“Smells ‘n Bells” VS “Drums ‘n Chums”

As a Roman Catholic, I have been to many Masses in my lifetime. The majority have been your typical, run-of-the-mill parish Sunday Masses or your quick daily Masses, but I’ve also been to youth Masses, Novus Ordo Latin Masses, Tridentine (Pre-Vatican II) Latin Masses, and even Masses involving people collapsing into tears and wailing after receiving Communion.

That being said, I would like to discuss what I perceive to be two different “styles” of the Holy Mass. The first is one I’ve referred to here as “smells ‘n bells” (which alludes to the frequent use of incense and the bells that are rung at the moment of the Consecration), which one might consider to be orthodox. A Latin Mass is a perfect example of a “smells ‘n bells” Mass, but many vernacular Masses will also neatly fall into this category. Each piece of music is referred to as a “hymn” and the primary instrument is the organ. With these details, I am assured that the reader has been to a Mass of this sort before, so I will not spend any more time on describing it. For brevity’s sake, I will hereafter refer to this as the solemn Mass.

Blessed Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day

Second, there is the style of Mass that I refer to as the “drums ‘n chums” Mass (which refers to the frequent use of rock drums sets and the emphasis on the community of those in attendance). The style is largely attributed to the influence of Blessed Pope John Paul II and his institution of World Youth Day. From what I know of its history, the youth Mass was a method to attract young people who had no firm foundation of faith to the sacrament of the Eucharist. Thus, its execution is less conservative and of a higher energy. Guitars and drums belt out songs that focus primarily on the greatness of God and worshiping him. I will define this and refer to this as the youth Mass.

Most of the time, the style in which Mass is celebrated is a blend of these two and most people have a preference for one style over another, but it is my perception that a large number of faithful Catholics have strongly critical opinions about one or the other. Of the solemn Mass style, people say that it is too boring which makes it difficult to pay attention. Another frequent complaint is that the priest’s homilies are too difficult to follow or contain content irrelevant to them. Of the youth Mass, common criticisms are that the Mass becomes more like a social hangout spot where kids go to see their friends instead of going to receive Christ. Also, the sign of peace lasts fifteen minutes and everyone is so "touchy-feely".

So which is better? The goal of faith is to increase in it. Ultimately, the more faith we place in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the better our lives will be and the better life after death will be. Anything that keeps us from increasing our faith must be discarded and a solution to this blockage should be discovered.

It is no mystery to any observant Catholic that generations of Catholics since the 1960’s have been without firm foundations for faith. John Paul II saw this crisis around the entire world, so he began World Youth Day to draw the youth of the world to Christ, and the concept of the youth Mass spun off of that. Had the Church said, “Well, we really can’t do anything for these people because that would involve adapting the Mass and our approach towards apostolate to a degree we’re not comfortable with,” that would have been an obstacle to the Church’s increase in faith, and an evil.

A youth Mass

The youth Mass has to attract young people, while staying true to its purpose. Why is the youth Mass emotionally appealing? For many people with emotional baggage, there are significant obstacles from their past lives that have to be overcome before a deep faith can be achieved. It is OK to be on fire with Christ’s love, after all. Why does the youth Mass seem to place an emphasis on relationship with one another in community? Many people are unaware of the unity of the Body of Christ, made up of the members of the Church. Society encourages individuality and rejects community, so it's very important that people realize that they are part of something bigger and more amazing than just them. Also, emphasizing healthy, virtuous relationships with one another is a step towards fostering a close, loving relationship with Christ.

However, many youth Mass attendees that I have known stop there. They get into a routine of going to youth Mass every Sunday and hearing the music and seeing their friends, but they do not look inward to discover if there is anything more that they’re missing. Truth is, they’re missing 2000 years of Church history and tradition. They could be missing doctrine and teaching on Mary, the lives and writings of the saints, and the other sacraments that are vital to a flourishing life of faith (just to name a few). They stay where they’re at because they are comfortable there and no one tells them otherwise. This is also an obstacle to the Church’s increase in faith, so it is also an evil.

Tridentine Mass

A return to the solemn Mass is the answer. The solemn Mass moves beyond the secularly appealing aspects of the youth Mass and focuses intently on deep theological truths of our faith. These truths are by no means those you would only find in a PhD theology program; rather, they are those deep aspects of Christ, His Mother Mary, and His Church that we are called to contemplate. The solemn Mass removes the guitars, drums, buddies, and girlfriends, and places the individual in a chapel with a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament, alone in mental prayer and Adoration. Ultimately, the Mass is meant to draw us to Christ and, in doing this, to one another; not the other way around. The Church allows for the secular noise to which we are accustomed with the hopes that in a desire to grow more deeply in faith, we will cast off the training wheels by doing things like spending Holy Hours with the Blessed Sacrament, reciting the Rosary, and going to silent retreats for contemplation.

The solemn Mass fulfills the purpose of the youth Mass. It is a channel through which we may pass in our relationship with Christ that speaks to us in terms that we are initially comfortable with. As our desire to more fully know Christ matures, we must also work to mature our faith and contemplate those deep mysteries of the Divine Love.

