Making mass more inviting and lively for the young people

[Rawb]

Every youth minister should have to read The New Faithful by Colleen Carroll.

The fact is that the ‘megachurches’ aren’t attracting people because of the lights and music, but because of The MESSAGE.

Those Churches, in my experience and the research done by Carroll in her book, show that our generation is attracted to orthodoxy. We WANT our religion to demand something of us. We’re sick of the pandering, soft message that we learned from the Baby Boomers in our Sunday Schools when we were little.

My blog, in my signature, is devoted to finding cool Catholic stuff for my generation; T-shirts, Music, websites, etc. but this stuff is for OUTSIDE of Mass and we know it. We don’t want loud rock music in the Mass. How disrespectful and lame is that? We want reverence and mystery and demands made of us. We’ve been taught all our life that “God loves you! Hooray! Let’s make a poster about it!” Yes. God Loves us. We know. That’s awesome! But what ELSE? What can we DO? Who can we HELP? What is expected of us?!

Read Carroll’s book. It’s ALL about the message preached. Demand stuff of us! Teach us orthodox faith!

I’ve written this message before (and so have many others my age) but we’re usually ignored because it’s not what older people expect or want to hear. These are the facts though. The Next Generation of Catholics are going to be orthodox and love Liturgy, Mystery, Reverence, and traditional devotions.

 

[Mamselle_Duroc]

I’m 19. I got involved with the youth stuff when I was 14, because my oldest brother, then a junior in high school, was part of the group. We were both stifled. The individual people who were part of the group were dear, dear people, and we became quite close to many of them, particularly the youth leader.

But for the group as a whole, speaking of the setup, the instruction, and etc.? Nope. It did nothing for us.

Perhaps it had something to do with having a mother who was a teenager when the Protestants were doing this kind of thing. She saw three groups of people: those who were temporarily inspired and then fizzled out because they weren’t getting anything solid; those who got a head-start from all the corny stuff but moved on to a deeper and wiser faith; and the teenagers who just laughed.

We were probably closest to the third group, though when we were at Mass listening to that rock music, we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Don’t get me wrong… I love rock music. I love practically anything, in fact. I have several brothers, and four of them are teens or young adults… 22, 20, 16, and 13. They all love rock, too (for the sake of their reputations , I have to add that they like the good, classic stuff… the 16y/o is appalled by the thoughtless modern rock he hears at school).

But they, and I, hate the ‘anything goes’ mentality and feel very strongly that we (speaking only of America) have lost all sense of context. There are few things that move me as much as Van Morrison’s The Healing Game. When that brass section kicks in, something goes straight to my soul and shakes it. That natural human love for beauty is touched, and I’m drawn straight to the source of beauty… to God.

That’s all well and good when I’m at home, but as beautiful it is, if I heard that Van Morrison were coming to sing The Healing Game at our local church during Mass, I’d cut out and make the long drive to the closest TLM. It wouldn’t be appropriate. I’m going to go a bit further and say that though Be Thou My Vision is a wonderful hymn, I wouldn’t want it at Mass if we were doing Van Morrison’s arrangement… which is, by the way, superb.

But even if appropriateness weren’t an issue at all, I still wouldn’t care for the youth stuff, as long as they were doing that Christian rock. The great musical opportunities we had growing up are too numerous to recount, but long story short we were raised to know what good rock music is, and when I flip on the Christian rock station I know that that isn’t it. Same thing when my mother was growing up. A great amount of the teenagers scorned their Protestant churches, because they knew what real rock music was and they knew that the third-rate stuff they were hearing at the services wasn’t it.

(For what it’s worth, I’m not just being a grouch sitting in a pew… for the majority of my teen years I was actively involved with the youth group and choir, and only quit when I knew I couldn’t take it anymore.)

So there’s the account of a teenager/young adult and the very brief and abridged version of why she doesn’t like what she experiences and hears at youth groups and youth Masses. Now, what does she want?

I could fill a book, I guess, if I could ever find the right words. I don’t want God to be brought to my level; I want to climb towards Him. I want to be like the Christian statues that Chesterton talked about, with their eyes staring wide at something outside of themselves… I want that wonder and that mystery. I want all the riches of my Catholic heritage. I don’t want to find myself always comfortable and entertained; I want to be challenged. I’m a young adult, for goodness’ sake, restless and ready to try my wings. Stop making things easy for me. Throw me out over that sea of mystery and tradition and let me try to soar to God. All through those years in the youth group I felt like the approach was extraordinarily condescending. I just wanted a little respect, a little belief that I wasn’t just a part of the stereotype that adults too often form for teens, but a unique individual who had something more to offer to God and the Church.

My brothers and I finally found the wonder and mystery of the Church. Once upon a time we heard the rock when we went to Mass and we just sighed and said: “Same old, same old… and it ain’t even good stuff.” Now we’re like the statues, our eyes wide in astonishment. Speaking for myself, I don’t always ‘get’ it and I don’t always ‘feel’ it. Sometimes I hear the chant and I feel like I wilting. But it’s still solid, and even when I don’t have the emotion, I’m still astonished… I’m the more astonished for not quite understanding it. And it challenges me to go higher.

