By David McGowan
On a recent Sunday I coaxed a neighbour to accompany me to Mass in the Latin Rite. It was a low Mass with our usual congregation.
After Mass he commented on the number of young people attending and I responded that the 25 per cent of the congregation under the age of 30 was our regular attendance.
"But," he said, "I am surprised that so many young people have responded to the changes in the Church by choosing to attend Mass in the old rite".
And I agreed with him, but in retrospect the phenomenon is much more spectacular than either he or I acknowledged at the time.
In the first place, the young people that attend the Latin rite Mass could have no affiliation with that rite through tradition, as none of them were even born at the time the Novus Ordo was promulgated, and they grew up with the modern rite. Yet given an opportunity they have chosen the Latin rite.
These youngsters have not experienced any change in the Church. Vatican II was finished and the results of its deliberations implemented by the time the oldest of them was 5 years old. So it is hardly the pressure of change or its unsettling effects which have prompted the young people to come to the Latin Mass.
To my shame, I realised I didn't know why the young people came to the traditional rite, so I asked them and I was astonished at the answers they gave.
"Lots of people my age," said one who was in his mid teens, "are looking for an authentic spiritual expression. Some of them find it in the eastern religion outreaches that are everywhere; others find it in the sects and cults but they don't always last long there; others find it by going to the weirdoes, the crystal ball gazers and the Tarot Card readers and that kind of thing. For me I was invited to come to Mass by a girl I knew, and I thought it would be a hoot to see the old stuff and when I came, I felt so comfortable - everything just seemed to fit together - that I stayed."
Straight from the source
A young lass just into high school told me: "My parents brought me here a couple of Sundays. I wasn't very happy about it because most of my friends didn't bother to go to church at all. But it was so beautiful, the music, the movement and the silences, a real sense of peace."
I looked to the younger children. They really have no choice about attending the traditional rite because they come with their parents. So the question is a little different "Do you like coming to Mass here?" A little miss of 10 told me: "I'd like to go where my school friends are, but I really like it here because we respect Jesus here, you have time to talk to Him". Profound words indeed!
It was interesting to seek an opinion from another young man who was visiting the traditional Mass community as a member of the Parish Council's official round. He likened his experience to a Greek Orthodox Mass "where", he said, "there is no participation by the people."
I am not sure what he thought we were all doing kneeling there.
The thread running through the little sample that I spoke to is the reverence and communication with God.
At a time when young people are abandoning mainstream religion in droves and looking for alternatives and if the popular magazines you can read at the doctor or the hairdresser are to be believed, there are plenty of alternatives on offer, the Latin rite Mass may be a light hidden under a bushel.
We shouldn't be surprised. After all, many saints thought the Mass was worth dying for.
