Saturday 30 August 2014

More life at St Joseph`s: Juventutem

Juventutem members at WYD
In a recent post about Philip Dillon`s letter to the Northern Cross I said it would be good to have a Juventutem group in the parish. Lo and behold I`d no sooner said it than plans were afoot and a group has emerged. My prayers are not usually answered so quickly! It would be very nice to have a baroque basilica to say Mass in.......

No nothing yet.

Oh well. 

I`m very glad about the Juventutem group. So far we have four people interested but it is very early days and a programme needs to be sorted out. I hope it will flourish. Our diocese caters for Youth Ministry at the Youth Village. I`ve never been and may be one of those priests who were declared to be wrong about it when invited to make comments*. I`ve watched videos of the liturgies and all I can say is it`s not really me. As wide as the number of approaches to prayer the YMT provides I`m confident that the Extraordinary Form won`t be included.  I look forward to working with Juventutem and hope a number of our priests will be involved.

And yes for older people who feel left out I`m more than happy to have a Senectutem group for the over 65`s!

UPDATE 31.08.14 There is now a blog:  http://juventutemgateshead.blogspot.co.uk/




*From the YMT Review:


5.3 Some clergy raised the issue of the Catholicity of YMT and the mode of delivery of missions and retreats.  In this area there seems to have been a great deal of misconception over exactly what YMT delivers and the ways in which it is successful. Interestingly, many who were critical also admitted that they had not attended any YMT mission or events. The Review Team found that retreats and missions certainly did include a range of approaches to prayer and the sacraments, and presented the Catholic faith in a way that clearly engages young people.  This view was very much supported by schools and wider stakeholders, as well as the young people themselves. 

5 comments:

  1. Dear Fr Brown
    I agree wholeheartedly with your welcome for Juventutem. I too had (& still have) grave doubts about the YMT & have said so publicly. Having talked to young people who have attended they too were less than keen to repeat the experience.
    Both Theresa & I have offered our 'back office' help to get Juventutem off the ground but this was, is & always will be a young people led organisation (regardless of what some dissenting voices say). We NEED something like this in our diocese to give support to our young people who love the EF of Mass despite the fact that it is claimed we of the LMS are seen as 'eccentrics'.
    What we need now are prayers that Juventutem will have a long & fruitful life helping our young Catholics. Ad Multos Annos!!

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  2. Can we be the first entrants to Senectutem please????????

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  3. Agenda for the Inaugural Meeting of Senectutem.
    1.Where are we?
    2. Who are we?
    3. Why are we here?
    4. What day is it?
    5. What do we want?
    6. When do we want it?
    7. What will we do wjth it when we have found it?
    8. Does anyone know what we wanted?
    9. Who am I?
    10. Why?
    11. Meeting adjourned until we can find it.

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  4. Every time I see the word "stakeholders" I want to reach for my Colt 49
    Modern Americanisms really do get to me. Every time the elephants in the room step up to the plate to smell the coffee I could scream.

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  5. Depends what you are looking for doesn't it? Sad that you can't both see the elephant & smell the coffee! At least we now know which senses go first in senility!!!!

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