Overwhelmed by Devotions/Devotionals!

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SeekNFind

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I feel like I’m always learning about some new devotional and they all sound wonderful or carry amazing promises but how do you decide what to stick with?

I’ve been most consistent with the rosary. But outside of that, there’s novenas, litanies, chaplets, usually to my patron St. Therese, St. Michael, St. Raphael, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, etc. There are feast days and novenas leading up to those feast days (I’m currently doing one to St. Ann). There’s the divine hour of mercy that I just learned about. There’s scapulars and medals. Whew! I feel all these are wonderful but I’d have to be in prayer 24 hours a day to keep up with them all. How do you pick and choose? Isn’t it better to be consistent than to do a smattering of them all (which is what I’m doing now)? Help! :o
 
SeekNFind said:
I feel like I’m always learning about some new devotional and they all sound wonderful or carry amazing promises but how do you decide what to stick with?

I’ve been most consistent with the rosary. But outside of that, there’s novenas, litanies, chaplets, usually to my patron St. Therese, St. Michael, St. Raphael, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, etc. There are feast days and novenas leading up to those feast days (I’m currently doing one to St. Ann). There’s the divine hour of mercy that I just learned about. There’s scapulars and medals. Whew! I feel all these are wonderful but I’d have to be in prayer 24 hours a day to keep up with them all. How do you pick and choose? Isn’t it better to be consistent than to do a smattering of them all (which is what I’m doing now)? Help! :o
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Just say your rosary and alternate the other prayers. If you are facing a particular problem say the Novena to the patron saint associated with the issue. If you finish one novena to a saint, then you can start another one to another saint. People usually find they like one novena or saint more and will stick to that. I love St Pius X so I say his novena. Also I usually say the novena to blessed Margaret of Costello who I hope will soon be canonized. Reading the stories of the lives of the saints may help you chose one who inspires you.
 
SeekNFind said:
I feel like I’m always learning about some new devotional and they all sound wonderful or carry amazing promises but how do you decide what to stick with?

I’ve been most consistent with the rosary. But outside of that, there’s novenas, litanies, chaplets, usually to my patron St. Therese, St. Michael, St. Raphael, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, etc. There are feast days and novenas leading up to those feast days (I’m currently doing one to St. Ann). There’s the divine hour of mercy that I just learned about. There’s scapulars and medals. Whew! I feel all these are wonderful but I’d have to be in prayer 24 hours a day to keep up with them all. How do you pick and choose? Isn’t it better to be consistent than to do a smattering of them all (which is what I’m doing now)? Help! :o
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You don’t really need to participate in any of them. They are all optional. Totally optional. There is no rule saying that you have to participate in any of them. Besides that there are way to many of them to participate in all or even very many of them. You would have a lot of overlap time. Take me for instance. I wear a scapular and pray the Rosary on occasion. Not every day, but faitly regularly. I also have a private devotion to Saint Bernadette. Thats it. Nothing else. i don’t even pay attention to the others except to respect them.

If you want to participate in some go for it.👍 But please don’t think that you have to.
 
Stick with the Rosary and work in other things if you have time. I find that there is a certain comfort and discipline that accompany a regular devotion. That is helpful, and as such, it is good to have one stable devotion. If you can’t do anything else, stay faithful to that one. If you find you have more time on a given day, branch out, but try to stick with the daily Rosary.
 
Thank you. I just feel like I have this whole new world of allies 😛 So I want to ask for their help as much a possible.
 
Mike30 said:
You don’t really need to participate in any of them. They are all optional. Totally optional. There is no rule saying that you have to participate in any of them. Besides that there are way to many of them to participate in all or even very many of them. You would have a lot of overlap time. Take me for instance. I wear a scapular and pray the Rosary on occasion. Not every day, but faitly regularly. I also have a private devotion to Saint Bernadette. Thats it. Nothing else. i don’t even pay attention to the others except to respect them.

If you want to participate in some go for it.👍 But please don’t think that you have to.
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I agree with Mike. You should pray because we are commanded to pray, in the New Testament.

The Jews interpreted the commands starting at Deut 6:4 as a command to pray. Loving God with all your heart is equivalent to a command to pray to God.

I am no expert on this subject. Section 4 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is on prayer, and I didn’t imagine that there was so much to say about prayer. I’ve read most of that, but I need to read/study it again, for sure.

Prayer starts off in the Old Testament rather simply. There are no prayers for all those animal sacrifices that are commanded. And, there’s a good reason for that. As I understand it, it is to avoid the idea that somebody praying has command over God. This idea comes up someplace.

