My unhappiness with the themes for Catholic youth work in the UK is well documented. "Be the change you want to see in the world..." (Ghandi), "Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great..." (Mandella) and "I am because we are..." (Ubuntu) are not exactly brimming with Christological significance.

Instead they betray a semi-pelagian humanist underpinning. We need to change ourselves. The sanctifying grace of God is nowhere to be seen. Baptism? Communion? Confession? These things are not for us! We will change ourselves! We will be great! We are because we are!

Anyways... thought you might like to see the themes that Pope Benedict has chosen for the next three World Youth Days...

Benedict XVI is inviting youth to celebrate the next two World Youth Days at the diocesan level, leading up to a culmination in the 2011 Madrid event.

A statement from the Holy See affirmed that the Pope picked event themes for the '09 and '10 youth days, "so as to help build a spiritual itinerary that will culminate in the World Youth Day celebrations scheduled to take place in Madrid, Spain."

The theme of the 2009 World Youth Day, which will be celebrated next Palm Sunday in Rome and in each diocese, is: "We Have Set Our Hope on the Living God" (1 Timothy 4:10).

In 2010, the celebration will also be held on Palm Sunday in all dioceses, with the theme: "Good Teacher, What Must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?" (Mark 10:17).

These celebrations will lead up to the international World Youth Day in Madrid, scheduled for Aug. 16-21, 2011, with the theme: "Rooted and Built Up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith" (Colossians 2:7).

[link]

Notice how none of them are inspired by third world humanist philosophies. Notice how they are all of them based on scripture.

Yay the Pope.

They also work quite well with Bishop Drainey's "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16) meetings with young people in Hull.

Yay the Bishop as well...

I love how the seminarian speaks in Roman numerals... but seriously, there is a lot of good here. This is taken from a recent Q&A session between the Pope and seminarians.

Michael Horrer, Seminarian: Holy Father, my name is Michael Horrer and I am a seminarian. On the occasion of the XXIII World Youth Day of Sydney, in Australia, in which I took part with other young people of our diocese, you constantly reaffirmed to the 400,000 youth present the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in us young people and in the Church. The theme of the Day was: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1: 8).

We young people have now returned -- strengthened by the Holy Spirit and by his words - to our homes, our dioceses and our daily lives.

Holy Father, how can we live the gifts of the Holy Spirit in practice, here in our country and in our daily lives, in such a way that our relatives, friends and acquaintances feel and experience his power, and how can we exercise our mission as Christ's witnesses? What can you advise us in order to ensure that our diocese stays young, despite the aging of the clergy, so that it also stays open to the Spirit of God who guides the Church?

Benedict XVI: Thank you for your question. I am glad to see a seminarian, a candidate for the priesthood of this diocese, in whose face, in a certain sense, I can rediscover the young face of the diocese. And I am glad to hear that, together with others, you were in Sydney where at a great celebration of faith we experienced together precisely that the Church is young.

For Australians too, it was an important experience. At first they looked at this World Youth Day with great skepticism because it would obviously cause a lot of bother and many inconveniences to daily life, such as traffic jams, etc.

However, in the end -- as we also saw in the media whose prejudices crumbled, bit by bit -- everyone felt involved in this atmosphere of joy and faith; they saw that young people come and do not create problems of security or of any other kind but can be together joyfully.

They saw that faith today is a force that is present, a force that can give people the right orientation. This is why there was a moment in which we truly felt the breath of the Holy Spirit who sweeps away prejudices, who makes people understand that yes, here we find what closely affects us, this is the direction in which we must go; and in this way we can live, in this way the future unfolds.

You rightly said this was a strong moment of which we would take home with us a little spark. In daily life however, it is far more difficult in practice to perceive the action of the Holy Spirit, or even to be personally a means to enable him to be present, to ensure the presence of that breath which sweeps away the prejudices of time, which creates light in the darkness and makes us feel not only that faith has a future but that it is the future.

How can we do this? We cannot of course do it on our own. In the end, it is the Lord who helps us but we must be available as instruments. I would say simply: no one can give what he does not personally possess; in other words we cannot pass on the Holy Spirit effectively or make him perceptible to others unless we ourselves are close to him.

This is why I think that the most important thing is that we ourselves remain, so to speak, within the radius of the Holy Spirit's breath, in contact with him. Only if we are continually touched within by the Holy Spirit, if he dwells in us, will it be possible for us to pass him on to others.

