Last Thursday, we posted about promoting vocations and I still have a strong gut instinct regarding young people’s real participation in liturgy and its potential impact on vocations.

This summer, Deacon Greg shared a story of when an altar server married.  David James was the assistant moderator of the servers at Deacon Greg’s parish supervising schedules and training about 100 servers with enthusiasm, joy and love for the liturgy. The kids are crazy about him, and they all love what they do. And they are engaged in the liturgy with the 11:30 mass on Sunday typically with six or eight servers — incense, torches, the whole nine yards — and there’s nothing quite like the Easter Vigil and Midnight Mass.

And, here’s the great thing.  The kids don’t quit when they enter high school. Many keep doing it, even into college. (David himself is a doctoral student at Fordham, studying church history.)

This summer, David got married, and passed the torch (almost literally) to another server, who will now be drilling the kids. The nuptial mass included four priests, a deacon and – have you ever seen this at a wedding?? — 12 servers.  It was beautiful. Not unlike today’s readings, it was a matter of persistence whether it is convenient or inconvenient; what is needed is to convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching

Anyway, do me a favor today… After mass today. offer a comment. Excluding a “special” youth mass… were kids (elementary, middle, high school) involved in the ministries of liturgy today? How many? Where? and How?

After last week’s Religion episode, a few folks acknowledged that they went to watch Glee and were disturbed by  the sexualized nature of the show – - and yet, the premise of the episode was introduced with Mr. Schuester’s lesson that a duet is “when two voices join to become one. Great duets are like a great marriage. The singers compliment each other, push each other to be better.”  So, how did the kids respond?

Kurt – eventually recognized that pushing himself upon another may not bring “the better” for them. His duet is actually a solo from “Victor/Victoria” which was meant to celebrate his homosexuality but fell flat in acknowledging any sense of duality. This actually offered recognition of integration of his self and

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Here is a Catholic Pick-Up line song for those still working on their game. Let’s sing along to the Song of Songs and love will lead us home. (Song starts around the 1:10 mark.)

CRS and the Church are convinced that today, southern Sudan presents a rare opportunity to relieve staggering human suffering before it happens.  For excellent videos, prayer services and resources, go to: PeaceInSudan.org

“Never again” begins now!

“Take my advice, do not be afraid to aim as high as you possibly can, and you will be astonished at the results. Let me explain: do not merely have, as your ideal, to give the youth a selection of clean amusements that will turn them aside from illicit pleasures and dangerous associations, not simply to give them a Christian varnish, through routine attendance at Mass, or the reception of the Sacraments…

Launch out into the deep. Let your ambition be, first of all, the noble one of making a certain number of them, at any cost, take the firm resolution of living as fervent Christians; that is, of making their mental prayer every morning, going to Mass every day, if they can, and doing a little spiritual reading, besides going frequently to Communion and fervently too. Put all your efforts into giving this select group a great love for Jesus Christ…And then stir up in these young (people) to act upon their companions.”

Jean-Baptiste Chautard.
The Soul of the Apostolate
h/t Marc Cardaronella

The Diocese of Austin posted this list of 100 suggestion of how to promote vocations.  They included:

# 5 Provide Eucharistic adoration on certain days, asking for prayers for vocations.

#14 Encourage interviews of pastor, priests, sisters, brothers for the school newspaper or parish bulletin…especially on how they discerned their ‘call.’

#23 Do something creative! One parish hung a priest’s cassock and a sister’s habit in the church for prayer until someone from the parish decided to pursue a vocation. It worked!

#62 Celebrate the anniversaries of the Pope, the Bishop, the Pastor, the Priests and Religious in the parish, to create a teachable moment for promoting vocation awareness.

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One by one, the Chilean miners rose from the depths of the earth to the land of the living. One, upon breathing his first fresh air in months, falls to his knees and prays. Another makes the sign of the cross. Some came out wearing t-shirts proclaiming "Gracias Señor," or "Thanks be to God."

One exclaimed, "I’ve been near God, but I’ve also been near the devil," he says through a translator. "God won."

h/t to Deacon Greg

which, in this case, stands for Help-a Brother Out…

Virtual buddy, Mark Oestreicher, is attempting to help a parish in Orange CA find a junior high youth minister. He know of a wonderful, growing catholic church that is being pastored by an “absolutely amazing priest who is change oriented, fun, and non-conventional” and that they are looking to find a great JH youth minister. If you are interested or know someone who might be, contact MarkO here.

I’ve also been asked to help promote the “Effective Practices” contest at AdolescentCatechesis.org Do you have an effective practice, technique or approach to adolescent catechesis or know someone who does? If so, submit it and become eligible for a drawing for approximately $150.00 in resources.

The American Catholic Publisher’s Pastoral Leadership Ministry Conference needs to hear from you- parish staff members, school and diocesan leaders, and leaders of other Catholic ministries. The New Ministry Conference Survey takes a few minutes to complete and will be tremendously helpful in guiding the future work of the Conference. Click here to add your comments.

Air has no prejudice.

While this commercial is meant to support women-empowerment, girl-power, the message is larger.

The difference in the world today is that anyone can communicate, post up an opinion. (add a comment!)

Now, that’s always been true… but now that communication goes outside the family home, beyond the village or ‘burg. It can be carried over the air to “all over.”

The Great Commission was: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
(Mt 28:19-20)

For youth ministry, we know that the kids are in the air of the internet, facebook, youtube…

Go, therefore, and rule the air.

This research is not Catholic, but it concurs with what we know from the (US) National Study on Youth and Religion. What are the implication for our ministry in addressing “a largely unstoried and memoryless generation?”

LONDON, ENGLAND — The study published by the Church of England concludes that people born after 1982 – known as "Generation Y" – have only a “faded cultural memory” of Christianity. “For the majority, religion and spirituality was irrelevant for day-to-day living,” she said. “On the rare occasions when a religious perspective was required, for example coping with family illnesses or bereavements, they often ‘made do’ with a very faded, inherited cultural memory of Christianity in the absence of anything else.”

The authors described this approach as “bedroom spirituality”. Some teenagers prayed for the health of loved ones or for success in relationships and exams, while others made “confessions” in an attempt to express their anxieties. But most young people today define themselves by a “secular trinity of family, friends and the reflexive self”, giving them an “immanent faith” based on relationships in this world, the study found.

The book suggested that the “chain of Christian memory” has become “eroded” in Britain, particularly as the authority of the church has declined, society has become more interested in technology to solve problems, and globalization has led to a “spiritual market” of competing beliefs. “It is undoubtedly the case that the Christian memory is very faint and in many respects Generation Y are a largely unstoried and memoryless generation,” the study said. Read the whole Daily Telegraph article.