe it is not a problem with the mass but a problem of cathecesis. People must be educated to understand what the Divine Liturgy is. Then, only then, will they worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
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My problem with the teenlife mass isn’t the music, (I don’t like the music, but thats not the issue I have) Its the protestanation (if thats a word) of the mass. It uses praise music popularized by televangelists and such, and I find that the music and atmosphere promote imodest dress from the people attending. Another BIG problem I have with it might not happen everywhere, but at the ones I’ve attended, before the mass, when everyone is trying to pray, the choir tries to get everyone to practice the music. I am not some old guy living in the past opposed to change, I am in high school. My opinion is the opinion of one of the few Catholic teens who follows church teaching on chastity, believes in the real presence, and is otherwise faithful to Rome. Some people say that the problem with todays youth isn’t as big as people make it out to be. I will be the first to tell you that its bigger than they make it out to be. The youth of today don’t need a service that people make to lighten the atmosphere or whatever the purpose of teen life is. They need to be better educated learn what catholicism is about, instead of being handed a protestanized mass. With all that being said, let us pray for todays youth and the future of the church.
 
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Topher:
Yes, but this does not change the fact that no matter how revised the liturgy becomes, it can still become nothing more than a show of feelng and experience for the person who does not know the meaning of the Divine Liturgy. Again, it is not a question of the celebrations of the mass as much as it is a question of teaching the people what the mass is. Furthermore, it is a matter of changing the attitudes of Catholics, so that they are not experience driven but are driven by faith and reason. This comes through education.
Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather return to the dignity of the old Liturgy. God derserves the best, but that will not make the problem go away.
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True, but it has been the practice of the Church for hundreds of years to disallow things that are harmful to the faithful even if they are not necessarily worng in and of themselves. Perhaps this is a time where the Church should should manisfest its authority to limit what is allowed to the faithful for the sake of the faithful.
 
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Andrew_11:
My problem with the teenlife mass isn’t the music, (I don’t like the music, but thats not the issue I have) Its the protestanation (if thats a word) of the mass. It uses praise music popularized by televangelists and such, and I find that the music and atmosphere promote imodest dress from the people attending. Another BIG problem I have with it might not happen everywhere, but at the ones I’ve attended, before the mass, when everyone is trying to pray, the choir tries to get everyone to practice the music. I am not some old guy living in the past opposed to change, I am in high school. My opinion is the opinion of one of the few Catholic teens who follows church teaching on chastity, believes in the real presence, and is otherwise faithful to Rome. Some people say that the problem with todays youth isn’t as big as people make it out to be. I will be the first to tell you that its bigger than they make it out to be. The youth of today don’t need a service that people make to lighten the atmosphere or whatever the purpose of teen life is. They need to be better educated learn what catholicism is about, instead of being handed a protestanized mass. With all that being said, let us pray for todays youth and the future of the church.
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Topher and I are both Core members at the same parish (actually we are room mates as well) and these are things that we talk about often. We are not too removed from our teenage years and we sympathize with your situation as some of it is a problem at our parish as well. However, the issues that you bring forth are not directly related to Life Teen per se. In our program we require our Core members to dress properly for mass as an example to the teens. When they act as lectors they must dress more formally then most tees are acustomed to for do reverence for the ministery that they are serving. This also goes for the ushers who are all teens at out Life Teen mass. The bigest problems that I identify with the Life Teen mass at our parish is the same problem with the choir that you address and the chatter after mass of which I must admit I too can get caught up in. Our parish however tries very hard to hold firm to orthodoxy as the Pastor demands it as he is a good and holy priest.

As far as the music is concerned we are very selective as to the music that is allowed. Most of the music that we are using these days comes from Catholic authors with good lyrics (with some exceptions I believe - but we are working on it). In short it is possible to have a good reverent Life Teen mass without the problems that you identify but it takes a lot to make it work.
 
