Pretty hard to believe Catholics are climbing on the megachurch bandwagon (if that's what this book is really about) just when it's showing all the signs of a failed experiment.
Churches need a worship program not a music program.
Come to think of it, why not the iMass, the McDonald's Happy Mass...
I suppose they'll have to park and come in for confession.
The Sixty Four ThousandWhat the heck is going on in seminaries?
In the late 50's there was a pastor, I think his name was similar to Hillebrand, who started, in his own parish, an architected program of liturgical renewal where every aspect of parish life was filtered and expiated through the lens of worship then service.
Sunday was the defining element.
YES!you've got to do something
Nope. You gotta LIVE it! Too many 'have' it and don't live it or believe it. Did you watch the video? THAT is what I am talking about.Oh, and the idea that "We have the Catholic faith. That's enough?
If one could combine his hip website and some other useful practices with a truly solemn catholic liturgy that doesn't lower itself to American cultural expectations, it could work really well.
I vividly remember my first Christmas eve at Nativity, specifically, the 4pm Mass... The cantor, someone you did not want to tangle with, was late (as usual) and visibly disorganized as she arranged herself at the podium. As I waved at her from the back to try to get things started, she angrily snapped at me through the microphone, "I start when I'm ready." Starting, int turned out, wasn't starting Mass. Instead, to my surprise, we were to be serenaded by her seven-year-old daughter on the violin. (Alas, I will never again be able to listen contentedly to "O Holy Night.")
How do you engage the kids or the dads who see Mass as a chore?
"...see Mass as a chore...." "....attract or drive away...."
I totally agree. And, the chore should be one that requires every bit of energy, talent, resource and time we have to make it the best expression of worship we can offer. God deserves nothing less. Therefore, IMHO, the OF (in its usually 'ordinary' form) as practiced in most of our parishes is truly a disgrace and an insult to God. Cheap vestments, cheap music, cheap architecture all sends a very strong message not only to God, but to the children and upcoming generations who will then carry on with the insults into the future. I fear we are going to pay dearly for all of this soon.And by the way: since we are obliged to worship God, it IS "a chore." Duty often is just that.
...sends a very stong message not only to God, but to the children and upcoming generations...
There are those who like to say '...oh, well God doesn't care about....'. Nonsense! God isn't the One who doesn't care. It is the people who say such things who don't care, who really couldn't care less. I think that God not only cares, but notices!
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