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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLo\nthese many years later, parishes and parish life are in a much different place,\nand monoeucharistitis is manifesting itself in another (though not entirely new)\nmanner. In the current demographic crisis, especially among young Roman\nCatholics in the U.S., there\u2019s something of a re-emergence of the belief that\nif we perform the right kind of razzle-dazzle in the sanctuary or bring in the right\ncelebrity Good Catholic Personality to Mass, all will be set aright. (Musicians\nare familiar with this phenomenon; we are roughly on our fourth generation of\nthe <insert style> music that will bring young people back to Mass.)
\n
\nThis is occurring within the larger framework of a new phenomenon for U.S. Christians:\nthe choice being made by an increasing number of people to participate in or\nobserve NO religious traditions\/practices. As is well-known by now, the\nsecond-largest and fastest-growing \u201cdenomination\u201d in the U.S. is the church of\n\u201cnone\u201d (and\/or \u201cdone\u201d). Usually the research shows that matters of liturgy\/worship\nare really not at the heart of the ongoing decline of the place of Christianity\nin western societies. I realize this is difficult for those of use whose lives\nlargely revolve around liturgy. Also new:\nU.S. Millennial Christians have an average of four non-Christian friends, more\nthan previous generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nmy view, this strain of monoeucharistitis only heaps one disease on top of\nanother. By a wide margin, young Roman Catholics in the U.S. name the Church\u2019s\nteachings\/policies on matters of gender, sexuality, and marriage (same-gender\nmarriage equality in particular) as their number one reason for\ndisenfranchisement. Others list the sexual abuse crisis, the cover-up of\ncriminal activities committed by clergy and others, and various acts of exclusion,\ndiscrimination, and intolerance\u2014if not outright violence. Believing that some\nsort of one-hundred-eighty-degree liturgical turn in any direction will alter the\nreaction to institutional matters is delusional. Perhaps this is a side-effect\nof the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All\nof this is NOT, I\u2019ll emphasize, meant to advocate poor liturgical practice. If\nanything, during a time of crisis we need to bring our best\u2014consistently\u2014so\nthat the liturgy will truly be the font of strength and summit of inspiration\nto carry on the work of discipleship, of following Christ. But at the same time\nthere needs to be a very clear-eyed understanding about what the liturgy\ndoes\/doesn\u2019t or can\/can\u2019t accomplish. There is much heavy outside-the-liturgy\nwork to be done, and if it doesn\u2019t get accomplished, the blame should not be\nplaced at the feet of chant or rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, or principles for translating\nLatin prayers. These\u2014and others\u2014are important matters within our liturgical\nlife, but addressing them does nothing to address the systemic problems we face\nin our ecclesial existence outside the liturgy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ntimes we live in provide us with an opportunity to keep the Eucharistic liturgy\nin its central and crucial role for our lives of faith, while we explore other liturgical\nprayers and devotions, other times to gather, other community dynamics to\nparticipate in, and other expressions that the Church has given us to come\ntogether in prayer. The wind of the Holy Spirit is facing some very strong\nheadwinds these days, so She must continue to blow steadily through our prayer.\nLet that Spirit\u2014the very breath of Christ\u2014continue to breathe in new and\nhealthy ways through us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vatican II did not envision \u201cliturgy\u201d and \u201cSunday eucharist\u201d to be identical terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":45742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3118],"tags":[2182],"class_list":["post-45739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","tag-liturgy"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pentecosti-kosmos-sq-400x400.jpg\")
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