Then he gives us the imagination and creative ideas about how to act, ideas that cannot be planned but are born from the situation itself, because it is there that the Holy Spirit is at work. Thus, the first point: we ourselves must remain within the radius of the Holy Spirit's breath.

John's Gospel tell us that after the Resurrection the Lord went to his disciples, breathed upon them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." This is a parallel to Genesis, where God breathes on the mixture he made with the dust from the earth and it comes to life and becomes man.

Then man, who is inwardly darkened and half dead, receives Christ's breath anew and it is this breath of God that gives his life a new dimension, that gives him life with the Holy Spirit.

We can say, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is the breath of Jesus Christ and we, in a certain sense, must ask Christ to breathe on us always, so that his breath will become alive and strong and work upon the world. This means that we must keep close to Christ.

We do so by meditating on his Word. We know that the principal author of the sacred Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. When through his Word we speak with God, when we do not only seek the past in it but truly the Lord who is present and speaks to us, then -- as I said in Australia -- it is as if we were to find ourselves strolling in the garden of the Holy Spirit; we talk to him and he talks to us.

Here, learning to be at home in this environment, in the environment of the Word of God, is a very important thing which, in a certain sense, introduces us into the breath of God. And then, naturally, this listening, walking in the environment of the Word must be transformed into a response, a response in prayer, in contact with Christ.

And of course, first of all in the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist in which he comes to us and enters us and is, as it were, amalgamated with us. Then, however, also in the sacrament of penance, which always purifies us, which washes away the grime that daily life deposits in us.

In short, it is a life with Christ in the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God and in the communion of the Church, in her community. St Augustine said: "If you desire the Spirit of God, you must be in the Body of Christ." Christ's Spirit moves within the Mystical Body of Christ.

All this must determine the shape that our day takes in such a way that it becomes structured, a day in which God has access to us all the time, in which we are in continuous contact with Christ and in which, for this very reason, we are continuously receiving the breath of the Holy Spirit.

If we do this, if we are not too lazy, undisciplined or sluggish, then something happens to us: the day acquires a form and in it our life itself acquires a form and this light will shine from us without us having to give it much thought or having to adopt a "propagandist" -- so to speak -- way of acting: It comes automatically because it mirrors our soul. To this I would then add a second dimension that is logically linked with the first: If we live with Christ we will also succeed in human things.

Indeed, faith does not only involve a supernatural aspect, it rebuilds man, bringing him back to his humanity, as that parallel between Genesis and John 20 shows: It is based precisely on the natural virtues: honesty, joy, the willingness to listen to one's neighbor, the ability to forgive, generosity, goodness and cordiality among people.

These human virtues show that faith is truly present, that we are truly with Christ and I believe that we should pay great attention to this, also regarding ourselves: To develop an authentic humanity in ourselves because faith involves the complete fulfillment of the human being, of humanity.

We should pay attention to carrying out human tasks well and correctly, also in our profession, in respect for our neighbor, in being concerned about our neighbor, which is the best way to be concerned about ourselves: In fact, "existing" for our neighbor is the best way of "existing" for ourselves.

And the latter subsequently gives rise to those initiatives that cannot be programmed: communities of prayer, communities that read the Bible together or that even provide effective help for people in need, who require it, who are on the margins of life, for the sick, for the disabled and many other things. This is when our eyes are opened to see our personal skills, to assume the corresponding initiatives and to be able to imbue others with the courage to do the same. And precisely these human things can strengthen us, in a certain way putting us in touch anew with God's Spirit.

The head of the Order of the Knights of Malta in Rome told me that at Christmas he went to the station with several young people to take a bit of Christmas to the homeless. While he himself was turning back, he heard one young man telling another: "This is more powerful than the discothèque. It is really beautiful here because I can do something for others!" These are the initiatives that the Holy Spirit inspires in us. With few words they enable us to feel the Spirit's power and we are made attentive to Christ.

Well, perhaps I have not said very practical things just now, but I believe the most important thing is, first of all, that our life should be oriented to the Holy Spirit, because we live in the milieu of the Spirit, in the body of Christ, and from this we experience humanization, we nurture the simple human virtues and thus learn to be good in the broadest sense of the word. Thus, one acquires a sensitivity for good initiatives which later, of course, develop a missionary force and in a certain sense prepare the ground for the moment when it becomes reasonable and comprehensible to speak of Christ and of our faith.

