One of the best things I get to do is help staff the St. Michael's Conference Southwest, which is a week long Anglo-Catholic event for young people held at Camp Crucis, in the Diocese of Fort Worth.
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| Say the Mass the Right Way 'Round |
Our primary focus is worship, and not the useless kind either, with goofy clowns, dancers and a sappy crew of frustrated pop musicians banging their amplified way through the "Yewkrist." No, none of that, just the power of the ancient Western Rite, as seen through the lens of Anglicanism. To help us do that, we have to fix up the chapel a bit, from this:
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| Before |
To this:
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| And After |
A marked improvement. We have incense too and it's strange to see that no one's weirdly allergic to it; odd, eh?
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| Kindly Old LSP |
I was MC this year, which meant I had to coordinate the worship, and I enjoyed that. Quite hard work though, as there's a Solemn High Mass every day, along with the Offices (Morning Prayer, Solemn Evensong, Compline) and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and Exposition on Wednesday and Thursday. You can see photos on Facebook here.
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| The Last Gospel |
Almost all faculty and students make their Confession and Christ moves with great converting power during the week. It gives a huge boost to my vocation and the faith of all who go; a testament to catholic Christianity practiced unashamedly and without compromise.
More of that, please.
God bless,
LSP
I understand the ceremony and service, but was there also participatory instruction? If so, how did you approach the topics and how was it received?
ReplyDeleteThere was -- teaching is a large component of the event (the kids get three hour long classes a day for 5 days).
ReplyDeleteAll new students have a compulsory Mass class which covers the meaning of the Eucharist, its parts and the significance of the various liturgical acts. With that comes participatory instruction. What you do and why.
This is backed up by staff/counselors throughout the conference and especially at serving practice (all the boys do this over the course of the week).
Provided the teaching is clear, simple and engaging there's a very good response.
With that said, I'd say they learn an awful lot by following the example of senior students/counselors/faculty at the various liturgies.
Doing the thing is perhaps the best way to learn it. And for a fact, the young people like the trad worship a lot -- it's simply better than the competition. But it does have to be done well.
Hope that goes some way to answering the question -- a big topic.
A job well done!
ReplyDeleteHappy Father's Day!
thanks, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteThe learn-by-doing approach is always best. It's also important to learn-why-doing and it seems that you had that covered and well in hand.
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled that there was no "modern interpretive dance troupe" education included on the curriculum. But you're in Texas. If you'd been in San Francisco they'd have brought in the evil clown...
I'm sorry about your clown problem, LL. I know it's an issue and a serious one.
ReplyDeleteHere in Texas they're mostly holed up in Austin, where they've driven property taxes up considerably. I understand there's a similar problem in San Francisco.
Speaking of which, I'll unleash Equinox shortly.