Monday, May 18, 2015

Their faith or The Faith?

I read an article on youth in a Catholic monthly which spoke of youth and their faith. Speaking of youth and their faith is, of course, not the same as speaking of youth and the Faith but this fact seems routinely to escape the educational professionals.

Every single person I know has their faith but only a few have the Faith. Youth are no exception.

In a climate which elevates 'listening to youth' to a status higher than preaching the Gospel, I would submit that teachers would do much better to develop, not 'structures which give life to the voice of youth', as the author purposes, but structures which give life to the voice of Jesus to youth.

The author is very excited. There will be - welcoming, nurturing, affirming, listening, promoting, developing, connecting (and reconnecting) - the only trouble being that the subject and object of each of these verbs is the same – the people. We are going to do all these things to one another, and the youth will be doing it to each other too – an orgy of 'ministry' (I'm beginning to despise the word) in which the power of God seems to have been intentionally sidelined!

According to the article they are even going to promote better liturgies!

Pardon the emphatic voice but I say: Youth do not need better liturgies, they need better catechesis! Priests are not entertainers, and Mass is not entertainment. Its relevance is not in how enjoyable it is. Better liturgies pit one priest against another. “Oh, Fr Jake’s Masses are better than Fr Joe’s!”

Instead of noisy, self-conscious involvement we should be leading youth to the joy of authentic participation in communal worship: listening and responding, recollection, self-giving, awe, silence, gratitude - and an ability to see the supernatural presence in the human frailty and shortcomings of the congregation and the priest, and in the appearance of the Sacred Host.

5 comments:

  1. Excellent point. THE Faith becomes a corollary to a social function as apposed to making God the focus of any Catholic congregation.

    Tom

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  2. You are absolutely correct. I teach the 7th - 12th graders and it is appalling how little they know about the Catholic faith.

    This constant catering to the “teenagers” is the reason they are in such deep trouble. Just 50 years ago “teenagers” didn’t even exist. When we expect so little of the people who should be considered young adults – little is what we will get.


    When it comes to confession, though, pitting one priest against another is just being prudent. Who wants to say 3 Rosaries instead of 3 Hail Mary’s? Oh, I forgot – they don’t even go to confession anymore. Silly me!!!

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  3. Very well said, Father. If the Holy Father's wishes regarding the liturgy filters down to parish level all over the world, there will be a marked improvement in the behaviour of many celebrants and congregations. Adults and children will once again be reverent in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament - and, especially, at Mass. We shall all really "Pray the Mass". Our choirs and congregations will sing hymns rather than songs of mediocre quality. (N.B. Christopher Pearson's excellent article in the Weekend Australian 29-30/12).

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  4. How right you are, Father. If the wishes of the Holy Father regarding the liturgy filter down to parish level all over the world, there will be changes for the better in the behaviour of many celebrants and congregations. All adults and children will once again behave reverently in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament and, especially, at Mass. The Mass will be for us all the great communal prayer of the Church and not, as it now is for some, a chummy fellowship around the altar. All choirs and congregations will sing HYMNS rather than songs of mediocre quality. (N.B. Christopher Pearson's excellent article in The Weekend Australian 29-30/12).

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  5. Their faith ...

    Immanentism redefines faith from the evidence of things unseen (Heb 11:1) for an external and objective body of belief, to those experiences which come out of a person; in other words, our feelings.

    Thus the 1960s “encounter group” is reborn as the “faith sharing group.” The nefarious purpose to which “faith sharing groups” can be used is well documented by E. Michael Jones in “Libido Dominandi” – see the chapter on Carl Rogers and the IHM nuns (online version at CULTUREWARS.COM is not available right now).

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