For those who don't know, the FOCUS conference was held over the weekend of Epiphany. FOCUS is the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Some things that might be of interest to readers here:

1) Sunday Mass was very impressive. As With Gladness, Men of Old for an entrance hymn followed by a chanted English introit with verses. Chanted ICEL Gloria, really sung well. Chanted offertory antiphon followed by a beautiful polyphonic piece I can't identify. Chanted Jubilate Deo Sanctus, chanted ICEL mystery of faith, chanted Jubilate Deo Agnus Dei. Chanted Communion antiphon and verses, followed by The First Noel, then Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium. Angels We Have Heard on High for recessional. I didn't recognize the collection(s) used for the sung propers; maybe a reader here can identify them. I'd like to know where they came from.

Link to view the Mass is: https://youtu.be/_042nB7fFcc?t=190

It was one of the most impressive large conference Masses I've seen. Puts other, better-known national and archdiocesan conferences to shame, in my opinion. The music was a model of tasteful, reverent, beautiful liturgy in accord with the desires of the Church expressed in the GIRM and liturgical documents.

Admittedly, music at Masses on other days wasn't as good. Some Masses featured a praise band singing contemporary P&W ditties, but Sunday's Mass was exemplary. I encourage you to watch it using the link provided. It's so encouraging to see music for Mass like that presented to college students as a model of worship and to hear the students singing.

2) The presentation given by Fr. Mike Schmitz about praying the Mass is excellent: https://youtu.be/uG3dOziTY8M?t=45

3) Saturday night adoration was the XLT model. I'm not a fan of XLT. Contemporary pop-style P&W, "Jesus and Me" anthropocentric music by a praise band seemed to me to upstage the exposed Eucharist, making it a concert under the pretense of adoration. There were several minutes of "silence" during which a soft, low pitch synth string sound was sustained. The rest of the time the band played pop P&W songs more suitable for solo performance than communal singing. After an hour or so, after the Eucharist was processed out of the hall the music erupted into a full-blown P&W concert/rally, which I think affirms my suspicion that the whole XLT model is emotionally manipulative via music (to build up to a moment of emotional release) rather than prompting deep spiritual encounter (which genuine silence and stillness can foster) and little more than an excuse for musicians to perform on stage for an audience under the guise of praising Jesus. I admit, I don't like XLT adoration, but I think I have valid reasons for not liking it. To be honest, while the Eucharist was present and being processed around the hall, it seemed nearly all the students were kneeling and reverent and sang along with some of the music, which they seemed to know. They did sing O Salutaris Hostia, but I wish the lead female soloist hadn't dominated that hymn through her mic. Unfortunately, no link to watch XLT adoration as of posting this comment.

4) In case you are interested to view other worship or Mass videos from the conference, the general link to the conference video site is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/FOCUSNational/videos

FOCUS is doing laudable work with college students. They should be encouraged and complimented. If you aren't acquainted with the organization and what it is doing/offering, you should take some time to explore.