We went to the Teen Mass tonight

[whatevergirl]

Hi everyone–Just wanted to share this with you. We decided to sleep in this morning, and go to the teen mass this evening. Our parish offers three morning masses, and evening mass…which is something we have never done on Sunday night.

It was awesome! Awesome awesome awesome! There was very modern music being played/sung–all by the youth group. The lights were dimmed during the consecration of the host, and the most beautiful song was played during Communion. I saw a few misty eyed parents during that song–I was trying not to cry, but it was sooooo moving.

If your parish offers a teen mass, and you have been hesitant to attend, I encourage you to go!

 

[marci]

I love the Teen Mass at our new parish. I had never been to one and have always tended to prefer a more traditional mass. One Sunday we didn’t get our act together in time, so we went to the afternoon Teen Mass, and we have continued to go ever since. My kids love it, they are focused and they participate, rather than stairing off into space.

It’s definately not something my mom would approve of, but it was very reverent–more so than some of the baby boomer masses I have been to. Last Sunday, during the anouncements after Mass, the choir director asked that everyone stay for Adoration in prayer for more priests and religious.

I am filled after I leave this Mass, and I also have been brought to tears a couple of times. I have totally changed my view of Teen Masses, just by finally attending one.

 

[childofmary1143]

Hi everyone–Just wanted to share this with you. We decided to sleep in this morning, and go to the teen mass this evening. Our parish offers three morning masses, and evening mass…which is something we have never done on Sunday night.

It was awesome! Awesome awesome awesome! There was very modern music being played/sung–all by the youth group. The lights were dimmed during the consecration of the host, and the most beautiful song was played during Communion. I saw a few misty eyed parents during that song–I was trying not to cry, but it was sooooo moving.

If your parish offers a teen mass, and you have been hesitant to attend, I encourage you to go!

How is the liturgy different from your normal run of the mill mass?

 

[whatevergirl]

I love the Teen Mass at our new parish. I had never been to one and have always tended to prefer a more traditional mass. One Sunday we didn’t get our act together in time, so we went to the afternoon Teen Mass, and we have continued to go ever since. My kids love it, they are focused and they participate, rather than stairing off into space.

It’s definately not something my mom would approve of, but it was very reverent–more so than some of the baby boomer masses I have been to. Last Sunday, during the anouncements after Mass, the choir director asked that everyone stay for Adoration in prayer for more priests and religious.

I am filled after I leave this Mass, and I also have been brought to tears a couple of times. I have totally changed my view of Teen Masses, just by finally attending one.

hi marci
Yes…we were all so uplifted after this mass…not that we are not moved during a more traditional mass, but the music was so moving that it kept my kids very attentive…my son tends to yawn a lot during mass, I’m constantly nudging him to stop. But, they were both moved, it seemed. My son even closed his eyes when we were singing the Lord’s Prayer, with his hands lifted up…I almost started to cry when I saw him do that.

I definitely would like to attend more. Your parish sounds great, as well–whereby there was prayer for priests and religious. I think my son in particular liked seeing A LOT of kids his own age there, too.

 

[marci]

How is the liturgy different from your normal run of the mill mass?

The only difference is the music and the fact that the teens do all of the readings, collection, etc.

The music is kinda christian rock, almost like you are listening to something on the radio, but God centered and more typical to what young people enjoy listening to on their i-pods.

I am definately not a teen, but I tend to like modern rock music, more specifically indie-rock, so it suits my musical tastes as well.
Plus it is refreshing to see so many young people praising and worshiping together openly and without fear of being viewed as a nerd, or “Jesus Freak”. Actually I think these kids would loved to be called just that.

Our parish has an active youth program and alot of young families. Plus our kids attend the parish school and alot of their friends go to the Teen Mass.

 

[whatevergirl]

How is the liturgy different from your normal run of the mill mass?

Everything is the same…the music is just more contemporary…the parish is filled with teenagers, more so than at other masses…and the homily seemed a bit more geared for the youth of the parish.

 

[whatevergirl]

The only difference is the music and the fact that the teens do all of the readings, collection, etc.

The music is kinda christian rock, almost like you are listening to something on the radio, but God centered and more typical to what young people enjoy listening to on their i-pods.