Graphic Credits:
catholicseeking.blogspot.com
becketyouth.org

traditioninaction.org

sttimothy.pipertechnology.com

The Science of Santa Claus

As a high school junior in physics class, we were released from classes for Christmas break with a short scientific analysis of the plausibility of Santa Claus. I admit, slightly shamefully, I wish I had the personality to be able to come up with these because I really quite enjoy these sorts of reality checks. Alas, I did not come up with this one, but I repost it for your reading pleasure from another website, credited below:

No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total — 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that is 91.9 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.

Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75½ million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest manmade vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second — a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN times their normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload — not even counting the weight of the sleigh — to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison — this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance — this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer with absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

 From http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/santaclaus.htm 

My conclusion to all this: it's more plausible that God became man, remaining both fully God and fully man, and that a virgin conceived this child and gave birth to him, all throughout this process remaining a virgin, than Santa Claus existing.

Opinion: Rudy and Notre Dame

For most people, the University of Notre Dame, my alma mater, is typically associated with football, merchandise, and the film "Rudy" (or how the administration invited Barack Obama to speak at commencement; oh, I've not forgotten).

I'm watching the film right now, actually. Fall is around the corner and I want to go back, so I'm getting the beautiful cinematography of campus. I was lucky to have my dad take me and my brother up to campus for a few football games when I was little (he earned his bachelors and law degrees from ND). I didn't really care as much for the football, but the campus was gorgeous and it was alot of fun to be there. There was something about the place that I never could forget. I, like Rudy, also transferred into Notre Dame; I was not accepted out of senior year of high school. My first year there was my sophomore year, so I had three years there. The summer weekend that I was on campus to look for an apartment for sophomore year, My dad, my little brother and I watched "Rudy" on my laptop in St. Ed's, which had been converted into an "alumni hotel" for visitors during the summer vacation months. I remember being excited to finally be here and getting ready for the experience of a life time. I wouldn't say I loved the film, but it was exciting to see the campus and now to be there for real.

And then I saw it again as a senior. It was the night before my first LSAT, so I had essentially quarantined myself from everyone to make sure that I got a relaxing evening before the big test. I had decided to close the LSAT study book, grabbed a light snack and went through my film collection to pick one that would be relaxing and inspirational, and "Rudy" seemed to fit that bill. I didn't do so great the next day on the test. I blame Rudy.

If my time at Notre Dame taught me anything, it was to dislike Fighting Irish football. I remember loving it as a young-un (my first words, in order, were "mommy/daddy", "no", and "cheer, cheer for ol' Notre Dame"), watching it on TV with my family. It was a really awesome tradition. But as a student, I swiftly realized that it brought the worst out of people. It might be true that the university wouldn't be as prolific as it is today if it weren't for the revenue generated by football, but I often found myself wondering if it hasn't become an end in itself. Fighting Irish football had become such a materialistic commodity and the center of everyone's attention that it's gigantic presence in everyone's mind had suffocated the aspects of Notre Dame that really are special, such as spiritual formation. The administration was so focused on squeezing every last dime out of fans (and students) and bombarding students' consciousness with every update on the football team.

So, back to "Rudy". The last time I saw this film (senior year), I was struck at how much I hadn't paid attention to the things Rudy was telling people about how he was going to play football for Notre Dame and the facial reactions of those people at this thought. Talk about delusions of grandeur! The character looks crazy! Everyone looked at him as if he had lost his mind. I think maybe he did, at some point. So he's at his best friend's funeral (the one who died in the factory accident) and he leaves the service early to sob in the foyer with his gf trying to console him. The first thing he says when he composes himself is how much he misses his friend now that he's gone... oh, wait, actually he says that he's decided to go to South Bend to try to get into Notre Dame. Oops, never mind. Then, pretty much everyone he tells, he says that he's going to play football for Notre Dame.

So, ok, I don't like the fact that Rudy is obsessed with football. There comes a point where his mentor tells Rudy that even if he never gets to dress for a game, he'll be graduating with a degree from the University of Notre Dame (and I wish he would have added that he will have received the valuable spiritual formation in those critical college years, but it wouldn't be Hollywood if it was expected to get everything right). And that is something. That's truly a staggering something. And he will have had an experience of a lifetime.

Contrary to most inspirational sports films, I think this film could have been my favorite film of all time if the protagonist had not achieved some measure of success in the sport. It really would have been a happily-ever-after if the dream of playing football had motivated him to discover the bigger things in life: learning, friendships, and most importantly, faith. In this alternate version of the story, he would have been so consumed with going to Notre Dame to play football that along the way, he discovered how much he loved to learn, how Notre Dame is a place to meet really great people, and how he learned to love Christ and His Mother, Mary, after whom the university is named. And this is what makes his dreams come true. And when he doesn't make the cut for the football team or he doesn't get to dress in uniform for a game, he realizes how little that matters to him now. He's found what he was searching for, and it wasn't what he set out to find.

And besides, the fact that Notre Dame ever cooperated with the production of a film about a hobbit playing football is completely beyond me.