Why The Youth Want Tradition

Modern, secular, and progressive advocates have spent generations trying to hammer home the idea that the past is inferior to the present as well as what we can expect from the future and since tradition is backwards oriented, surely, it too is inferior.

And it’s something like that logic that seems to have dominated the Church for generations now especially in how we attempt to relate the faith to the youth. We take a superficial look at what interests kids and then we say, let’s include more of that in Church culture and this will help make the faith relevant for the kids.

And after doing this for 60 some odd years, the only trend we’ve seen is population decline which only seems to be compounded with each successive generation.

But, there seems to be a renewal going on in Traditional parishes. I attend a parish where only the extraordinary form of the mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass, is offered and when people find out about that, their immediate reaction is almost always a show of sympathy for my kids.

They assume that I’m dragging my kids to it and they’re always surprised when I tell them this story. Probably about a month after we started attending the Latin mass, I asked my kids, who were at the time 10 years old and younger, if they’d like to go back to our old parish where the ordinary form is offered or keep going to the Latin mass.

And I reluctantly asked them this, because I didn’t want to go back and I assumed that, at least, some of them would want to go back to our old parish. To my surprise, they unanimously and enthusiastically voted to keep going to the Latin mass. If I recall, they cheered as they exclaimed their preference with triumphant fists in air.

When I tell people that story, they usually react in strange ways – they seem to either think I’m lying or they just have a kind of bad disk moment where you can see something’s glitching in their brain before they retreat away to some other corner of the world where things make sense to them.

Modern life seems to be fairly cleanly divided between work and leisure or work and play might be a more familiar way of describing it. Work is what we have to do even though we don’t want to – it’s our obligations and commitments – a necessary evil. Leisure or play is what we do because we want to do it.

And for the most part, this dimension of life can be summarized by what amuses and entertains us and we have more access to what amuses us than ever before.

It seems that virtually everyone has their own curated library of music, their own algorithmically recommended list of video on demand, their own favourite restaurants, their own curated list of apps specific to their digital lifestyle, and so on.

And for everything that we haven’t discovered yet, we find that it’s already rated for us so that we can be sure that we don’t waste time with apps, games, music, or movies that won’t maximize our amusement.

And nobody is more dialed into the vanguard of popular culture than the youth. For one, the majority of promotional media is aimed directly at them because they have buying potential and are less likely to scrutinize what is being sold to them. They’re seen as an easy target.

And popular culture is an industrial business and in the interests of maximizing profits, they’ve drawn from the wisdom of industrial manufacturers who were able to ensure that consumers would buy their products even though they don’t need to through the concept of planned obsolescence.
This was a concept devised by General Motors where they would unnecessarily redesign their cars every year so that consumers would want the latest one even though the one they had was perfectly fine and should last several more years.

Trends in pop culture are designed to do the same thing. Just when we get caught up with the latest musical genre and fashion trends, they get pulled out from under us in order to compel us to return to the store to keep up with the latest arbitrarily defined trends.

This should be our first indication that popular culture isn’t real culture and why we shouldn’t be drawing inspiration from it when we develop our liturgical worship.

But concern for the youth is often present in rationales for shifting away from a faith that is reverent and traditional to one that is expressed in more entertaining terms.

Back in the 60’s, liturgical activists like the now disgraced Archbishop Weakland were sitting on musical advisory boards and councils promoting the idea that the youth should be targeted with “the choice of music which is meaningful to persons of this age level.”

[BrianHoldsworth]

Not sure what happened at 4:52, but sorry for the goofy edit.

[JohntheSonofThunder]

The Latin Mass is awesome. It isn't exclusively youth who want Tradition. I see people of all ages who attend the Latin Mass. That is a sign of a healthy community.

[Philosopher-pvul]

In the wise words of Hank Hill:
“You’re not making Christianity better, you’re making rock and roll worse!”

[yetga]

My rebirth as a Catholic started when I started to learn the history of my ancestors, what they were able to accomplish with god, and what I'm seeing today. God bless

[Randaed]

One reason I went trad as a youth: They actually answered the questions my youth catechism teacher used to say "good question! God is so mysterious and wonderful. Here's a coloring page, " to.

[mohamadabdallah]

I was born muslim but I like your channel Brian and your views are so interesting. Your videos introduced me to Catholicism and I find comfort and peace in it🙏😊

[Ohheyyall]

As a non denominational Christian, this is so refreshing and real to hear. I used to be one of those people that wanted to go to the young, hip church but what I found out was that much of the truth was being suppressed, while the desire to be as hip as this world was being put on the frontlines. I’m now 27 and I’m so grateful that God has allowed me to see through the smoke (literally speaking when it comes to some worship “experiences” lol). Growth in Christ is my desire.

[venator]

I attend Latin Mass here in Brazil. It's popular among the youth and the LM churches are fuller than ordinary mass churches.

[simoncooper]

Even as a child, there was something that really bothered me about guitars at Church; the organ music at the Anglican church my dad goes to was more reverent.

[ItsChrisFtw]

I went to my first TLM about 5 months ago. I have not been to Novus Ordo since. And despite not having a Missal for 3 months, where I had no idea what was being said or which part we were on, I STILL felt more spiritually connected to the prayer of Mass than I ever had before. The incense, the gregorian chants, the reverence and beauty of tradition. God told me this is where I needed to be. How right He was.

[djackson]

Tradition can be the new counter-culture. Our 26 year old devout Catholic daughter still lives with u and not with her boyfriend. She wants to get married from home "like grandma" ( my dear departed mum). She said to me recently:"Dad, I want to be a rebel and get married in a church!"
God bless you, Brian. Love and admire your service to the Church. Wish I had your hair!

[Dabhach]

My cousin is a modernist priest and I've had some real problems with him, but even he's admitted that the younger priests are all returning to tradition. The new young priest in his community offers the Tridentine mass.

[michaadamus]

I live in Kraków in Poland. At the Latin Mass offered by FSSP there is always very many young people

[bennysmemestore]

I left my parish church for one year to experience the LM for one year. My wife and I have six in ages from 2- 22. Last May was one year and I ain't going back and my oldest love it too.

[LukeShalz]

I'm 17, and you hit it on the head Brian!

[thadbecker]

As a 17 year old Catholic I laterally am going down the same exact same path that you are talking about. Love everything you're doing.

[Littlemermaid]

I would love to be a ‘trad youth’ who attends TLM alas there is none where I live. I pray that the TLM becomes increasingly common over the next few years.

[stalstonestacy]

I've never in my life attended a mass or even stood inside a catholic church but for years now I have felt a pulling, sort of, that this is the place for me. I'm a Christian and baptized in my tradition but my faith walk has begun to feel aimless. I find myself questioning more than following. I have come to feel that many churches are making up the program as they go along and blaming Holy Spirit when the people aren't fulfilled. In my current situation I am homesick for tradition and generational continuity. I long to stand in God's house and sing the worship and praise sung by all the saints before with fellow believers all on the same journey. Now we sing whatever is on KLove and when it's no longer popular we won't sing it again for a few years, if ever. Pray for me as I try to find my way. The shut downs have made it so much harder to find help and information on where to start. GBY

[maryvz]

I am 70 and so awed to attend my old Latin Mass. lots of young families but old people like me too. Don’t feel disconnected to worship or people. Can barely make it through Novus Ordo, though work demands that at times.God bless and bring us more Latin Masses.

[emmanueluzobuife]

I feel like these talks are inspired by God