I am definately not a teen, but I tend to like modern rock music, more specifically indie-rock, so it suits my musical tastes as well.
Plus it is refreshing to see so many young people praising and worshiping together openly and without fear of being viewed as a nerd, or “Jesus Freak”. Actually I think these kids would loved to be called just that.

Our parish has an active youth program and alot of young families. Plus our kids attend the parish school and alot of their friends go to the Teen Mass.

 

[St_Aloysius]

Awesome! Our parish is going to start doing Youth Masses in January, and I’m so excited! I think this is the direction God wants our ministry to go: Showing peeps my age that they can get involved and serve and worship God now.

 

[Magicsilence]

Oh, you are so lucky WG!!

Our recent teen (youth) mass was a complete travesty.

It started off with a teenage girl running up the middle of the Church to get everyone’s attention (after the mass had started). She then told us that because they find the mass boring sometimes, they had arranged some things to ‘spice it up’ (paraphrased).

We had ‘alternative’ gifts presented before the bread and wine (like footballs, mobile phones and books ), a ‘burden bucket’ for people to dump their burdens in when going to receive Holy Communion, and various parts added to the mass (like little dialogues between a teenage girl and ‘God’). To top it off, it was our old bishop who had arranged it all to happen!

My first thought was, does anyone water down very fine wine just because someone else does not appreciate the way it tastes?

Catholic teens need to be brought together, but doing things to the mass is just so gut-wrenchingly wrong.

God Bless!

 

[PatienceAndLove]

Awesome! Our parish is going to start doing Youth Masses in January, and I’m so excited! I think this is the direction God wants our ministry to go: Showing peeps my age that they can get involved and serve and worship God now.

??? I am going to assume that I am a “peep” near your age…
All I can say is…wow… um… yeah

 

[PatienceAndLove]

Oh, you are so lucky WG!!

Our recent teen (youth) mass was a complete travesty.

It started off with a teenage girl running up the middle of the Church to get everyone’s attention (after the mass had started). She then told us that because they find the mass boring sometimes, they had arranged some things to ‘spice it up’ (paraphrased).

We had ‘alternative’ gifts presented before the bread and wine (like footballs, mobile phones and books ), a ‘burden bucket’ for people to dump their burdens in when going to receive Holy Communion, and various parts added to the mass (like little dialogues between a teenage girl and ‘God’). To top it off, it was our old bishop who had arranged it all to happen!

My first thought was, does anyone water down very fine wine just because someone else does not appreciate the way it tastes?

Catholic teens need to be brought together, but doing things to the mass is just so gut-wrenchingly wrong.

God Bless!

wow, that is not cool.

 

[February]

Awesome! Our parish is going to start doing Youth Masses in January, and I’m so excited! I think this is the direction God wants our ministry to go: Showing peeps my age that they can get involved and serve and worship God now.

Because they couldn’t before?

 

[wifeandmomoftwo]

hi marci
Yes…we were all so uplifted after this mass…not that we are not moved during a more traditional mass, but the music was so moving that it kept my kids very attentive…my son tends to yawn a lot during mass, I’m constantly nudging him to stop. But, they were both moved, it seemed. My son even closed his eyes when we were singing the Lord’s Prayer, with his hands lifted up…I almost started to cry when I saw him do that.

I definitely would like to attend more. Your parish sounds great, as well–whereby there was prayer for priests and religious. I think my son in particular liked seeing A LOT of kids his own age there, too.

WG-
What tune are you singing the Our Father too?
And is your son holding his arms up like a ref at a football game or in the oran position?

 

[AmberDale]

We have a teen Mass at our parish now as well. It’s okay, but not for my kids. They are to young and get very, VERY hyper during the “upbeat” music. So maybe when they are older, they will pay attention.
Now, they actually behave very well during regular Mass

 

[whatevergirl]

Oh, you are so lucky WG!!

Our recent teen (youth) mass was a complete travesty.

It started off with a teenage girl running up the middle of the Church to get everyone’s attention (after the mass had started). She then told us that because they find the mass boring sometimes, they had arranged some things to ‘spice it up’ (paraphrased).

We had ‘alternative’ gifts presented before the bread and wine (like footballs, mobile phones and books ), a ‘burden bucket’ for people to dump their burdens in when going to receive Holy Communion, and various parts added to the mass (like little dialogues between a teenage girl and ‘God’). To top it off, it was our old bishop who had arranged it all to happen!

