Youth Mass

After assisting at Holy Mass yesterday, while standing outside the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes talking to friends, I kept overhearing the things the old uncles and aunties were saying. There must have been some confusion. They must have been, because they were surprised and shocked and saying things like, ‘wah! This one Youth Mass ah? So many young people!’

The concept of seeing so many young people assisting at Holy Mass must have been quite alien to them. There were no drums, no electric guitars, and no modern hymns with saccharinely sappy lyrics. Heck! There was hardly any English at all! The Mass was a missa cantata celebrated in the Extraördinary Form, also known as the Tridentine Rite, the pre-Vatican II mass. It was almost entirely in Latin, save for the homily, complete with heavenly Gregorian chant and polyphonic motets. A Mass where the priest faces the altar, says prayers quietly and the altar servers are decked out in über cool black cassocks and surplices.

Yet, the youth had come from all over the island to attend this Mass for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and to venerate a relic of the True Cross, from the very same cross that once hung the Saviour of the World himself. It was truly a Youth Mass. The youth organized it, they served at the altar, they sang in the choir, and they assisted devoutly in appropriate dress, chanting the responses, kneeling, bowing their heads and crossing themselves.

To the older generation, who were mostly from the parish and had come to see the Extraördinary Form(EF) for the first time, it must have been truly a sight to behold for them. For those who regularly attend the EF, it is a very regular sight to see.

My dear reader, you see, for years, they were taught that the youth have to be engaged and in order to do so, they must organise Masses specially for them, with music that they could connect with or relate to. The older hymns were not suitable, Gregorian chant was beyond them, they wouldn’t like a Mass in Latin. Yet, here they were side by side with the youth!

So what brings the deluge of the young to hear Latin Mass? Novelty might seem the suggested answer had the EF been a one off event, however there is a regular EF at the chapel of St Joseph’s Institute (International) on Thomson Road, every first and third Sunday of the month at four o’clock. Convenience doesn’t seem to be the answer either, since these youth regularly walk up the long slope of the school in the middle of nowhere in the hot Singaporean weather at a timing which is horrid for students. Any student will tell you that Sunday afternoon is prime time for some serious mugging. Transecting that afternoon for Mass in a far off place is certainly a lost of important studying time, regardless of how one manages their time.

If novelty and convenience are not the answers, then what is? Why are the young faithfully coming for Latin Mass? Perhaps, these young energetic faithful are searching for their Catholic identity. An identity which many of them do not really understand after having been brought up with decades of Masses which pander to them and Churches that seem to be more protestant than Catholic. They want to sit in a Church and catch a glimpse of heaven as their eyes trace the gothic arches and the high altar up into the high ceiling of the sacred architecture. They want to hear music that lifts them up in to those heavens and a chance to taste the mystery of God. When one attends an EF Mass, it is immediately distinctly Catholic.

Perhaps they decided that instead of going to Mass that was celebrated in a fashion whereby God is brought to them, they chose to go to God instead, even though that means not knowing exactly what is going on, where they have to come of their comfort zones, and seek a silence where they can pray.

There could be so many reasons to rationalise this phenomenon, however one thing is sure. If you assist at a EF Mass regularly, you will learn to appreciate the Ordinary Form of the Mass much more. What’s more, you will soon find your spiritual life changing. Just ask any of the youth! You know where to find them.