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mosher:
True, but it has been the practice of the Church for hundreds of years to disallow things that are harmful to the faithful even if they are not necessarily worng in and of themselves. Perhaps this is a time where the Church should should manisfest its authority to limit what is allowed to the faithful for the sake of the faithful.
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I am not saying that liturgical reform is not beneficial at times or that the church should not exercise its authority in these matters for the benefit of the faithful. It is a beautiful thing when the church watches out for the faithful. I long for liturgical reform because of the affect it can have on the whole church. But I still hold to the idea that it is even more important that people become educated about their faith. Without education concerning the faith, the average Catholic will never come to realize the reverance needed in the Liturgy, no matter how reformed. Perhaps both are what is needed. Reform of Liturgy and education in the faith.
 
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Andrew_11:
My problem with the teenlife mass isn’t the music, (I don’t like the music, but thats not the issue I have) Its the protestanation (if thats a word) of the mass. It uses praise music popularized by televangelists and such, and I find that the music and atmosphere promote imodest dress from the people attending. Another BIG problem I have with it might not happen everywhere, but at the ones I’ve attended, before the mass, when everyone is trying to pray, the choir tries to get everyone to practice the music. I am not some old guy living in the past opposed to change, I am in high school. My opinion is the opinion of one of the few Catholic teens who follows church teaching on chastity, believes in the real presence, and is otherwise faithful to Rome. Some people say that the problem with todays youth isn’t as big as people make it out to be. I will be the first to tell you that its bigger than they make it out to be. The youth of today don’t need a service that people make to lighten the atmosphere or whatever the purpose of teen life is. They need to be better educated learn what catholicism is about, instead of being handed a protestanized mass. With all that being said, let us pray for todays youth and the future of the church.
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Again, I don’t think that the problems you mentioned are problems with the Life Teen Mass specifically. In New Mexico, where I live, the climate is very warm and I have noticed that their is a problem with people dressing imodestly at just about every mass and every church in the dioscese (how do you spell that). If these churches are not “Life Teen Churches” then the blame cannot only be placed on life teen. Furthermore, you mention that the music contributes to the imodest dress and I assume you also believe that music might cause other problems. Well, it has been my experience that the music chosen for the Life Teen Mass at my church, although modern, is much more reverant than the music chosen for most masses. Pretty much any hymn written since the sixties is a dumbed down pathetic attempt at music. The words of many of the “Catholic” hymns are actually heretical and the music itself is certainly not in keeping with the dignity of Almight God. The contemporary music chosen for the Life Teen Mass at my church, although not perfect, is much better than the waste that one finds in the “Glory and Praise” hymnal. I find it interesting that you say that your problem with the teen mass is not the music but that you say the music helps lead to immodesty.
You also mention that mass should not “lighten the atmosphere”. Well that is true. The mass should be dignified and reverant. However, you must also remember that God is not some old Tyrrant with a beard sitting in Heaven angry all the time. Of course he is the Almight, deserving of every bit of our reverance and worship, the great God and Saviour who is the God of Justice. However, he is also the intimate and loving saviour. I believe that the Life Teen mass at my Church is very good for balancing these two concepts.

I still contend, that Life Teen is not so much the problem as it is the particular parishes and Priests who run the program. And don’t get me wrong, I think a well done traditional mass is always better than Life Teen, its just that I do think Life Teen is good and useful and does acomplish the goal of bringing teens closer to Christ.

Furthermore, a mass only becomes protestantized when there are liturgical abuses, the priest preaches heresy, or we lose focus of the central aspect of the Liturgy, the Holy Sacrifice.
 
I’m 23 and cannot stand life-teen masses. Before life-teen was introduced in my parish, when there was a normal mass, Church was always packed at this time…mostly by all young people. Now, there are only a handfull who attend this mass (maybe 30-40 people), and my parish is the second largest in the entire diocese.

I’m all for ministering to young people (youth groups, etc.)…but there’s a time and place for that. The mass is the mass, and anything which distracts from complete reverence should be condemned.

If I wanted to attend a “rock and roll” protestant church, I would.

Make the Tridentine Mass more available and watch the youth embrace it. :twocents:
 
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SL20:
I’m 23 and cannot stand life-teen masses. Before life-teen was introduced in my parish, when there was a normal mass, Church was always packed at this time…mostly by all young people. Now, there are only a handfull who attend this mass (maybe 30-40 people), and my parish is the second largest in the entire diocese.

