tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post7400875988294957102..comments2023-11-09T12:54:25.886-05:00Comments on Owl of the Remove: What is on the Horizon?the owl of the removehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00997766157711823147noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-2157764967515191212009-02-10T09:04:00.000-05:002009-02-10T09:04:00.000-05:00Let me just say that Liz, I agree whole heartedly ...Let me just say that Liz, I agree whole heartedly that we need to teach the parents while we are teaching the children. Up here in the northeast that generation was given the shaft largely when it came to catechism classes atleast in my neck of the woods. Today's parents had the experimental catechism classes frought out of desperation and lack of help. There are no easy answers that's for sure. Just the remembrance that if we spend our lives trying to do his work, that in his time, hopefully this trend will be reversed.MomWithManyJobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00052740567085534530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-57546518343356562252009-02-06T10:57:00.000-05:002009-02-06T10:57:00.000-05:00Father, it actually isn't just Catholics leaving t...Father, it actually isn't just Catholics leaving the Church. Protestants, particularly of the mainline variety are experiencing the same phenomenon. Even within the fundamentalist evangelical world it is happening as well. I spent my children's growing up years involved with a group of Christian homeschoolers and despite careful parenting, intense Christian education, and faithful Christian parents there are a number of the kids who are not at present practicing Christians. Interestingly, in that group the Catholic kids have stayed the most faithful.<BR/><BR/>There are all kinds of forces pulling people away from God and we live in one of the more difficult parts of the country to be sure. What I have observed, however, is that it is important for parents to continually model for their children a lifestyle that is counter to the culture, while not being so counter that the kids feel ostracized. If we have Christianity plus materialism as our way of life we will appear to our kids to be not all that different from the non-Christian materialists. We don't all have to look like the Duggers, but we do need to take seriously the call to not be conformed to the world.<BR/><BR/>Habitual Christians (the ones whose faith consists primarily of attending church on Sunday) may have raised more habitual Christians in previous generations. The current generation of young adults is more all or nothing than that. If they are Christian they are devoutly so, they aren't simply habitual Christians. We may be facing a smaller Church, but it may well be a stronger Church. In the past pastors have counted on young people drifting away and then returning as they began to raise their own children. That may still be happening in some places, but in mainline Protestantism to a large extent it is not. The kids who left have not raised their kids Christian at all (save for Christmas presents). <BR/><BR/>Catholic parishes seem to be one generation back, in that there are still parents who send their kids for First Communion and Confirmation prep even though their faith is not a routine part of their lives. If what happened in the Protestant world is any example, these kids who've simply been run through the system will be the ones who in 10 years are so are refusing to get married in the Church or raise their own kids Catholic. We need to teach, not just the kids during these times of preparation, but the parents as well. Kids who come to confirmation classes with no real understanding of why their parents even want them there (since they don't even attend Mass) are far less ready to truly be open to reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation. I know that I've encountered a number of adult baptized Catholics who have said that they don't care whether their kids go to Church after being confirmed, they just want them to "get all their sacraments in". It seems like a cultural attitude that is the result of not understanding what the sacrament is about. I'm not sure how pastors can deal with that, but requiring RCIA type instruction for all parents who are having their first child go through the Confirmation or First Communion process might be a beginning. Guitar Masses won't do it.Lizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05127202199834183627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-51270355106602825822009-02-04T08:00:00.000-05:002009-02-04T08:00:00.000-05:00Yes Father, it’s really difficult to read the ‘sig...Yes Father, it’s really difficult to read the ‘signs of the times’. I suspect that throughout the history of the Church there have been many ‘signs’ that people tried to interpret – the destruction of Jerusalem, assorted heresies, the Great Schism – not to mention the ‘Spirit of Vat II’…:)<BR/><BR/>I’ve lost track of the number of times the Jehovah’s Witnesses have ‘predicted’ the end of the world! Even the Apostles seem to have thought that the End was Near in their day…<BR/><BR/>While we should take note of what is happening around us, I’m also conscious of Our Lord’s warning about “an evil generation seeking a sign…”<BR/><BR/>But regardless of whether the Final Conflict is imminent or not, we know that our own end will come (and some of us are closer to it than others…). And, contra Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way”, we pray that we will be found to have lived our lives…His way!GORhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14313101159848740722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-28664744125500133552009-02-03T19:37:00.000-05:002009-02-03T19:37:00.000-05:00"while we try and entice people back to Mass (one ...<I>"while we try and entice people back to Mass (one deanery in a North-Eastern diocese even suggested "more guitar music" - like, far-out, man - circa 1971 - that really worked!)"</I> Hope it wasn't my Deanery!! LOL....<BR/><BR/><I>"have we any sense of the urgent need to re-evangelize those already IN the pews, long before we bring anyone back."</I><BR/>This statement says it all! <BR/><BR/>I would also like to thank you for your article on Bl. von Galen in the last Tribune, if only all Catholics lived by his motto! :-)Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08656092313306758012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-77710539938781426112009-02-03T16:55:00.000-05:002009-02-03T16:55:00.000-05:00Sure thing Father! :P You know I would if I could,...Sure thing Father! :P <BR/>You know I would if I could, and it made me sad this year that I didn't get to go to a mass for this feast myself. I had two choir rehearsals that night. For some reason St John's didn't have an evening mass with the candle procession this year. I somewhat associate this feast and the feast of st blaise with my birthday, since they are so close together, and there really isn't any saint on my birthday, at least in the new calendar. As a singer, what better saint to adopt than st. Blaise? :)Kimberlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505725195322410423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-39088588551093127052009-02-03T10:12:00.000-05:002009-02-03T10:12:00.000-05:00Next year! And you can come and do the music!Next year! And you can come and do the music!the owl of the removehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00997766157711823147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2162696225432515249.post-58065883860586034872009-02-03T00:18:00.000-05:002009-02-03T00:18:00.000-05:00Father, To start your evangelization of the pews t...Father, <BR/>To start your evangelization of the pews through quality in everything, you could've started tonight with a full out mass of the Purification/Presentation, candlelit procession and all, proclaiming Christ as a light to the revelation of the gentiles, at the time you were writing this post! :P Just a thought.<BR/>And why is this beautiful and ancient feast often overlooked in the novus ordo realm???Kimberlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505725195322410423noreply@blogger.com