Youth Mass??? Help!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter BenCatholic
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
BenCatholic said:
I think you can help me. I want to know what you think will bring kids to our mass and parish for that matter. I’m open to anything.
Click to expand...
Write a letter to your Bishop, even if he already knows, just do it any way. Tell him everything you’ve told us. This cannot be allowed to continue.
 
Bl_Pope_Pius_IX said:
Write a letter to your Bishop, even if he already knows, just do it any way. Tell him everything you’ve told us. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Click to expand...
Yes, in fact, according to Redemptionis Sacramentum, you not only have a right to do so, you have a duty (read: obligation):
  1. In an altogether particular manner,** let everyone do all that is in their power** to ensure that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist will be protected from any and every irreverence or distortion and that all abuses be thoroughly corrected. **This is a most serious **duty incumbent upon each and every one, and all are bound to carry it out without any favouritism.
Click to expand...
  1. Any Catholic, whether Priest or Deacon or lay member of Christ’s faithful, has the right to lodge a complaint regarding a liturgical abuse to the diocesan Bishop or the competent Ordinary equivalent to him in law, or to the Apostolic See on account of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. It is fitting, however, insofar as possible, that the report or complaint be submitted first to the diocesan Bishop. This is naturally to be done in truth and charity.
Click to expand...
 
Mass should be offered in a sacred place - your parish church or its chapel.

There really isn’t a reason to offer Mass for “fun” in the parish hall or outside. Permission from the Bishop needs to be given before celebrating outside. Your priest would already know this information.

This article may be helpful to you or to anyone else wanting to know the appropriate location to offer Holy Mass.

catholicexchange.com/does-mass-have-to-be-said-in-a-church/
 
Write down all the things you want at the youth mass. Then write down all the things you know you can have at the Youth Mass. Then decide which space seems most appropriate. How many do you invisage attending. You want it intimate service you say. 20 would be too many for a youth mass. Have these people ever attended before? If not then an intimate service might be too much first time.
Do youth like silence or do they like noise? Is your bad appropriate if you are trying to create positive silence to youth?

What theme do you want for the service? Whatever you do you will have to discuss your plans with him and he mayn’t agree to them all for his own reasons.

But how to decided which space to use in your church will be determined by what you want to achieve in that space and also whether the priest agrees with you. I kind of disagree about the fun but on a different level. Youth like adults need a reason to stick it out till the end and go back. Enjoyable and not feel punished, ie a too heavier a sermon. Not too morbid style hymns.
 
Our parish has the youth Mass on Sundays at 5pm. It’s held in the church itself and they do have contemporary music.

Afterward, there’s activities and food downstairs at the church hall. Simple and works well.

We recently got a new pastor who is more conservative than the previous one, but he’s fine with the way the youth Mass and activities are conducted.
 
BenCatholic said:
I think you can help me. I want to know what you think will bring kids to our mass and parish for that matter. I’m open to anything.
Click to expand...
If you’re open to anything, then take the advice of everyone here: Go to a parish that teaches the TRUTH, not the pastor’s “opinion.” Sheesh.
 
I can’t see the good in bringing the youth to a parish that won’t teach the faith. It seems like all you will be doing is making a lukewarm Catholic factory.

You need to really think about what your parish is teaching and promoting.

I’ve had the old Mexican Standoff with people in power at my parish and I am prepared to do so again if need be.

Fight for your faith!
 
kmuestwin said:
I can’t see the good in bringing the youth to a parish that won’t teach the faith. It seems like all you will be doing is making a lukewarm Catholic factory.
Click to expand...
This.

If the youth are not taught about the faith, if those who are teaching or preaching explicitly contradict Church teachings, if the youth are taught overtly or implicitly that all religions are more or less equal, if the priest gives the Eucharist to everyone whether Catholic or not (as you said in another thread that he does)… then it should not be a surprise to anyone when those youth wander away from the Church. Why should the youth stay in a church if they are taught that the church isn’t special and doesn’t have the fullness of truth?