I’m all for ministering to young people (youth groups, etc.)…but there’s a time and place for that. The mass is the mass, and anything which distracts from complete reverence should be condemned.

If I wanted to attend a “rock and roll” protestant church, I would.

Make the Tridentine Mass more available and watch the youth embrace it. :twocents:
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I agree in many ways as it is my experience in attending Tridentine Liturgies in different parts of thsi country that the average age of the faithful attending is much lower than the average age of a NO Liturgy.
 
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SL20:
If I wanted to attend a “rock and roll” protestant church, I would.
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Yeah, but at a good Life Teen mass, there is no “rock and roll”.

But I do agree with you that the Tridentine mass should be made more available.

Since as you put it, “mass is mass” should we eliminate the spanish masses that play traditional spanish music? Just curious.
 
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SL20:
I’m 23 and cannot stand life-teen masses. Before life-teen was introduced in my parish, when there was a normal mass, Church was always packed at this time…mostly by all young people. Now, there are only a handfull who attend this mass (maybe 30-40 people), and my parish is the second largest in the entire diocese.
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Maybe your Parish isn’t doing it right then. When we introduced LifeTeen at our Parish it had the exact opposite effect. You may want to address the problem with your pastor. You are absolutly right that a mass is a mass and the music liturgy and sermons should be geared for everyone and be reverent. If Thier approach is not bringing people closer to Christ, then they need to rework the whole thing! LifeTeen has actually brought the young people closer to an orthodox understanding of our faith (not a Protestant one), it has set them on fire for our Lord. After over ten years at the Parish we are seeing people go out of their way to live as Catholics, go to truly Catholic colleges, even some young men becoming priests!
When you do approach your priest, approach him with charity and solutions, not anger and complaints. Address the problem though.
 
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Topher:
Yeah, but at a good Life Teen mass, there is no “rock and roll”.

But I do agree with you that the Tridentine mass should be made more available.

Since as you put it, “mass is mass” should we eliminate the spanish masses that play traditional spanish music? Just curious.
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That depends on your interpretation of what is traditional spanish music.
 
Yeah, but at a good Life Teen mass, there is no “rock and roll”.
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Just curious, what does life teen say is acceptable? Especially concerning instruments.

I really don’t know what else to call it other than rock and roll music. Those guys in the “band” play drums (full set), guitars, bass, and all sorts of other instruments.

It’s extremely loud especially when they beat the heck out of the drums…and that’s sitting in the back of a very large Church.

They even have two large screens powered by microsoft powerpoint which displays the lyrics to the music…very protestant if you ask me.
Since as you put it, “mass is mass” should we eliminate the spanish masses that play traditional spanish music?
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Only if the spanish music takes away what’s happening at the altar. That can be said for any type of music.
You may want to address the problem with your pastor.
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The issue has been addressed many times, especially by the older parishioners in the parish…the result? Nothing has changed.
 
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SL20:
Just curious, what does life teen say is acceptable? Especially concerning instruments.

I really don’t know what else to call it other than rock and roll music. Those guys in the “band” play drums (full set), guitars, bass, and all sorts of other instruments.

It’s extremely loud especially when they beat the heck out of the drums…and that’s sitting in the back of a very large Church.

They even have two large screens powered by microsoft powerpoint which displays the lyrics to the music…very protestant if you ask me.
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I wasn’t aware that inanimate objects were capbable of being members of any religious denomination.
 
I don’t attend the life teen heresy… As a teen I was insulted by it, I felt the adults were telling me that they had to come down to our level to teach the faith and we couldn’t be brought up to the level of the Church.

They were implying that unless they add Pop music or contemporary Christian music we would have a.d.d. and be bored out of our minds by learning sacred polyphony, chant, etc. They dumbed us down and made us ignorant of historical liturgical music and other aspects of liturgy.

It was as if that they had told themselves, “unless we do x, y, or z these kids will be bored and not understand the liturgy” nevermind instilling in us the traditions and richness of the ancient liturgy and sacred music.

Regardless, I learned on my own and found I was robbed of great liturgical chants and sacred polyphony… some music written by great composers and chants by saints… a tradition of sorts deposited and gathered through time for us to use in our liturgy… instead of outside secular influence…

God Bless
 
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