Devotion

St. Mary Roman Catholic Church

New Britain, Connecticut

Introduction

Today I want to talk to you about devotion. I think that thirty or forty years ago, the devotional life of the church was much stronger than it is today. People expressed their faith in God, and their love for God, in their devotional practices. For example, when I was a youngster my mother and aunt had great devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. Every Wednesday night my mom and my aunt would drag my brother and me to Church for the weekly novena to Our Lady. The place was packed. Rosary and Benediction were part of the novena; the weekly novena was their favorite devotion.

Some people have a special devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. They come to church all alone and visit with Christ present in the tabernacle. They want to spend some quiet time with Christ. They come to be in his presence.

Some people have devotion to a favorite saint. St. Francis, St Anthony, or St. Theresa, for example. Others have a special devotion to Our Lady. I know a man who goes to the cemetery every week to visit his wife’s grave. While he’s there, he says the Rosary to Our Lady. He’s praying for his wife, and also to his wife, asking her and Our Lady to watch over him and the rest of the family. He feels that since his wife has gone ahead of him to heaven, now he can count on her help and intercession.

Devotion – what is your favorite devotion to Our Lord, to Mary, to one of the saints? What religious devotion do you regularly engage in?

Devotion is something mysterious, way beyond our understanding. A recent poll said that ninety two percent of Americans believed in a personal God who heard them and cared about them. How does God hear us? Ever wonder about that? There are more than six billion people on the earth, and I suppose that at any given time four billion of them might be praying to God in one away or another. How does He hear all of us? He hears each one as if that one were the only person talking to Him. He gives complete and perfect attention to each one, even to those who are paying no attention to Him, and who are turning away from him in sin. But how does He do it? How is He able to focus on each one and on all? We have no idea. We find it hard to be personally present to one person without getting distracted or bored or tired. How could God possibly look with love, care, and attention at each one and all? And do it always? Devotion is based on the belief that:

1. God sees me,

2. God knows me,

3. Cares about me,

4. Hears me,

5. Wants me to do good, and

6. is guiding my life towards him.

Devotion means that I do something to bring myself into conscious contact with him.

God is everywhere. In heaven, yes. On earth, yes. With us no matter where we are, yes. So it is not hard for us to get in touch with him thru prayer, because He is already there. All we have to do is pray. Prayer plugs us into the spiritual Internet, the world wide wed of prayer.

But what about prayer to Mary Our mother, or to the Saints? Mary is not here. She’s in heaven. She was assumed into heaven, enthroned as Queen of the Universe. How does Mary hear us, since she is not everywhere? How do the Saints hear our prayers since they are no longer with us but are with God? God in his power and wisdom makes them aware of our prayers. He is the one who puts us in contact with them. Our contact with them is thru Him. Devotion to Mary and the saints is mysterious, it is not the same contact we have with God in prayer, but somehow a contact with them in Him.

What’s your favorite devotion? Let me tell you what I think is the only wrong answer to that question. It is this: “My favorite devotion is the liturgy, you know, going to Mass on Sunday.” Why is that a wrong answer? Because it can easily be a cop-out, an escape, a way to cover up lack of devotion.

Devotion means that you pray, your mind and heart are engaged with God. Not just your head, but your heart. Not just on the level of ideas, but on the level of feelings. In the liturgy, the priest prays, and he does it as the voice of the people. But the liturgy is not your personal prayer unless and until it awakens devotion in you. Devotion means you are in the habit of taking what is in your heart and bringing it to God. You bring him the awe you feel at his greatness, the gratitude you feel for his mercy, the dryness you feel at his absence, the peace you feel in his presence, the weakness you feel in your sinfulness. Cardinal Newman says that in true devotion “heart speaks to heart” Wonderful expression. When we pray, what is deepest in us expresses itself and enters into the depths of God. That’s why devotion cannot be a head trip, or listening to a sermon, or playing with ideas. Devotion means to take the inspiration ideas can give you and burn them on the altar of your heart. The liturgy gives us fuel for devotion, a great deal of fuel.

The liturgy, the prayer of the Church, is a beautiful and wonderful prayer. But it would be wrong to say that it was your favorite devotion unless you were so devoted to it that you went to Mass every day. If you were a daily communicant, then yes, you could say truthfully, the Mass is your favorite devotion.

My fear, my worry, is that many of us don’t have any special religious devotion. No novena, no Rosary, no prayers to St. Jude, no Stations of the Cross, no prayers to Our Lady or to the Sacred Heart, or to the Divine Mercy. If that is your situation, let me urge you to change it. Here at Mass begin to pray. Let some part of this richly orchestrated prayer touch your heart and move you to pray. Then carry it over in your daily life. Begin some prayer practice, some regular routine, in which you express your faith a love in God thru some devotion.

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