Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Fr Stan Fortuna on the Mass

So far all the comments on my last post have been negative. There was one from the Old Believer which got lost in the general sorting out of the post which asked whether I should be promoting this kind of Mass.

Clearly this is not my ideal way of saying Mass. Nor would I want this kind of commentary every week at Mass. However I think what Fr Stan Fortuna has to say is well worth hearing and for a one-off it works and has helped a lot of people in my ambit to understand the Mass better. Of course I would hope he might one day do something similar with the Extraordinary Form except then it would be difficult for him to do the commentary himself and say the Mass. Nor is this Mass ideal even from an OF point of view: there are no music or altar servers for example.

I don`t know anything about Rap music. I remember an interview with Fr Stan in which he said it wasn`t the kind of music he would choose to listen to either. However his music I believe is a useful tool for evangelisation and can engage young people. I`d much rather promote that than stuff about having too much water in the kettle. I`m a fan of both the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate who seem to me to be living an authentic Franciscan life. I only wish they had been around when I was young and exploring a vocation to the religious life.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought the excerpt from the DVD to be very good, and felt the passion from Fr Stan for the Mass to come over very strongly. It clearly had a powerful affect on those it was aimed at. I've seen Fr Stan on a couple of occasions and though it's not my preference, I can see he delivers a powerful message that does engage people 9and not just young people). More power to his elbow, and to yours too for using the right tools for a given job.

Unknown said...

I agree with you, Father. Such a tool could work miracles if shown to Children. They showed it in our Parish to the Holy Communion kids and their parents and the comments that came after it were fantastic. One parent commented that she wished they showed it to the communion kids every year and that her other children who had made their Holy Communion's years previous would have benefited greatly from the DVD. You can't argue with that ...

Ttony said...

Father, what usually puts us off is that what purports to be for young people isn't - it's for the performers. Fr Stan's antics are as attractive to me as the stuff my 18 and 15 year olds have on the radio or music centre all day, but they are aimed squarely at them, not us. I don't have to like it (DG) and can refuse to have anything to do with it, but I'd certainly not mind the kids going to it.

PeterHWright said...

The difference here is between the real thing, and an audio-visual aid.

When I was a boy in the 1950s, the ony aids to learning were illustrated books, including prayer books for children. You read the text; you compared the pictures with the real thing. And that was that ! No videos, no DVDs, no audio-visual aids. The technology hadn't been invented yet.

Now that the technology exists, well, why not use it ?

A DVD is very different from the real thing. Even if it is a recording of an actual Mass, it is still only a recording.

Look at the DVDs now available for priests wishing to learn how to celebrate the "old" Mass. You can press "play", "pause", "rewind",
or even watch a sequence in slow motion. If you are attending the real thing, you can hardly say to the celebrant : Could you do that bit again, please ?

So the question of how to catechise is answered : you use (amongst other things) a recording.

What is not helpful, in my opinion, is talking about saving the planet when you really mean to talk about saving the soul. Two different things ! That line of reasoning is going nowhere. (And I'd like to tell this to the trendy bishop who recently suggested the idea.)

No. Children can process a great deal more information than we give them credit for. And they can understand spiritual concepts, too.

When I was a child, I was taught, and came to understand, the difference between right and wrong.
There was an obvious link between bad habits (e.g. greed), anti-social behaviour (e.g. dropping litter) and sinful behaviour.

I couldn't have begun to understand the proposition that big business was polluting the environment, and that we must (somehow) save the planet, and that's what salvation means, you see.

I still don't understand it.