A reader writes:
For whatever it’s worth, you’ve been “tagged” to share your five favorite Catholic devotions. I for one would be interested in knowing ...
I’m terrible with these sorts of things, because my spiritual life is so uninspiring. I suppose I could be a smart alec and say my five favorite devotions were Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Confession and Matrimony (I don’t want the other two sacraments especially), but that’s hardly in the spirit of the thing.
I will say, however, that “the sacraments” are in fact at the core of my devotional life and I regard my private devotions as more or less spokes on a wheel radiating out of these. In particular, I am fond of Eucharist, Marriage, and Confession, which are the three means by which God keeps me on an even keel.
In addition to this, I make use of the Morning Offering (“Oh my Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world; for all the intentions of your sacred heart: in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friend, and in particular for the intentions of our Holy Father Benedict XVI”) There are lots of variations on this, but that’s the one we learned.
In addition, I try to remember to offer up the day’s work with a prayer in which I make the sign of the cross over my forehead, eyes, ears, mouth, heart and hands, praying, “Father God, I ask that you would put your Spirit on my mind, my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart and my hands that I may worthily proclaim the gospel of Christ.”
I also typically invoke the intercession of Sts. Dominic (I’m a Dominican at heart), Tertius (Paul’s scribe), Athanasius (yay Trinitarian orthodoxy), Anthony of the Desert (writing is mighty lonesome work), Francis de Sales (patron of writers), G.K. Chesterton (not a saint—yet—but one of my heros), and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Often, as the afternoon wears on, I will go for my constitutional. This is when I pray either the Rosary or else a modified Rosary featuring the prayers of the Mercy Novena. Praying the Rosary tends to be a mind-wandering experience for me, but that’s more or less what “meditation” seems to be, so I don’t sweat it too much. I try to stay somewhere in the general vicinity of the Mystery being contemplated, but not to worry too much if the Mystery leads me on to lots of other things.
Finally, we at Chez Shea use the daily office as it comes to us via Magnificat, a handy dandy little devotional you can get here.
I wish my devotional life was more impressive, but there it is. I will endeavor to make atonement for it by not tagging any further schlemiels and putting them on the spot.
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I appreciate your honesty. I am leery of these inquiries as I have found some people will then judge other Catholics based on their response, so I’ve avoided them.
Sadly, there are those folks who will size you up and see no scapular; obviously you not a good Catholic. If they discover you have no novena currently being invoked - it is also a bad sign. This is not to be critical towards those for whom those wonderful devotions (and any of the many others) have a real and honest place in their spiritual life, but to decide another’s holiness or right to call themselves Catholic based these outwards signs is uncharitable.
You mean you don’t have a devotion to [insert obscure prayer found in a 13th century manuscript here]! You’re not a real Catholic!
Thank God for making us all a bit different…and providing us with different spiritualities to boot!
I am old enough to remember people who went through Mass with a rosary in one hand and a prayer book stuffed with holy cards in the other and never heard a word of anything but the Consecration. Consequently I tend to think of people who flaunt specific devotions as pietistic or superstitious, rather than “real Catholics.” This is a great opportunity to pull a few beams out of your eyes. My own absolute favorite (semi)private devotion is Eucharistic adoration, which has the advantage of being totally formless. My favorite example of the opposite is the lady (very devout) who injected into a lunch conversation, “You know, the Blessed Virgin wants us to wear mantillas in church…” I’m still waiting for the definition of that dogma.
Devotion is ok, but the wellspring should be the liturgy. That means the Mass first, LOTH/Divine Office second, Rosary third, and everything else if you have time.
I guess I am not a good Catholic because I am not good at saying formal prayers all the time,once or twice a day, yes, but living alone, I actually talk to God and Blessed Mary all the time. It means more to me than a prayer from a book. Guess I am a weird Catholic. Also I have never liked Confession, from my first one as a 7 yrs old. I like the Group Confessions they had. If you break a commandment and commit mortal sin, I can see a personal confession, but the little venial ones we commit is good for the Group Confession. A church in the city where I lived has 6,000 parishioners, how can even three priest hear their Confession every week. As a catholic grade school kid, the nuns made us go to Confession every Sat. and Communion on Sun. I was such a good kid, I did not know what to say to the priest, so I made up things (did not think of it as lying at the time) Then when I could hear a priest reprimanding a boy in a loud voice, I used to be afraid of being the next one to go in the confessional. Not a good experience, but impressionable.
Well, nothing like a blog to get things off your mind.
Mark
If most days you are saying a rosary, LOH, Morning offering, along with going to confession regularly then I would say that you have a very good prayer life. If you are not a daily communicant then I beg you to do whatever it takes to go to mass everyday and receive our Lord.
May God Bless you and your family
I try to say the Rosary as I drive to work because I heard saying the Rosary would save souls. Sometimes I say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as I heard it can get some souls out of purgatory quicker. There are others like the Miraculous medal, but basically every devotion I have is based on some reported promise from Jesus or Mary to those who use it. Okay, so it’s not in the Bible, but that’s why Catholics are special. It’s like getting extra credit for a school assignment.
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