How do you define "devoted" for Christians?

[Cat]

This question came up in another thread in the Liturgy section.

How do YOU define “devoted?”

Is it someone who attends Daily Mass?

Or more?

Is it an attitude or action, or both?

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

I’m “devoted” toward doing two things; what the Father said and the Mother.

The Father said from the cloud bout His Son, in whom He was well-pleased, “listen to Him.”

His mother said “do what He tells you.”

As long as we at least follow the precepts, other devotions are optional. Some feel really close to God and their religion by doing many devotions, and these are very good and useful.

But for me, it’s about the goal, not the process. I do not try so much to be a “Good Catholic,” as to be a “Good follower of Jesus’s teachings” under the guidance of the Shepherds of the Church.

My whole Catholic “world” got blown open, though, when I was 42 years old and this “cradle Catholic” first heard of “contemplative prayer” for the first time.

Never even heard the term “spiritual journey” and certainly knew nothing about “purgative contemplation” (our “head start” on Purgatory while still here) and the Dark Night of the Soul. Maybe that isn’t surprising since its author, St. John of the Cross, we only promoted to Doctor of the Church less than 90 years ago.

Suddenly it wasn’t about adhering to rules and behavior contests and self-loathing and and following rituals, but to really seek Divine Union. Without that, all the other stuff is meaningless.

I suggest this easy to read book, used in some seminaries for beginning prayer classes, and written by a Jesuit.

Have you ever heard of contemplative prayer? Most Catholics haven’t, but without it, we are missing out on what I consider the “heart” of Catholicism – the mysticism and mystery and how souls go about actually finding their lovers and how hearts and minds are conditioned to become “in the kingdom” as Jesus talks about – and not something to hope for after we’re dead but an amazingly peaceful way to live right now, in the world we have.

See CCC 2700-2724 for “Expressions of Prayer” and note specifically in 2708 where it says prayer “should” go further into one which brings us to union with Christ – and that would be contemplative.

The book is in paperback, Kindle, and Audio:

Armchair Mystic: Easing Into Contemplative Prayer by Mark E. Thibodeaux S.J. (Author)

 

[agnes_therese]

This question came up in another thread in the Liturgy section.

How do YOU define “devoted?”

Is it someone who attends Daily Mass?

Or more?

Is it an attitude or action, or both?

Devotion can express itself in different ways, so I don’t think there’s any way to define it to apply to others.

 

[pianistclare]

Devotion can express itself in different ways, so I don’t think there’s any way to define it to apply to others.

I second this.
The ones who decry those who “only go to Mass” miss the point of worship.
those who do many good works and don’t worship, ignore the one for whom they work ,
it’s not an either or situation. But both are valid.

 

[mountee]

As an adjective in use when you say devoted Christian or devoted Catholic it would suggest a loving, loyal Christian or Catholic. In my world if I were to use it to refer to a devoted Catholic I would be suggesting someone who is loyal to the doctrine of the Church. Following on that thinking I would say it is both attitude and action.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

I second this.
The ones who decry those who “only go to Mass” miss the point of worship.
those who do many good works and don’t worship, ignore the one for whom they work ,
it’s not an either or situation. But both are valid.