My first thought was, does anyone water down very fine wine just because someone else does not appreciate the way it tastes?

Catholic teens need to be brought together, but doing things to the mass is just so gut-wrenchingly wrong.

God Bless!

Oh no! That sounds terrible. Here’s the thing–kids need to be taught the real deal, no watering down the mass, or changing it to suit the special effects of movies they see these days. Kids yearn for the Truth, and for it to be shown to them in an enthusiastic way. The only real difference with this mass, is that there were TONS of teens at the mass, and teens only singing, and playing instruments…and one of our main priests is under 30, which is really cool, too! (Not that priests over 30 isn’t, but it’s uplifting to see young men becoming priests) My son was clearly moved, because he had his eyes closed holding his hands up to God when we said the Lord’s prayer, and believe me, he is usually pretty ‘unaffected’ to say the least, at mass. He enjoyed it, and I told him that he could join the youth group if he likes. He is thinking about it, but the verdict is out on that.

Thanks for sharing–I’m sorry it didn’t go quite right at your parish.

 

[whatevergirl]

We have a teen Mass at our parish now as well. It’s okay, but not for my kids. They are to young and get very, VERY hyper during the “upbeat” music. So maybe when they are older, they will pay attention.
Now, they actually behave very well during regular Mass

hee hee that’s good!
The teens were all pretty behaved – they were smiling and really reverent. My husband told my son…that there looked to be a lot of really nice young men and women at that mass ‘on fire’ for Christ. My son got a glimpse of people his own age celebrating mass…with fervor and zeal. I think it’s important for kids to see other kids their own ages enjoying mass. It was a positive experience…we will go back for sure!

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Well, I am NOT going to throw cold water on this (I hope). I’m hoping that lessons have been thoroughly learned since the debacle of the 70s-90s.

Back in the day (the 70s) when I was a proud member of the folk group I have to say that we were ‘on fire’ for Christ. The music was (we thought) very moving, the whole atmosphere was (we thought) very “Christ-centered”. There were a LOT of people who frequently said that Mass was very helpful and they got a lot from it.

Now what is hopefully different NOW from THEN is the cold hard fact that a LOT (not ‘everything’, but a LOT) of what we young-uns thought was good, true, righteous and ‘spirit-filled’ --wasn’t.

Not because we were trying to be disobedient, not because we were stupid, but because while the INTENTIONS we had then were good, while it is indeed important in a sense to ‘tap into’ the mindset of teens (whose emotional levels are very different from both children and adults). . .what we were GIVEN --the teachings, the music, the cameraderie, the ‘experience’ were for the most part ‘wrong’ theologically and spiritually, though PRESENTED exactly the way in which our EMOTIONS would respond best.

IOW, we were fed a diet of junk food which did ‘nourish’ our bodies–BADLY! when what we were told we were getting was ‘real food’.

So we see today that there is still the chance (from one post) that teens are getting good nourishment in the way that they respond to best, presented ‘differently’ from what children and adults ‘need’ but still good solid nourishment. . .

but still the chance that (as in my day) teens will be given junk (in the way they respond to best) presented as good solid nourishment.

The ‘fruits’ will show in the next 20-30 years. Relatively few of my ‘on fire’ Catholic friends of the 1970s go to church, even those who still identify themselves as Catholic --and these were the well catechized, 16 years at Catholic school, Mass attending, lower, middle AND upper class Catholics. To this day, they will bring up all the new things we were taught had ‘changed’ from the old in the 60s and 70s–like, you don’t ‘have’ to go to church every Sunday, you don’t ‘have to’ obey teaching if your conscience says you don’t, it’s OK to be ‘pro choice’, it’s okay to be sexually active outside marriage if you are ‘sincere’, nobody is ever going to go to hell no matter what they do because ‘God loves us too much’ etc. to excuse themselves from following anything they don’t want to do, and to accuse anybody who disagrees as "judgmental, bigoted, radical Traditionalist, medieval, hatemongering etc.’

