Today I started reading a new book as part of my devotional time - it's a little book that is actually a collection of meditations on Mary from the letters of St. John Henry Newman - the book is called The Mystical Rose
I just started it, so not too much to say yet, no doubt more insights will come from it, but in the introduction, St. JHN makes the distinction between devotion and doctrine (he calls it faith in this context, but he means the content of the faith).
He's famous for clarifying the concept of the development of doctrine, but part of the whole point of that is that there are boundaries on doctrine, and legitimate development can never really be anything new, but rather only the clarification and natural growth of what was there from the beginning.
But, he says, with devotion, there is more freedom for new things to come into the Church, and one of the ways in which Catholicism is rich and robust is in the great number of devotions, and in the great freedom the Church gives to individuals to pick and choose different devotions, according to their taste - and this almost jumped off the page for me - because we would never say that doctrine is a matter of taste, but here he gives us permission to say that devotion IS a matter of taste. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that it's OK if different personalities gravitate to different devotions.
So the fact that the rosary did not exist in the first 1,000 years of the Church does not mean that it's bad - it was new in the middle ages, but since it is a devotion and not a doctrine, that's ok (though I would argue - and I do argue in the book on prayer - that the rosary is consistent with prayer that was going on from the beginning, and only builds on it).
And now there are so many devotions it would be impossible for any one person to practice them all - and this can seem like a problem for Protestants and new converts - but the point is that it's ok to like some and not others. Some people are devoted to some saints; other people are devoted to different saints. Some people pray the Divine Mercy chaplet; other people are into the Sacred Heart or other similar devotions.
I think it's good to be intentional about what devotions you gravitate to, and not try to do them all - but on the other hand also not give up on them because there are so many. I also think that devotion to Mother Mary, and the rosary should be something everyone does (the rosary at least on occasion).
But in any case, what are your devotional practices? Share if you feel like it (I'll share mine if you share yours), or at least think about them for yourself. Are you still looking to find the right one(s) for you?
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
St. Albert the Great - teacher and mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Original Church
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The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...