Monday, January 5, 2009

CLOW-ning Around

I found the following at a blog by Fr. Cranky

I don’t know when it started, but many years ago someone saw that Protestants send their children to day care during their worship services, and voila, we invent Children’s Liturgy of the Word, or as it is called in these parts (and makes my teeth grind) CLOW – pronounced like ‘dough’ and not (as it should be) like ‘clown.’

It is because the readings and homily for the Mass are tooooo haaaarrrrd for our young ones, and unfortunately some of the powers that be agreed and produced a Children’s Lectionary. I don’t remember the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel being:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. But remember to use really little words and special gatherings with the children, and make sure you have crafts for them because glue on Sunday clothes is a good thing, otherwise it will be too hard for them to really understand, and we can’t possibly expect any of the adults in their life to explain it to them."


All things that are being done in the name of the children have a way of coming back and infecting everything else we do.


Check out the complete posting

5 comments:

LRThunder said...

In my parish, when the choir is singing at the 10 AM Mass, there is even a song as the children are "dismissed" for the Children's Liturgy of the Word.

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, Mark Shea's blog includes a tribute to a holy and reverent priest. The clowns shan't inherit the earth! http://markshea.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html#8213477729752618752

Leslie K. said...

and there is usually more than one Mass for people to attend. Those who believe their children benefit from being present for the entire Mass and do not get nasty looks from parishoners when the little ones fuss or ask questions in stage whispers or act as (gasp!) children do not have to attend a Mass that has Children's Liturgy. I am always amazed, when we have REAL problems in the world, at the nitpicking stuff about which Catholics chose to be cranky.

I mean, really....

Fr. Leo said...

I can see that a lot of people think in terms of being in a populated area. At my parish in Jordan, MT half of the congregation attending the only Sunday Mass that is offered are under the age of 18. A quarter of the congregation has been born in the past 10 1/2 years that I have been serving the parish. The next closest Mass is 70 miles away. We do not offer children's Liturgy of the Word, but have been in parishes that do. I have found that the children who grow up expecting entertainment at Mass have a harder time paying attention when they are expected to stay through the whole Mass. Children who attend Mass every week soon learn what is expected and generally behave very well. Parishes that are open to life don't usually have people looking at the kids making a little noise, because the parents have been there and done that. :)

Anonymous said...

The people of Jordan are blessed in their priest!