Edited to add: and I just saw earlier in this thread that you say the pastor explicitly preaches against the True Presence? Ben, you really need to contact your bishop, and probably Rome. A priest explicitly contradicting Church teaching on the Blessed Sacrament is a huge problem. The Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian prayer, and the purpose of the Mass. Don’t bother having a youth Mass if the youth are going to be taught that the Blessed Sacrament is only “bread and wine.”

Please write to your bishop and/or Rome. Please.
 
That said, it’s not even a Mass if the priest doesn’t intend to confect the Eucharist as the Church defines it. So the original question that started the thread is of no value… (no offense to you, Ben, but the pastor really needs to be re-educated about the faith).
 
Regarding your choosing a location for the Liturgy, I Canon law states that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass must be celebrated in a sacred place, e.g.: a consecrated church, chapel, or oratory:
Can. 932 §1. The eucharistic celebration is to be carried out in a sacred place unless in a particular case necessity requires otherwise; in such a case the celebration must be done in a decent place.
Click to expand...
§2. The eucharistic sacrifice must be carried out on a dedicated or blessed altar; outside a sacred place a suitable table can be used, always with a cloth and a corporal.
Click to expand...
Regarding your intentions of a ‘liturgical band’, I cite Tra le Sollecitudini
VI. Organ and instruments
15. Although the music proper to the Church is purely vocal music, music with the accompaniment of the organ is also permitted. In some special cases, within due limits and with proper safeguards, other instruments may be allowed, but never without the special permission of the Ordinary, according to prescriptions of the Caeremoniale Episcoporum.
Click to expand...
  1. As the singing should always have the principal place, the organ or other instruments should merely sustain and never oppress it.
Click to expand...
  1. It is not permitted to have the chant preceded by long preludes or to interrupt it with intermezzo pieces.
Click to expand...
  1. The sound of the organ as an accompaniment to the chant in preludes, interludes, and the like must be not only governed by the special nature of the instrument, but must participate in all the qualities proper to sacred music as above enumerated.
Click to expand...
  1. The employment of the piano is forbidden in church, as is also that of noisy or frivolous instruments such as drums, cymbals, bells and the like.
Click to expand...
  1. It is strictly forbidden to have bands play in church, and only in special cases with the consent of the Ordinary will it be permissible to admit wind instruments, limited in number, judiciously used, and proportioned to the size of the placeprovided the composition and accompaniment be written in grave and suitable style, and conform in all respects to that proper to the organ.
Click to expand...
My personal opinion is to focus more on the matter at hand: contact your bishop immediately and put an end to all the things that are going on to at this parish. If what you’re saying is reliable, the pastor ought to be dealt with immediately. If you’re afraid of your parish becoming less ‘liberal’, take it as a time of recollection. If you really find it necessary, find a charismatic community (I thought I’d never say that…).
 
BenCatholic said:
We use drums on a weekly basis in our church. We also do not kneel at any time during any of our services. Really our parish celebrates a very liberal and informal liturgy. We have all the Eucharistic ministers gather around the altar table during consecration. Even if we wanted to kneel our parish we couldn’t considering we don’t have any kneelers
Click to expand...
oh sweetheart, it sounds like a good idea…but someone should have warned you.:onpatrol: you are going to get some snarky comments.

when I was a teen in the Diocese of Springfield (MA), back in the early 70’s, we had just what you described, but it was in the gym of the Catechism Building. Yes, we had a “band”, drums, guitars, the whole thing, and overhead projector.
 
Julianna said:
oh sweetheart, it sounds like a good idea…but someone should have warned you.:onpatrol: you are going to get some snarky comments.

when I was a teen in the Diocese of Springfield (MA), back in the early 70’s, we had just what you described, but it was in the gym of the Catechism Building. Yes, we had a “band”, drums, guitars, the whole thing, and overhead projector.
Click to expand...
Um, why is it “snarky” to point out that it’s potentially not even a valid Mass?
We ain’t just talking about the music. Did you read much of the thread?
 