[link]

"Well, perhaps I have not said very practical things just now" - Wow, I wonder what he says when he get's really practical...

"Why do they call it World Youth Day?" Ella asked, "When it lasts for several days... they should call it World Youth Week"

World Youth Day is one of those events you hear about for months, it takes a while to raise the kind of cash required to get to Sydney and we've had kids in the parish fundraising for months. I'm sure some of them will have been heavily subsidised by their parents, huge respect to those parents, if Leona asked me to drop £1000 for a flight to Sydney I might politely suggest she change her own nappy from now on.

I was first aware that World Youth Day was here and happening on 6th July at the Postgate Rally when it was announced that Bishop Terry couldn't join us because he had gone to Australia to prepare to join the Pope and thousands of Young People for World Youth Day. I think he went so early because as a Bishop he has no small part to play in the Catechesis sessions that take place throughout the week.

I'm a man who grew up going to St Wilfrid's Church in Hull, My idea of a fun day out is to take my wife to Whitby Abbey and read out loud from Bede's Ecclesiastical History. It's difficult (if not impossible) for me to hear that Bishop Terry is going to spend time with the Pope without getting very excited. Patron of our Diocese, St Wilfrid was the Archbishop of York (a part of our Diocese). He wanted to know what was right and true, so he went to Rome. He returned to England and his loyalty to the teaching of Rome proved so popular that Bede says he "was driven from his see, and two bishops substituted in his stead".

After his ordination when Bishop Terry came to Hull he said:

All my priestly life so far I have believed that the will of God is most often expressed to me in and through my superiors, especially my bishop and the teachings of the Church, proposed and proclaimed by our Holy Father, the Pope. So when the letter goes something like this, you have to listen, take notice and believe that it is the will of God for you...

[link]

At the Synod of Whitby St Wilfrid said:

"But as for you and your companions, you certainly sin, if, having heard the decrees of the Apostolic See, and of the universal church, and that the same is confirmed by holy writ, you refuse to follow them; for, though your fathers were holy, do you think that their small number, in a corner of the remotest island, is to be preferred before the universal church of Christ throughout the world?"

[link]

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes... Furthermore, a couple of weeks earlier Fr John Paul Leonard of the Diocesan Youth Service joined us at the Hull Faith Forum to give a talk entitled The Pope speaks to the young: The Message from the World Youth Days. Fr John Paul said that one of the things he likes about Pope Benedict is that while Pope John Paul had great charisma, it wasn't easy for a parish priest to take that home and apply it to his own parish but Pope Benedict does things that any Parish Priest can learn from and apply home.

"There is" (to steal another phrase from Bishop Terry) "no mistaking what is being said to me and to you, is there?" Bishop Terry believes the will of God is most often "proposed and proclaimed by our Holy Father, the Pope" and Fr John Paul Leonard, the Diocesan Youth Officer, says he is looking to Benedict as an example.

Benedict leads, we follow. Right?

World Youth Day Live

One of the questions Ella asked at Fr John Paul Leonard's talk on The Message from the World Youth Days was this: How can those of us unable to make the journey to Sydney take part in World Youth Day this year? Fr Massie had an excellent response to that question... let's watch the EWTN live World Youth Day coverage on a big screen. Alas, Australia is 12 hours out of sync with Britain so events timed at reasonable hours of the Australian day were at stupid-o-clock over here. We watched the Prayer Vigil at 9am on Saturday morning. The Closing Mass was at 1am on Sunday morning... we decided to watch the slightly less live replay on Sunday evening.

Unfortunately (and this is partly my fault) it was all a bit last minute in preparation. That meant we could just about round up most of the kids from the West Hull Parishes youth group, but we didn't manage to invite many from other parishes (though a family made it from St Charles). Hopefully, if EWTN cover it, we can try again when the Pope hits Lourdes this September. All in all we had a great time and there were moments (especially during the closing mass) when we were able to feel very close to events happening thousands of miles away.

We also got our five minutes of fame... Fr Massie and Phil sent an email to EWTN telling them about the big screen linkup and it was read out on EWTN so now we are an internationally famous parish, a household name in every corner of the globe. Ish.

