{"id":1862,"date":"2018-10-22T12:12:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T16:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2018-10-22T12:12:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T16:12:55","slug":"the-psychology-of-difficulty-time-for-a-new-youth-strategy-by-peter-kwasniewski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/2018\/10\/the-psychology-of-difficulty-time-for-a-new-youth-strategy-by-peter-kwasniewski\/","title":{"rendered":"The Psychology of Difficulty: Time for a New Youth Strategy, by Peter Kwasniewski"},"content":{"rendered":"

We post this wonderful article from The New Liturgical Movement<\/p>\n

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At the Fota XI conference in Ireland in July 2018, which had the Divine Office as its theme, many participants made remarks about the way in which the recitation of the postconciliar Liturgy of the Hours has severely fallen off in practice. Many clergy, apparently not seeing it as a serious obligation, either don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pray it at all, or skip it all too readily. This is perhaps less a problem among younger clergy than among older generations, who, in the confusion following the Council, threw off many obligations (clerical clothing, daily Mass, daily Office, etc.) as so many out-of-date constraints by which their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153work in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was being hampered\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor so they thought. In reality, what finally killed their work in the world was the death of the spiritual life, the loss of the primacy of the cult of God over the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153needs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d real or imaginary, of Man. This inversion and perversion is what is killing the Church in the West, wherever it is dying.<\/p>\n

It is true that, as Matthew Hazell showed in his talk at Fota, there were a fair number of vota <\/i>from bishops and superiors prior to the Council asking that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153burden\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the Divine Office be mitigated \u00e2\u20ac\u201d sometimes considerably, as by the suppression of certain canonical hours, or by the rendering optional of the little hours. As we know, in the end the ancient office of Prime was suppressed without further ado<\/a>, and the entire breviary stripped down and reorganized into what some critics have called (not unreasonably) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Liturgy of the Minutes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I found most interesting an observation someone at the conference made, who said: If you make a certain obligation too easy,<\/i> it becomes all the more easy to hold it in contempt. One feels that it is hardly worth the trouble. (A good example of a light burden readily shirked off is the current one-hour Eucharistic fast<\/a>.) A heavier burden, because it feels heavy, feels serious, and the absence of it is, oddly, uncomfortable. If you are used to bearing a yoke, and suddenly the yoke is lifted, one can feel off-balance, deprived of a companion, naked and exposed, at a loss.<\/p>\n

The old office had weight or gravity to it, and the duty to pray it was emphasized strongly in canon law and priestly formation. (It makes little difference, for our present ascetical theme, whether we are speaking about the pre-Pius X or the Pius X breviary; for both placed considerable demands on the clergy.) The sight of a Catholic priest praying his breviary in the sanctuary before Mass, in the pews after Mass, in the bus, on the train, in practically any spare moment, was a familiar sight. One of the participants in Fota told a story about how, before the Council, an elderly priest would stop his car at night, get out, and finish his breviary by the car headlights, in order not to fail in his responsibility.<\/p>\n

Now, I have noticed that, as a general rule, there are two and only two ways of making an appeal to young men to discern the priesthood, and something similar can be said for appeals about religious life. The first way is to say (through words, images, music\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6): \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is going to be incredibly hard. It will demand everything you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got. Many won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to hack it. But with God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help, you just might. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not desperate for you, though, so don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother to come if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not serious.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The second way is to say: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The life of a Catholic priest is wonderful! You get to be so helpful to people every day. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bright and cheerful, even fun at times. We need you. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make it work out for you and nothing will be too hard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I was thinking about this in connection with a vocations video my son showed me, made by the Russian Orthodox:<\/p>\n