But, obviously, by the time of the psalms, there are prayers galore. Psalm 1 is the “head” psalm. It is an important prayer and expression. they say, you have to be in tune with Psalm 1 to really mesh with the prayer intentions of the other psalms.

In the New Testament, the Lord’s prayer is obviously the greatest prayer that there is. But, aside from that, take a look at the first chapter of the letter of James. It’s not a prayer itself, but it says what to pray and how to pray – for wisdom, single-mindedly.

But, this is a big issue. How to pray. There is a book of prayers that are “indulgenced” by the church, called the Raccolta.

I had a problem for years with all the prayers on EWTN. I can’t say that I thought there was anything wrong with them, it was me. I just was just not at the level of spirituality to pray those prayers.

In a non-Catholic book on prayer I got at the public library, it suggested that if anybody said only one prayer in their life, it should be “thank you, God.”

That’s a good place to start, very personal, to thank God for everything you were blessed with today, and to pray for all your needs for tomorrow. And, pray “thank you” all day to God. Bring God into your presence with prayers of thanksgiving.

If you plan on going to heaven, as it says in Rev 5:12, the saints there were praying:"In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” " you might want to polish up on that one.
 
Crumpy said:
In a non-Catholic book on prayer I got at the public library, it suggested that if anybody said only one prayer in their life, it should be “thank you, God.”

That’s a good place to start, very personal, to thank God for everything you were blessed with today, and to pray for all your needs for tomorrow. And, pray “thank you” all day to God. Bring God into your presence with prayers of thanksgiving.

If you plan on going to heaven, as it says in Rev 5:12, the saints there were praying:"In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” " you might want to polish up on that one.
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I like the simplicity of that. 👍 I talk to God throughout my day but I will strive to be even more aware of His presence.
 
Dear SeekNFind , There was a time when I was asking the very same question that you have posted. I was overwhelmed, too. I had a yearning to do extra things and I finally settled on a devotion to the Sacred Heart. I use other Novenas as needed, a devotion to the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Rosary. I read continually about the Saints, which is always an inspiration.
 
Instead of all these seperate devotions, why not use the Prayer of the Church the Liturgy of the hours.

When I was in religious life that was all we did as a group along with the rosary, in Latin. When I left the monastery I continued.

You can get a 1 volume book called “Christian Prayer”, and it is fairly inexspensive.
 
Windmill said:
Stick with the Rosary and work in other things if you have time. I find that there is a certain comfort and discipline that accompany a regular devotion. That is helpful, and as such, it is good to have one stable devotion. If you can’t do anything else, stay faithful to that one. If you find you have more time on a given day, branch out, but try to stick with the daily Rosary.
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:thumbsup:Absolutely! After the Mass, the Rosary is the most valuable prayer/meditation we can do. The other saints may be called on if you feel drawn to talk to them in regard to help or a special favour. It’s all about building relationships - get close to Jesus by making him your friend who you can talk to whenever you like, about whatever you like.

Through the Rosary you will get to know His life better and as time goes by your bond will grow. Good luck:getholy:
 
Windmill said:
Stick with the Rosary and work in other things if you have time. I find that there is a certain comfort and discipline that accompany a regular devotion. That is helpful, and as such, it is good to have one stable devotion. If you can’t do anything else, stay faithful to that one. If you find you have more time on a given day, branch out, but try to stick with the daily Rosary.
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I, too, support this. My priests say that the minimum baseline-type prayers are the Three Hail Mary’s morning and night, and the daily Rosary, and a few minutes each day in mental prayer. Here’s a good homily about how to start incorporating prayer into daily life.

The Power of Prayer and How to Do It
 
My devotion to my patron, St. Thérèse is growing so I will continue to pray for her intercession in addition to my (hopefully) daily rosary. As many suggested, I think I will continue to work in novenas as issues arise and go from there.
 
Dee_S said:
:thumbsup:Absolutely! After the Mass, the Rosary is the most valuable prayer/meditation we can do. The other saints may be called on if you feel drawn to talk to them in regard to help or a special favour. It’s all about building relationships - get close to Jesus by making him your friend who you can talk to whenever you like, about whatever you like.

Through the Rosary you will get to know His life better and as time goes by your bond will grow. Good luck:getholy:
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I agree that, after the Mass, the Rosary is #1.This is quite old-fashioned, but starting your day with three short prayers:

Act of faith
Act of hope
& Act of love

will change your life.
 
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