The youngunz are here... Listen up now...

Sadly, many of my generation have left a mixed up mess of worship to our children and grandchildren.  We were the ones who thought the music in the Mass should sound like what we listened to on the radio, that worship was more horizontal than vertical, and that feelings equate with faith.  In Lutheranism as well as in Rome, the seeds of this unfaithfulness are bearing fruit all around us in people who no longer think worship is important, who come for just about anything but the Lord and His gifts, and who have made themselves the center of a show designed more to entertain than to receive the mystery of God.

One Roman Catholic blogger has a post with a few tips to those used to 45 minute guitar masses in which we all hold hands and 45,792 people can commune in 8.257832 minutes.  Listen up, he says, because the next generation is on hand to undo what has been done.  Happily, those under 30 seem to have a better mind about real and authentic worship than the their parents.  Read what he has to say. . .

So, since the young Liturgy is going to take precedence, here are a few things you can do to prepare:

1. Come to church dressed comfortably. This ain't thirty minutes of worship and then you're outta there. Wear something nice, but comfortable. You're probably gonna be there at least one and a half hours.
2. Be prepared to stand. Which means good shoes. You'll get maybe twenty minutes of sitting in the aforementioned one and a half hours. If the homily's long. You might even want to practice beforehand! :)
3. Participate. If you're going to stand there and glare at everyone and everything. that'll just make time go slower. Quite possibly bad for your soul too. Praying is good!
4. Be prepared to follow the rubrics. We will be taking all the prescribed stuff. Prayers directed to be taken aloud will be taken aloud. It's referred to at least among the Latins as saying the black and doing the red. This will lengthen the Liturgy. But again, why did you come to the Liturgy in uncomfortable footwear?
5. Don't expect to skip parts. We skipped some little hymns at vespers once, but we also had to do Matins (the long way, naturally) right afterwards and some other stuff and theoretically get to sleep before the sun came up, so that's excusable, I think.
6. Be happy that the young folk are taking over and making the Liturgies longer! It means we care :)