LIFETEEN

[Scofizzle]

theres actually a long story behind ho wit came to be in Lifeteen. Lifeteen was started at St. Timothy's Church in Mesa, Arizona. The design of the church is very unique, Ive never seen another one like it. I cant find any pictures of it, but ill try to explain it to you. The altar is the focus of the entire building the rest of the seat wrap around the altar but only on one side. like 180 degrees of seting. There are two levels of seating. There are several hundred seats on the floor and and several hundred maybe a thousand seats above that are stadium style seating. The only problem is the floor seats are underneath the stadium seating. Meaning the seats on the floor cannot be seen by the ones on top and visa versa. When lifeteen started 20 years ago. The teens began to all gather and sit on the bottom level and the parents and adults sat on top. Nowadays it is all teens on the bottom. Now during the consecration the teens came up on the altar for one reason. So that the entire community (teens and adults) could be seen and heard by everyone. There was no lack of reverance for the holy Eucharist, there was in fact an increase of reverance in the community. At our parish we did invite the teens up to the altar during the concecration, but after a couple of weeks our TEENS asked us to stop doing it becuase thye didnt like it. So we havent done it for 4 years after doing for maybe 4 or 5 Masses.

Anways that is the reason they started doing at St. Tim's, which after going to that parish I realize why they do it and it actually makes sense in that parish, but as Lifeteen spread and got more and more popular other parishes started doing it where it was not needed. But Lifeteen parish's across the world are being obidient to the Magisterium, and stoping this practice. Like I said the goal was to phase it out by the end of the year and explain to the teens why we are doing what we do.

Once again you all may think I'm crazy but if you were to go to St. Tim's in Arizona you would understand what im talking about concerning the architecture.

Any other Lifeteen question?

[Scofizzle]

also Lifeteen now has A lay association recognized by the Vatican.

[littleflower+JMJ]

i'veheard both sides of the LT story from teens themselves but i can't really say anything right now other than its a youth ministry program that alot of parishes use.

[Scofizzle]

if you are curious i am a youth minister at a lifeteen parish

[rachael]

i :wub: lifeteen

[littleflower+JMJ]

[quote name='Scofizzle' date='Sep 29 2004, 02:18 PM'] if you are curious i am a youth minister at a lifeteen parish [/quote]
lol thanks if im in H-town i'll pay a visit fo' sho'

[Scofizzle]

most definately....you'll be happy to know that I am at St. Theresa (Liseux) Parish in Sugarland

[littleflower+JMJ]

[quote name='Scofizzle' date='Sep 29 2004, 02:31 PM'] most definately....you'll be happy to know that I am at St. Theresa (Liseux) Parish in Sugarland [/quote]
whoa

















thats sweeet!!

[Scofizzle]

hehe I thought you wouldlike that

[Soldier4Him]

[quote]it really showed me that Church isn't boring[/quote]


how can mass be boring? it's not everydady somebody dies for you and then offers their body, blood, soul, and divinity for you to consume.

[quote]But I worry about it still because to me, the mentality of an altar call is all wrong for what is going on. That is Christ up there. We are there not to crowd around and watch, but to worship. While I understand that there was no prohibition against it, I wonder about the attitude behind the action.
[/quote]

that has been rebuked, and they are no longer doing the alter call.

[IcePrincessKRS]

I voted MEH. I think that Lifeteen is a good program but until ALL the abuses get cleared up I'm skeptical. (I'm the same way about the Charismatic movement, nothing personal against LT. Just being cautious.)

[Soldier4Him]

[quote]but until ALL the abuses get cleared up I'm skeptical[/quote]

they got rid of the final thing too where they used to say "the mass never ends"
those are the only abuses i knew of....

[Laudate_Dominum]

I'm with IcePrincess. But what does MEH mean??

[FiZzGiG]

Oh I LOVE Life Teen!! It seriously changed my life.
Mass was always a routine for me. I went to Catholic school for 9 years and had Mass every Thursday in addition to Sunday Mass, and Mass just became something you did. None of us ever saw it as it really is: the most sacred, holy, encounter with Christ we will experience.
Life Teen showed me what Mass is REALLY about and helped me so I could really appreciate it and participate whole-heartedly. I think it's a great way to help teens really appreciate the most sacred miracle that is the Eucharist.


And Bob being the youth minister helped too..
What a great guy.


~Kerry~

[FiZzGiG]

Oh and ya, the abuses got cleared up. We no longer end with "the Mass never ends it must be lived...." and we don't go up to the altar during the Eucharist.
The only difference is that the music is more upbeat and geared towards teens and the homilies are focused more on how the Liturgy is related to the teens. Life Teen really did help a lot of my friends too. We would just come and sit on the pew week after week--which is simple, but doesn't really make us true Catholics. In the words of Bob: "I could sit in my garage week after week and it still doesn’t make me a car."

Hehe