Now if today’s teens, 20-30 years from now, are not only still as ‘involved’ in Mass (probably NOT with the same style of music etc. but with the same fervor), and not IN SPITE OF the Mass teachings, spiraling into mass exodus from the Church and return (much later) on getting the ‘real’ nourishment they were denied – then they are probably getting a valuable Mass now. God bless them!

 

[whatevergirl]

Well, I am NOT going to throw cold water on this (I hope). I’m hoping that lessons have been thoroughly learned since the debacle of the 70s-90s.

Back in the day (the 70s) when I was a proud member of the folk group I have to say that we were ‘on fire’ for Christ. The music was (we thought) very moving, the whole atmosphere was (we thought) very “Christ-centered”. There were a LOT of people who frequently said that Mass was very helpful and they got a lot from it.

Now what is hopefully different NOW from THEN is the cold hard fact that a LOT (not ‘everything’, but a LOT) of what we young-uns thought was good, true, righteous and ‘spirit-filled’ --wasn’t.

Not because we were trying to be disobedient, not because we were stupid, but because while the INTENTIONS we had then were good, while it is indeed important in a sense to ‘tap into’ the mindset of teens (whose emotional levels are very different from both children and adults). . .what we were GIVEN --the teachings, the music, the cameraderie, the ‘experience’ were for the most part ‘wrong’ theologically and spiritually, though PRESENTED exactly the way in which our EMOTIONS would respond best.

IOW, we were fed a diet of junk food which did ‘nourish’ our bodies–BADLY! when what we were told we were getting was ‘real food’.

So we see today that there is still the chance (from one post) that teens are getting good nourishment in the way that they respond to best, presented ‘differently’ from what children and adults ‘need’ but still good solid nourishment. . .

but still the chance that (as in my day) teens will be given junk (in the way they respond to best) presented as good solid nourishment.

The ‘fruits’ will show in the next 20-30 years. Relatively few of my ‘on fire’ Catholic friends of the 1970s go to church, even those who still identify themselves as Catholic --and these were the well catechized, 16 years at Catholic school, Mass attending, lower, middle AND upper class Catholics. To this day, they will bring up all the new things we were taught had ‘changed’ from the old in the 60s and 70s–like, you don’t ‘have’ to go to church every Sunday, you don’t ‘have to’ obey teaching if your conscience says you don’t, it’s OK to be ‘pro choice’, it’s okay to be sexually active outside marriage if you are ‘sincere’, nobody is ever going to go to hell no matter what they do because ‘God loves us too much’ etc. to excuse themselves from following anything they don’t want to do, and to accuse anybody who disagrees as "judgmental, bigoted, radical Traditionalist, medieval, hatemongering etc.’

Now if today’s teens, 20-30 years from now, are not only still as ‘involved’ in Mass (probably NOT with the same style of music etc. but with the same fervor), and not IN SPITE OF the Mass teachings, spiraling into mass exodus from the Church and return (much later) on getting the ‘real’ nourishment they were denied – then they are probably getting a valuable Mass now. God bless them!

That’s funny, I know many who never attended a teen mass ever, and have those same thoughts and opinions. Teasing you. I agree–we shall see. I pray every day that my children never stray from the faith. Your prayers would be welcome also, if you don’t mind doing that.

Have a joyous Christmas!

 

[Magicsilence]

Oh no! That sounds terrible. Here’s the thing–kids need to be taught the real deal, no watering down the mass, or changing it to suit the special effects of movies they see these days. Kids yearn for the Truth, and for it to be shown to them in an enthusiastic way. The only real difference with this mass, is that there were TONS of teens at the mass, and teens only singing, and playing instruments…and one of our main priests is under 30, which is really cool, too! (Not that priests over 30 isn’t, but it’s uplifting to see young men becoming priests) My son was clearly moved, because he had his eyes closed holding his hands up to God when we said the Lord’s prayer, and believe me, he is usually pretty ‘unaffected’ to say the least, at mass. He enjoyed it, and I told him that he could join the youth group if he likes. He is thinking about it, but the verdict is out on that.

Thanks for sharing–I’m sorry it didn’t go quite right at your parish.

Yes WG, this is so fundamentally accurate, and I am sure your heart leapt for joy at seeing your son exhibiting sincerity during the Lord’s prayer

I think it was about 16 that I first started to think seriously about my faith, so don’t give up hope! (Not that you would )

God Bless!