A pertinent question there... "How can the young people back home share in the spirit of WYD?" Watching the Prayer Vigil and the Closing Mass we caught only a small fraction of several days of World Youth Day events, but it was immensely interesting all the same. What does the Pope do, when faced with a crowd of 600,000 young people. How does he pray? How does he celebrate mass? What does he do, as Fr John Paul Leonard noted, that we can take back and do in our parishes at home?

Eucharistic Adoration

As one of the commentators on EWTN noted. If you look at any of the movements that are really flourishing in the Church there's on clear factor they all have in common: Eucharistic Adoration. I remember when I first asked a priest if we could "try" Eucharistic Adoration. I was at university. After seven years at a Catholic Secondary School nobody had told me about the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Nobody had ever invited or encouraged me to spend time with Him. I found out about Eucharistic Adoration on the internet and when I asked a priest if we could try it he told me some people think it's "a bit trad" (though in fairness, he did do it).

The Pope, apparently, thinks differently.

Faced with a group of young people, be doesn't set out to entertain or to innovate but simply to bring them face to face with Christ in the most direct way he knows how. It looks like Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament should be at the heart of prayer with young people. Locally, I am pleased to say, it often is. Michelle and Cannon Loughlin organise Benediction for the young people once a month at St. Charles. It's an excellent achievement but it's not mainstream. Benedict didn't arrange for Adoration to be available for those who seek it out. He presented it to all. Centre stage.

The celebration of National Youth Sunday (Feast of Christ the King) in Hull last year culminated in Adoration and Benediction which was excellent and proves it can be done (though I didn't think much to the guitar playing). I for one hope to see it again next year, but again, it's a bubble. It happened only because a small minority pushed for it in the right place at the right time.

So the question is this: When Bishop Drainey and Fr John Paul Leonard return from Sydney, are they going to follow the Pope's example? Are they going to take Benediction to the mainstream? I would be wonderful at the next National Youth Sunday (which is rapidly approaching) to find Adoration openly encouraged by the clergy. It would be more wonderful still, to see Benediction happening in our Schools and at Springboard.

Singing

It was something that first struck me a couple of years ago when Ella and I went to Rome as Sposi Novelli and went to a General Audience in our wedding clothes. The Pope sings. It's not something you expect when you see photos of an old man and read his books. He's not exactly Pavarotti, but that's the beauty of the thing. Despite his croaking, wavering, elderly voice - when the Pope says mass, he sings. It's a really pleasant joyful surprise. This leads to an interesting question... when I go to mass at my local parish, why Fr Massie not sing the mass? He sings "Through Him, with Him, in Him" on occasion but the Pope sings loads more than that.

Fr Stephen Maughan recently wrote "One of the targets of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan was to encourage the singing of the Mass, especially on Sundays" he also reminded us that the General Instruction on the Roman Missal states "In choosing the parts to be sung, preference should be given to those to be sung by the priest with the congregation responding…" and continues that "Therefore, it is the acclamations and responses which should be given priority in our musical repertoires."

Musicam Sacram says...

Liturgical worship is given a more noble form when it is celebrated in song, with the ministers of each degree fulfilling their ministry and the people participating in it.

Indeed, through this form, prayer is expressed in a more attractive way, the mystery of the liturgy, with its hierarchical and community nature, is more openly shown, the unity of hearts is more profoundly achieved by the union of voices, minds are more easily raised to heavenly things by the beauty of the sacred rites, and the whole celebration more clearly prefigures that heavenly liturgy which is enacted in the holy city of Jerusalem.

Pastors of souls will therefore do all they can to achieve this form of celebration.

[...]

There is no reason why some of the Proper or Ordinary should not be sung in said Masses.

[link]

As far as I can see, it's this simple: Is singing better than not singing? Yes. Should we do what is better over what is not? Yes. Does the Pope do it? Yes. So what's the problem?

I wonder... When Bishop Drainey returns from Sydney, is he going to follow the Pope's example? Is Bishop Drainey going to encourage priests to sing those parts of the mass that can be sung? That the celebration "more clearly prefigures that heavenly liturgy which is ennacted in the holy city of Jerusalem"

Latin

Another thing that I first noticed in Rome as a Sposi Novelli was the use of Latin. It wasn't just that the Pope spoke in Latin, it was the way many others in the room seemed to know how to join him. Why? I wondered. Why do people in other countries still speak Latin. Then I did some reading, turns out it's because we're supposed to...

