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Catholic devotions are external practices such as prayers \u201cattached to particular times or places, insignia, medals, habits or customs\u201d that \u201cmanifest the particular relationship of the faithful with the Divine Persons, or the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . or with the Saints . . .\u201d (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy<\/em>, 2001<\/a>).\u00a0 I believe new life could be breathed into parishes and families if popular devotional prayers were practiced with great fervor and conviction because the need for affective, nonliturgical, communal prayers remains, and because it is an excellent means in and through which to pass on the Catholic faith to the next generation.<\/p>\n Lay Catholic devotional practices, however, started to decline in the 1950s and continued after Vatican II (1962-65) (Kelly, 2009<\/a>).\u00a0 Theologians and social scientists have offered various explanations for this decline: growing affluence of laity, less reverence for authority, suburbanization, secularization, etc.\u00a0 Sociologist Melissa Wilde (2007<\/a>), on the other hand, believes there is an internal ecclesial<\/em> reason for the decline \u2013 an emphasis on \u201cecumenism\u201d at Vatican II.\u00a0 All of these explanations are worth consideration, but it is worth noting, for example, that Eucharistic adoration is growing on some college campuses \u2013 and knowing what happened in the past might shed light on this practice.<\/p>\n Whatever the case might be, sociologically, this increase in Eucharistic adoration is promising because, as Robert Wuthnow (1999<\/a>) has found, parents transmit faith to their children primarily in and through religious social rituals<\/em> more so than through religious education (in particular, bed-time and meal prayers).\u00a0 It is bodily religious practices, and I would add \u201crepeated or ritualized\u201d practices that mark religion in one\u2019s body and mind more so than theological explanations \u2013 at least for most ordinary Catholic parishioners.\u00a0 Sunday Mass certainly is a bodily Catholic ritual practice, but most Catholic parishioners need additional weekday religious practices to sustain their faith, and for generations those religious practices were in one sense or another devotional \u2013 such as Eucharistic adoration, the rosary, novenas, bed-time devotions, etc.\u00a0 And central to devotions is the bodily, ritual, doing, practicing dimension \u2013 not studying about, taking classes on, or reading about devotions. \u00a0Wuthnow refers to this as a \u201cpracticing spirituality\u201d without necessarily having a personal systematic theology to explain it.\u00a0 If individuals do develop a theology for their practice, it usually follows the practice \u2013 what the Church has long known as mystagogical catechesis.<\/p>\n This ritual theory on which Wuthnow supports his research, suggests further that \u201cmy\u201d devotion to Mary (rosary) is \u201cmeaningful\u201d because I \u201cpray\u201d or \u201cdo\u201d the rosary.\u00a0 I do not necessarily \u201cpray the rosary\u201d because it is meaningful to me \u2013 although that certainly might be the case.\u00a0 The emphasis is clearly on \u201cpracticing\u201d over \u201cthinking.\u201d\u00a0 Another sociologist, Stephen Warner, states it this way: \u201cI do not sing sacred harp music because it is meaningful to me; it is meaningful to me because I sing it\u201d (Warner, 2010).\u00a0 We could argue about the order of causation; what comes first, meaning or practice, but that should not obstruct us from emphasizing the \u201cdoing\u201d or practicing of devotions.<\/p>\n Ritual theory suggests then, as does Catholic incarnational theology, that initiating ourselves and our children into Catholic devotional practices is imperative for transmitting the faith to the next generation.\u00a0 In other words, this transmission of faith depends as much on \u201cdoing\u201d or \u201cpracticing\u201d as it does on solid catechesis.\u00a0 If we are not praying the devotions, then I would argue the catechesis is lost on our children.<\/p>\n Finally, from a ritual theory perspective, parishes and schools, if they don\u2019t already \u201cdo\u201d this, should start practicing a particular devotion and then see if it \u201ccatches\u201d on, and if it does to do it over and again till it is ingrained in their hearts \u2013 even known \u201cby heart.\u201d\u00a0 If a particular devotion does not catch on, try another \u2013 but start initiating devotional practices with all the gusto and energy and prayer and collective effervescence (joy) that you, as leader, can muster. \u00a0Sociological research has found that most lay Catholics remember their devotional practices far more than any catechesis they ever received.\u00a0 Devotions, therefore, are not only means for expressing our faith but a means through which to invite others who have fallen away back, as well as, keeping many from falling away in the first place.<\/p>\n References:<\/strong><\/p>\n Wuthnow, Robert.\u00a0 1999.\u00a0 Growing Up Religious: Christians and Jews and Their Journey\u2019s of Faith<\/em>. \u00a0Boston: Beacon Press.<\/p>\n Wilde, Melissa J.\u00a0 2007. \u00a0Vatican II: A Sociological Analysis of Religious Change<\/em>.\u00a0 Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press.<\/p>\n Kelly, Timothy.\u00a0 2009.\u00a0 The Transformation of American Catholicism: The Pittsburgh Laity and the Second Vatican Council, 1950-1972<\/em>.\u00a0 Notre Dame:University ofNotre Dame Press.<\/p>\n Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines.\u00a0<\/em> 2001. \u00a0Vatican City: Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Catholic devotions are external practices such as prayers \u201cattached to particular times or places, insignia, medals, habits or customs\u201d that \u201cmanifest the particular relationship of the faithful with the Divine Persons, or the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . or … Continue reading