If you attend Mass on any continuous 6 week period you will observe something. The same people always participate in the liturgy they might serve, read, conduct the proceedings, or pick up the collection. There are some persons who attend Mass and arrive just before it starts and leave just after it ends. Others come week in week out yet never participate in any liturgical activity. Then there are the rest you know the people who only attend "High Mass" ie, Christmas, Easter, New Years. Why is this so? When the pope came to Hyde Park last summer he said that it is time for the youth to become more involved in the church, the older people should not stop performing duties but they should make space for the youth to take up the mantle as well. Sorry to say but I think this has fallen on very deaf ears.
I attended Mass conducted by Bishop Donald Reece of St John's - Basseterre when I around 13/14 and during his homily he stated " If you want to get rid of all the young people in the church baptiste them and confirm them and you will never see them again." This statement came to mind as Pope Benedict expressed the need during these times where morals are easily questioned, and family structures are shaky to make way for the youth in the affairs of the church. The church is not the building where Mass takes place, it is the relationship that we as a community have with each other, the invested interest that we take in each others lives, whether it be for spiritual, mental, familial purposes. If we invite the youth to participate in the liturgical activities, as well as the various fairs, fetes and other events put on by the church they may become invested beyond the point of just showing up. I am not saying that we should be turning out droves of young people who are flocking to the cloth. However we need to do better so that excuses like -------> I am tired today, or I don't have any "church" shoes are not common place.
The bible says teach a child the way he should grow and when he is old he will not depart from it. "Why is is so easy for the youth to depart from the church?" Is it that the church is not welcoming, or unforgiving? Yes people/persons grow up and develop new interests but what about their spiritual development? Is that an interest that no longer needs to be nurtured?
"Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there Among them."
I attended Mass conducted by Bishop Donald Reece of St John's - Basseterre when I around 13/14 and during his homily he stated " If you want to get rid of all the young people in the church baptiste them and confirm them and you will never see them again." This statement came to mind as Pope Benedict expressed the need during these times where morals are easily questioned, and family structures are shaky to make way for the youth in the affairs of the church. The church is not the building where Mass takes place, it is the relationship that we as a community have with each other, the invested interest that we take in each others lives, whether it be for spiritual, mental, familial purposes. If we invite the youth to participate in the liturgical activities, as well as the various fairs, fetes and other events put on by the church they may become invested beyond the point of just showing up. I am not saying that we should be turning out droves of young people who are flocking to the cloth. However we need to do better so that excuses like -------> I am tired today, or I don't have any "church" shoes are not common place.
The bible says teach a child the way he should grow and when he is old he will not depart from it. "Why is is so easy for the youth to depart from the church?" Is it that the church is not welcoming, or unforgiving? Yes people/persons grow up and develop new interests but what about their spiritual development? Is that an interest that no longer needs to be nurtured?
"Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there Among them."
