General and Introductory Materials
Part 6 Other Rites and Devotions
Chapter 31 Devotional Prayer: Overview
Preliminary QuestionsBibliography |
To Think About |
Preliminary Questions
Bibliography
The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines, by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline for the Sacraments (December, 2001) can be found in English on the Vatican web site http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20020513_vers-direttorio_en.html
2002 September 4, Cardinal Norberto Rivera. "The Place of Popular Devotion", L'Osservatore Romano. http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve_full.cfm?RecNum=4616
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Comparison of Monastic and Popular Worship The root source for this table is Carl Dehne, S.J., "Devotions, Popular" in The New Dictionary of Sacramental Worship (Peter Fink, editor) Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1990, p 334. |
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Monastic |
Popular |
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Give ecclesial identity [Lex Orandi]. Text usually long, 94% from Scripture |
Personal devotion [not ecclesial identity]; Text relatively brief, little scripture |
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Thematically diffuse [e.g. Mass with three readings, psalm, eucharist etc.] |
One obvious theme [e.g. Devotion to St. Anthony] |
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Trinitarian: to God through Christ in the Spirit |
Christocentric / staurocentric. Often addressed to a saint. |
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Move in a straight line: e.g. Gathering, Story Telling, Meal Sharing, Commissioning.] |
Move in a spiral: e.g. passo of the suffering Christ, passo of the Virgin, of Christ, of Virgin, of Virgin, of Christ, etc. |
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transcendent / eternal [e.g. Do this in memory of me.] |
specific, transient [e.g. for rain!] |
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Full of variety: Lectionary, Sacramentaries, 4 vols of Hours books etc. |
Much repetition: One card with prayers used every Tuesday throughout the year. |
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intensity |
exuberance |
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motionlessness, closed eyes, posture of repose |
motion, open eyes, open mouths, open arms, movement, kneeling, standing |
To Think About
Evangelization of inactive Catholics. The chances are excellent that you know people who have left the Catholic Church. You may also have heard many of the reasons people give for leaving. Scientific studies tell us that people give various reasons for leaving the church:
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Marriage to a non-Catholic or to a non-practicing Catholic
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Boredom with worship, particularly preaching
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Moving from one city to another
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Difficulties with changes in the church (both too much change and too little!)
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Personal quarrel with someone who represented the church
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Impersonal nature of large Catholic parishes
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Impact of secularism and materialism
One thing you may notice about this list: a lot of active, believing and loyal Catholics have the same difficulties or questions. In other words, there isn’t a lot of difference between people who stop being involved in church and those who remain active. But we also know of one decisive difference between those who remain active and those who don’t: a spiritual center, a core relationship with Jesus, that holds the active believer in a community that celebrates and shares faith. This spiritual center is what we want to share with those people who have given up the practice of their faith. (Boyack, Kenneth. "Another Look at the Catholic Faith" in Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association.)
The seven above are the principle reasons for leaving. Other reasons: ineffective preaching, moving to a new town; personal or family quarrel; deterioration of family life; impersonal nature of a large parish; anger with God because of a tragedy in the family; impact of consumer society.
40% of the 15,000,000 inactive Catholics in the United States today (1985) are seriously thinking about returning to the practice of the faith. That equals 6,000,000 inactive Catholics waiting for the invitation and the help to come back home! (Rev. Alvin Illig, director, Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association, 3031 Fourth Street, N.E. Washington, DC 20017. Phone 202-832-5022. Quoted from Fr. Illig’s Christmas letter of 1985.)
© Copyright: Tom Richstatter, Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist, Cincinnati Ohio, Order of Friars Minor. All Rights Reserved. This page was created by Fr. Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M. Every effort has been, and is being made, to acknowledge sources when the ideas are not my own. Any failure to comply with the United States Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code) will be corrected immediately should I become aware of it. This site was updated on 10/07/08 . Your comments on this site are welcome at tomrichs@psci.net.