Sacrosanctum Concilium says "the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites" and "steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them."

It's not so very long ago a priest pointed out to me "You can generously interpret [...] You can also decide not to be generous in your interpretation". Again I have to ask Bishop Drainey and all the Priests of our Diocese. How obvious a hint does the Pope have to give? It's World Youth Day. Hundreds of thousands of young people are present along with hundreds of Bishops and many Cardinals. The Pope knows you are watching and what does the Pope do? The Pope sings the Tantum Ergo in Latin. The Pope sings the Lord's Prayer in Latin. The Pope sings his final blessing in Latin. There is no mistaking what is being said to me and to you, is there? The Pope wants us to sing parts of the mass in Latin.

So are we going to be generous in our interpretation or not? Are we the kind of Diocese that follows generously the example of the Holy Father or do we only begrudgingly do what the Pope wants if he writes a document spelling it out and even then we look for loopholes and exceptions?

Kneeling to Receive Communion

Not so very long ago Francis Cardinal Arinze was seen on YouTube saying "even if the Bishops decide that the people will receive in the hand standing, as in the United States. Our congregation in Rome has said: "Yes, provided that those who want to receive kneeling, you leave them full freedom and those who want to receive on the tongue, you leave them in peace and not in pieces."

At World Youth Day the Pope took it another step. Across the massive crowds people were free to receive communion in many ways with many receiving in the hand while standing and others opting for Intinction. The Pope however, gave communion only on the tongue and only to people who where kneeling. Which is exactly how I used to receive communion as a child, so it's hardly a practice lost in the mists of time.

Again, the question must be asked. Why does the Pope do this? Why give communion this way? Why not in the hand? Does the Pope think this way of giving communion is to be preferred. If so, should we prefer it? Pope Benedict left the priests in the crowd free to distribute communion however they saw fit, but set his own clear example. When Bishop Drainey returns from World Youth Day I wonder if he will follow the example of the Pope and encourage people to receive communion on the tongue while kneeling?

In Spirit of the Liturgy Pope Benedict (then a Cardinal) wrote...

It may well be that kneeling is alien to modern culture - insofar as it is a culture, for this culture has turned away from the faith and no longer knows the One before whom kneeling is the right, indeed the intrinsically necessary gesture. The man who learns to believe also learns to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core. Where it as been lost, kneeling must be rediscovered, so that, in our prayer, we remain in fellowship with the apostles and martyrs, in fellowship with the whole cosmos, indeed in union with Jesus Christ Himself.

Remember that, next time some 'trendy' priest in his sixties invites you to sit for the Eucharistic prayer.

Ad Orientem (ish)

The Pope also made prominent use of what some are calling the "Benedictine" altar arrangement. The candles are on the altar (instead of behind) and a huge cross is facing the celebrant as he says mass. As seen in Spirit of the Liturgy and discussed on this very blog here and here.

Again, is this a hint?

Saint Wilfrid - Pray For Us!

Hows that for constructive? Hints and suggestions straight from the successor of St Peter himself. Emphasise Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. Sing the Mass. Sing/say the more well known prayers in Latin. Encourage kneeling for communion on the tongue. Put the candles on the Altar. Get one of those altar cross thingies.

Oh, and remember. The Pope didn't do all that with a group of stuffy traditionalists. He did it with young people and they loved it.

Don't forget to read Pope Benedict's address at the Prayer Vigil and his Homily at the Closing Mass

All in all, I've got a lot out of this World Youth Day considering I never went. I look forward to seeing Bishop Drainey and the Youth Department bring the spirit of WYD back home to Middlesbrough.

Bishop Drainey once said...

“If a household is divided against itself, that household can never stand.” If the people of God are divided, they will not stand. Unity is such a powerful sacrament with which we can show the world that it is by the power of God - through Christ Jesus, bound together in the Holy Spirit. All disunity weakens and disintegrates the body, but in our case, because our life is given to us by God who is three persons in one God, and we are called to be witness to the unity of that divine community, in our case, disunity is blasphemy. This is very strong language indeed. In unity lies our strength; in unity lies our most powerful witness to the world.

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How then, can we not bring the example of the Pope in to our Parishes and Youth Events at home?