 

[Mamselle_Duroc]

That’s what our youth group taught me. We rocked with the best of them, but were silent at Mass.

Aw, I love that. That’s where I’m at right now in my life, and three short months away from being really there. Saturday evening we bring out the instruments, and we sing and play the night away… electric guitar, piano, and whatever we happen to have handy.

Sunday morning those same people are kneeling next to me at Mass, praying silently. Some of them are in the back of the church, singing Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus with the others in the choir.

Nothing is sweeter than that.

 

[weepixie71]

I think there is a place in the catholic church for all types of mass as long as they conform to the basic principles of the mass. If the Pope can attend spirit filled joyful masses then i reckon they must be permitted.

i think the pope has to attend these masses if he is going to be able to reach the young charismatic catholics.

i also think, and i could be wrong i often am, that maybe one needs to examine why they are going to mass in the first place. are they going because they have to and its more tolerable because the music is fun and they can dance and clap in their pew. i can see this maybe in kindergarten but these are young adults who are confirmed in their beliefs. its time to grow up. mass is not about their entertainment its about entertaining Christ with our praise and witnessing his sacrifice and beautiful love for us.

 

[Shogun]

The local Anglican church has fewer adults that attend their "regular "service than the local catholic service. But the Anglican church puts on a youth service each Sunday night with contemporary music and less formality attracts and atracts 50-60 teenagers every week. The catholic church is lucky if there are a dozen of those in the same age group that attend the catholic services.

Part of the answer might be to educate the catholic youth on what the mass is all about but as has been posted on this thread before you need to actually get them there in the first place. If the anglicans can reach out and do it then there must be some hope that Catholics can too.

 

[Cat]

i think the pope has to attend these masses if he is going to be able to reach the young charismatic catholics.

i also think, and i could be wrong i often am, that maybe one needs to examine why they are going to mass in the first place. are they going because they have to and its more tolerable because the music is fun and they can dance and clap in their pew. i can see this maybe in kindergarten but these are young adults who are confirmed in their beliefs. its time to grow up. mass is not about their entertainment its about entertaining Christ with our praise and witnessing his sacrifice and beautiful love for us.

Explain why Christ is NOT “entertained” (your word, not mine) by rock music and other lively styles. Are you implying that Jesus only likes one kind of music–the quiet, slow stuff in Latin? If so, what is your basis for that claim?

 

[Shogun]

Quote: Explain why Christ is NOT “entertained” (your word, not mine) by rock music and other lively styles. Are you implying that Jesus only likes one kind of music–the quiet, slow stuff in Latin? If so, what is your basis for that claim

The format of this statement is “legalistic”, and I am surprised it’s not followed by numbered verses. It is more of a verbal assault than a statement calling for rational discussion. I saw someone giving their personal opinion only to be asked to justify himself.

 

[Mamselle_Duroc]

Explain why Christ is NOT “entertained” (your word, not mine) by rock music and other lively styles. Are you implying that Jesus only likes one kind of music–the quiet, slow stuff in Latin? If so, what is your basis for that claim?

Those late Saturday evenings I talked about earlier… well, I hope we’re honoring Christ during our jamming.

But when Sunday morning comes, and it’s Mass? It seems that context means something. benedictgal has, in numerous threads, provided numerous passages from Church documents that state pretty clearly that as far as Mass is concerned, the quiet slow stuff is preferable.

 

[Sarabande]

Aw, I love that. That’s where I’m at right now in my life, and three short months away from being really there. Saturday evening we bring out the instruments, and we sing and play the night away… electric guitar, piano, and whatever we happen to have handy.

Sunday morning those same people are kneeling next to me at Mass, praying silently. Some of them are in the back of the church, singing Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus with the others in the choir.

Nothing is sweeter than that.

I totally agree. Yours is a perfect example of how this can work successfully and brilliantly.

 

[Rawb]

Explain why Christ is NOT “entertained” (your word, not mine) by rock music and other lively styles. Are you implying that Jesus only likes one kind of music–the quiet, slow stuff in Latin? If so, what is your basis for that claim?

I don’t think it so much has to do with Christ being ‘entertained’ as it has to do with what is appropriate for the re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice on The Cross. We must remember what is actually happening on the altar, and keep all prayers, acts, and especially music in tune with the bloodless Sacrifice.

 

[Brendan]

. Are you implying that Jesus only likes one kind of music–the quiet, slow stuff in Latin? If so, what is your basis for that claim?

No, He likes Byzantine and Chaldean Chant too

In all seriousness, Chant is directly decended from the Psalmic Chant that Christ Himself would have used in the Synogogue, or when He and the Apostles ‘sang hymns’ (Matt 26 - a Seder meal concludes with the chanting of Psalms 113-118) at the Last Supper. It one of the features that we retain from our Judaic parentage.

Pope St. Gregory didn’t invent the Chant, he only codified particular forms that were inheritied from Apostolic times

So, yes it is appropriate to use the music Christ Himself used when He worshipped at the Temple and that He used for His own Mass, the Last Supper.

That is why the Church states that it should have the Principal Place in our Liturgy ( how many parishes actually practice THAT part of Vatican II)