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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2011 20:55:42 GMT
Dia daoibh
Just thought it would be nice to have a thread where people can post and discuss their favourite Catholic devotions.
My own favourites are :
Holy Hour of Adoration The Rosary The Stations of the Cross The Sacred Heart Chaplet of Saint Gertrude Chaplet of Saint Philomena
God bless
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 23, 2011 21:54:18 GMT
Nice list. Can you say a bit more about why you are attached to these devotions and what they are? For example, I know who St Gertrude was an have read MF Cusack's edition of her lfe and works, but I am not familiar with the chaplet. Are you a Benedictine oblate, as this is a specifically Benedictine devotion?
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Post by assisi on Apr 25, 2011 13:25:29 GMT
Pilgrimages.
Not just the Holy Lands or Compostela but the small local ones, walks to mass rocks, holy wells and hilltop/mountain crosses.
What could be better. Nature, physical effort and beautiful surroundings to say a quiet prayer.
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 25, 2011 15:28:42 GMT
The Regina Coeli - because it reminds us that ours is ultimately a religion of joy, that self-denial is a means to a greater end, not an end in itself, and that however dark things may seem the battle has already been won: Gaude et laetare, Regina Caeli Sit resurrexit Christus vere.
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Post by brencel on Apr 26, 2011 20:18:25 GMT
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for any length of time, but a regular daily hour I find is transformative. "Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, 'Ask, and you shall receive,' but He has revealed to His servants that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace." - St. Alphonsus Liguori "Certainly amongst all devotions, after that of receiving the sacraments, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament holds first place, is most pleasing to God, and most useful to ourselves. Do not then, O devout soul, refuse to begin this devotion; and forsaking the conversation of men, dwell each day, from this time forward, for at least half or quarter of an hour, in some church, in the presence of Jesus Christ under the sacramental species. Taste and see how sweet is the Lord." - St. Alphonsus Liguori Quotes from: www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/tes/quotes15.html
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2011 0:07:24 GMT
Nice list. Can you say a bit more about why you are attached to these devotions and what they are? For example, I know who St Gertrude was an have read MF Cusack's edition of her life and works, but I am not familiar with the chaplet. Are you a Benedictine oblate, as this is a specifically Benedictine devotion? Chaplet of St. Gertrude I'm not an oblate, I just like this devotion because it is dedicated to helping the holy souls in purgatory. It's claimed to help release a certain number of souls from purgatory if prayed, whether this is true or not, it's still a nice act of charity for them. www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/chaplets.htmChaplet of St. Philomena This is my mothers name, so that's why I like to say it. St. Philomena has fallen slightly out of favour slightly in recent years, but I like her story, and St. John Vianney and several Popes had a very strong devotion to this "unknown saint" Here is another very interesting devotion : Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget of Sweden (The Venerable Pope John Paul II made her a patron saint of Europe) www.turnbacktogod.com/saint-bridget-of-sweden/Daily prayer is so important, and I find devotions are a great way to help me pray regulary. So I think greater effort should be made to promote devotions ! So if anyone has any more favourite or interesting devotions, keep them coming ! God Bless
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 14:24:56 GMT
I'm a Divine Mercy devotee myself. I read Saint Faustina's Diaries and they brought me very much closer to the person of Jesus Christ. I've noticed a lot more of those little red Divine Mercy books around lately, a good sign for Ireland!
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 29, 2011 17:08:28 GMT
As I remarked on another thread recently, George Weigel argues in THE END AND THE BEGINNING that jon Paul II promoted the Divine Mercy devotion because he saw it as the world's greatest need after the horrors perpetrated in the C20 - and indeed to realise how much we need divine mercy and how it is there for the greatest criminals is one of the most challenging Christian doctrines the more you think about it. I remarked on another thread was that I was not surprised the recent film version of BRIGHTON ROCK didn't understand belief in hell - what really surprised me was that it didn't understand the concept of divine grace either.
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 29, 2011 17:11:09 GMT
Oh, and another favourite of mine is Lingard's hymn "Hail Queen of Heaven". I suppose for a variety of reasons - because I associate it with my schooldays, because the full four-verse version seems to trace the pattern of adult life so closely - wanderer > sinner>mourner> child of God - and because the tune is an old Durham miners' tune and it makes me think of the sufferings of so many generations of labourers and pitworkers whom Jesus came to redeem.