This thread obviously not real. But I will speak to some of the ideas being brought up. I have always wondered why there needs to be a “youth/teen” Mass. To me it is condescending to an entire age group. The idea that the liturgy needs to be altered, dumbed down and jazzed up to attract teens is agism. Teens and youth sit through 8 hour long lectures, classes, “meetings” if you will that most adults dont have to do. They study subjects that we would struggle with. They read literary masterpieces, learn of historical time periods, solve math problems that are on a level we would never attempt. Yet for some reason we think a orthodox Mass is beyond their abilities. We think they cannot appreciate music that is meant to be liturgical and that they cannot sit for an hour and contemplate God.

Personally it is getting ridiculous. I like 80s music, where is MY Mass? I like country music where is MY Mass? I like rap. Where is MY Mass? I am 37 years old. Where is the Mass for 37 year olds? I am a fan of the Denver Broncos. where is MY mass?
 
GwenL said:
Are you really open to anything? Try “reverence” and forget “relevance.” Try centering your worship on Jesus Christ. Try Gregorian chant and Latin and incense and kneeling (you are young–you don’t need a kneeler.)

If you make the service seem like a contemporary popular concert, the young people will think, “I can hear this same music, only better, at the local bar/concert/club/etc.” If you make the service the worship of Almighty God, they’ll know they’re experiencing something that is found nowhere else.
Click to expand...
Sorry, no. I don’t agree with this, at least to the extent that “young people will think ______”. I have a great number of friends, many of them God-loving Christians, who would want nothing to do with Latin or Gregorian chant. They would be bored within ten minutes and you wouldn’t see them again. The fact is that there is a significant contingent of young people for whom praise music and a culturally-adapted faith is a strong appeal, for better or worse.

Just because a lot of people on here think that anything developed after 1750 is an abomination, and that the only way to celebrate an appropriate Catholic mass is with Latin, ad orientem, chant, and a fiddleback does not mean that view can be painted over the general population.
 
mburn16 said:
Sorry, no. I don’t agree with this, at least to the extent that “young people will think ______”. I have a great number of friends, many of them God-loving Christians, who would want nothing to do with Latin or Gregorian chant. They would be bored within ten minutes and you wouldn’t see them again. The fact is that there is a significant contingent of young people for whom praise music and a culturally-adapted faith is a strong appeal, for better or worse.

Just because a lot of people on here think that anything developed after 1750 is an abomination, and that the only way to celebrate an appropriate Catholic mass is with Latin, ad orientem, chant, and a fiddleback does not mean that view can be painted over the general population.
Click to expand...
Honestly I don’t think you are understanding what the Mass is. But we can start with what the Mass is not. The Mass is not an entertainment. It is not a concert, it is not a place to just put tushes in the seats. It is a sacrifice. It is a miracle. If the goal is not to have people bored in 10 minutes then what is your answer? Because it sure isn’t music that is from the 70s or off of a Christian Rock top 40 chart. That is not what a great many youth listen to. Are you advocating actual pop culture music and such? Because Ke$ha is so last year.:rolleyes: Frankly if people would turn away from the Mass you described then we as Catholics have really dropped the ball on Chatechisis.
Fortunatley your opinion is just that. Many parishes that have become more faithful to the Mass have a HUGE youth component.
As to what young people want. People are finding more and more they want less fluff and more substance. More reverence.
You see my friend they can get “hip and with it” anywhere but there is an innate desire to come to Your Creator with something special.

Here is a study about what young people expect in "Church’. It is a protestant perspective done in a secular public setting.

reformedworship.org/article/june-1997/teens-and-church-music-what-do-they-really-think

Here are some Catholic articles on the subject.
catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=2301
wdtprs.com/blog/2012/05/wdtprs-5th-sunday-after-easter-1962mr-meat-not-goop-2/
wdtprs.com/blog/2012/12/what-young-catholics-want/

Do you have some info that would show different?
 
Honestly I don’t think you are understanding what the Mass is.
Click to expand...
I am fully aware of what the mass is, thank you. I am also fully aware that many of the things that attract people to something are not necessarily well suited for Catholic liturgy.

That said, there is a difference between commenting on what attracts people, and a discussion on proper liturgicals.

I wonder what the reaction would be if the referenced church decided to scrap the Eucharist portion and simply hold a worship night.
 
Moore 11, thank you for the links. I especially appreciated Sr. Roccasalvo’s article, and looked up the second part of it. The second one was also very beneficial.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top