Excerpts From the Manual of the
Eucharistic Crusade of the Apostleship of Prayer

Educating the Youth to Live the Mass

(slightly edited by Fr. Boulet)

A. EDUCATION FOR CORRECT PARTICIPATION IN THE MASS

2. THE INSTRUCTION ON THE MASS

e). How are adolescents to be brought to this idea of the Mass?

7°. The private devotion of the children ought to be nourished by and in some way conformed to the liturgy. The Morning Offer¬ing, in which we offer all our actions to God and unite them to the Sacrifice of Christ, helps to do this. Similarly our private prayers can be inspired and penetrated by the spirit of the feasts and season of the liturgical year. We pray differently during Christmastide, the Easter period, on the feasts of Our Lord and of Our Lady, in Our Lady's month of May, in the Holy Souls' month of November, etc. The more children learn to accommodate their private piety to the different sacred seasons, the more easily will they be led to live the liturgy.

8°. The results of this training in "living the Mass" depend very much on the family. Not only ought mothers to lead their children to their first knowledge of Jesus in the Blessed Sacra¬ment, but also the religious atmosphere of the home and the religious observance of the parents should help the children a great deal towards knowing the spirit of the liturgy and the meaning of the liturgical year. If liturgical seasons and feasts are also kept in the family, if the Sunday is kept holy, if Sunday and daily Mass are highly esteemed, then the children will much more easily have a right understanding of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Therefore the formation of the religious life in the family ought not to be neglected by the Crusade.

9°. Finally Directors must not forget that much patience is needed in order to bring children to a correct appreciation of and sharing in the Mass. Patience is needed with their yet imperfect intellectual and spiritual development. Patience is needed even with the grace of God, which illuminates and moves the will and intellect of one child more quickly and of another more slowly. The Director must not lose heart if results are not immediately visible, but must with faith and constancy continue the work begun, until the effects, which again can vary so much from person to person, become apparent.