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Post by maolsheachlann on May 8, 2014 9:46:01 GMT
I love 'Hail Queen of Heaven' too, Hibernicus. Amongst so many banal modern (and, to be honest, traditional) hymns it really stands out. Hearing it sung as a church empties out always makes me tingle. This is an interesting thread which I would like to see revived. I can't really add much to it as I am only exploring devotions myself. I pray the Rosary but I don't know if I could call it a 'favourite' devotion as I always struggle with it. I pray it because so many Popes and Marian visionaries have recommended it. I don't know if it counts as a devotion in the sense that this thread intends it, but I would say my favourite devotion (other than Adoration) is joining myself in thought and prayer to Masses and churches around the country and around the world. I like to think, at ten o'clock on a work morning, 'Mass in the Holy Spirit Church in Ballymun is just starting'. I read a sermon by (pre-conversion) Saint John Henry Newman called The Daily Service which I found very inspiring in this regard. He was explaining his intention to start a daily service in his chapel even if few people could come: "Some, too, will come at times, as accident guides them, giving promise that they may one day be settled and secured within the sacred fold. Some will come in times of grief or compunction, others in preparation for the Holy Communion. Nor is it a service for those only who are present; all men know the time, and many mark it, whose bodily presence is away. We have with us the hearts of many. Those who are conscious they are absent in the path of duty, will naturally turn their thoughts to the Church at the stated hour, and thence to God. They will recollect what prayers are then in course, and they will have fragments of them rising on their minds amid their worldly business. They will call to mind the day of the month, and the psalms used on it, and the chapters of Scripture then read out to the people. How pleasant to the wayfaring man, on his journey, to think of what is going on in his own Church! How soothing and consolatory to the old and infirm who cannot come, to follow in their thoughts, nay, with the prayers and psalms before them, what they do not hear! Shall not those prayers and holy meditations, separated though they be in place, ascend up together to the presence of God? Shall not they be with their minister in spirit, who are provoked unto prayer by his service? Shall not their prayers unite in one before the Mercy-seat, sprinkled with the Atoning Blood, as a pure offering of incense unto the Father, and an acceptable sacrifice both for the world of sinners and for His purchased Church? Who then will dare speak of loneliness and solitude, because in man's eyes there are few worshippers brought together in one place? or, who will urge it as a defect in our Service, even if that were the case? Who, moreover, will so speak, when even the Holy Angels are present when we pray, stand by us as guardians, sympathize in our need, and join us in our praises?" (End of quotation) I think the principle can be extended through time as well as space. I often 'join myself' in thought and prayer to Masses that I remember, or to all the Masses I've attended in a particular church, or to all the Masses that have ever been held there. Or even to places of prayer where Masses are not celebrated, like the little chapel in the Ilac Centre in Dublin city centre. However, I have very little experience of other devotions, chaplets etc. and I am very interested in other peoples' thoughts, experiences and preferences. Are there other chaplets than the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet prayed by anyone? Spartacus mentioned the Chaplet of St. Gertrude, which is very interesting, especially as I had been reading about it recently. On the one hand, the appeal of a devotion is that it is traditional and unites you in prayer with so many people gone before (and present). On the other hand, I like the idea of keeping alive less-well-known devotions, and adding to the diversity of the Faith as it is practiced. Apologies for the lengthy post.
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Post by hibernicus on May 8, 2014 15:45:23 GMT
The Rosary is a devotion in the sense that it is extra-liturgical and focuses on a particular aspect of the Faith (its central theme is the Incarnation - remember the Dominicans, who promote it, were founded to oppose a heresy which taught that the material world is a prison and the body a tomb from which we should escape). There are a lot of litanies for particular devotions - the CATHOLIC VOICE used to publish a different one every week, but they have got more economical with their space lately. I really think devotions are best promoted in groups. The decline of confraternities and sodalities has a lot to do with their decline, as has the post-Vatican II tendency to see extra-liturgical devotions as distractions from the Mass. We will be having the Corpus Christi processions next month. Those are always worthwhile.
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Post by maolsheachlann on May 8, 2014 22:38:17 GMT
It's rather odd, I've come across St. Gertrude's poem for the souls in Purgatory in about four different places in the last week, never having encountered it before to my knowledge-- the latest just a moment ago, when I found it on a prayer card in a book. I wonder is that a sign for me. Although I'm slightly bothered by the prayer (and the chaplet's) reputed power to release a given amount of souls from Purgatory when said. I worry whether that kind of superstition taints the prayer, though perhaps that's silly.
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Post by maolsheachlann on May 17, 2014 20:12:52 GMT
I've felt a strange and powerful desire to find a 'less popular' chaplet (i.e., not the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet-- though I do pray the Rosary) to add to my prayers. I put this down to a passage I encountered in Mark Shea's Mary, Mother of the Son trilogy. He mentioned the amazing plenitude of Catholic and Marian devotions and somehow it stirred my imagination-- to think of the vitality and diversity of Catholic prayer. I felt a desire to play a part in that diversity, if that makes any sense.
So today I was in the Veritas shop in Abbey Street and I went to the rosary rack. There are so many different rosaries, on every theme, but there aren't very many 'non-rosary' chaplets. I wanted to find one that was traditional, and I was checking the few that were there on the internet on my smartphone to see if they had any history. I bought a "Holy Family Chaplet" (three sets of three beads and a Holy Family medal) on the mistaken perception that it dated from seventeenth-century Canada. (This was a different chaplet with a similar name.)
I've been looking up this 'Holy Family Chaplet' and seeing that there are only a handful of mentions of it. It just seems a made-up chaplet. Does anyone know what the standing of such chaplets or devotions are in the life of the Church? Do devotions need approval? Is there any kind of office that regulates them? I realize that popular devotions have to start somewhere. But somehow I liked the idea of a devotion that was less well-known but also not just made up. How much freedom is allowed/encouraged regarding such devotions?
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Post by maolsheachlann on Nov 3, 2015 22:24:57 GMT
I would like to revive this thread and see if anyone has anything to add to it.
More and more I think popular piety (though, of course, never divorced from the liturgy and always leading to it) is the way to go. The sad fact is that there may be fewer and fewer opportunities to participate in the liturgy in the future so devotions may have to tide us over to some extent.
Even if that were not to be the case, I think it's important.
I have myself been praying the Seven Sorrows of Mary devotion recently, which I discovered in the Catholic Voice.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Nov 4, 2015 13:45:18 GMT
In terms of devotions, it is one case where I can say, if it works for you, good. Obviously the rosary, the Angelus and the Stations of Cross are important because they focus on the mysteries of salvation and if meditated on properly, lead us to deepening understanding of the faith and the liturgy, complimentary to study.
But I believe very much in linking devotion to the liturgical year and to the cycle of feasts too, as these are there for a reason. Right now is the month of November. Is anyone undertaking penance on behalf of the Holy Souls? Or prayer?
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