Various Devotions

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Since the beginning of the church, we have had many blessing and graces bestowed on us. This is not an exhaustive list of them but these include The Rosary, The Devine Mercy Chaplet, the 1 and 12 year(s) devotions of Saint Bridget, Novenas, etc. Collectively it would surpass 20 daily devotions if 1 was given every 100 years AD. My question is three fold: how could one possibly perform all of these; are we expected to perform all; and why would Mother Mary and Our Lord Jesus give us so many different ones?
 
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Thank you to all that have had a hand in forming this site!!

Since the beginning of the church, we have had many blessing and graces bestowed on us. This is not an exhaustive list of them but these include The Rosary, The Devine Mercy Chaplet, the 1 and 12 year(s) devotions of Saint Bridget, Novenas, etc. Collectively it would surpass 20 daily devotions if 1 was given every 100 years AD. My question is three fold: how could one possibly perform all of these; are we expected to perform all; and why would Mother Mary and Our Lord Jesus give us so many different ones?
The norm is the liturgy of the hours or the divine praises, however there are shorter devotions for those not doing those.

Catechism
1174 The mystery of Christ, his Incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the time of each day, through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, “the divine office.” 46 This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to “pray constantly,” is “so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God.” 47 In this “public prayer of the Church,” 48 the faithful (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of the baptized. Celebrated in “the form approved” by the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours "is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the Father. 49

46 Cf. SC , Ch. IV,83-101.
47 SC 84; 1 Thess 5:17; Eph 6:18.
48 SC 98.
49 SC 84
SC = Sacrosanctum concilium
 
My question is three fold: how could one possibly perform all of these; are we expected to perform all; and why would Mother Mary and Our Lord Jesus give us so many different ones?
We aren’t obligated to do any if these devotions if we don’t want.
Exactly, when could anyone pray all of these together?
You can pick one you prefer or take something you feel most connected with.
5. Why are there so many different forms of popular devotion?
Since popular devotions arise in response to the spiritual needs of the culture in which they take shape, the degree to which any particular devotion is practiced will vary over time and according to the culture. Referring to different forms of Marian devotion originating in various historical and cultural contexts, Pope Paul VI explained that the Church “does not bind herself to any particular expression of an individual cultural epoch or to the particular anthropological ideas underlying such expressions. The Church understands that certain outward religious expressions, while perfectly valid in themselves, may be less suitable to men and women of different ages and cultures.” 26 Some devotional practices evidently correspond more closely to the spiritual needs of a certain people at a certain time than others. Popular devotions are not a matter in which “one size fits all.” We must be aware that in our Church today in the United States there are various ethnic groups who are living in different cultural contexts, and we must be sensitive to the fact that these groups often find that some devotional practices meet their spiritual needs better than others.
Sometimes a certain amount of adaptation is required to make a popular devotion suitable for people in another place and time. For example, the Stations of the Cross began as the practice of pious pilgrims to Jerusalem who would retrace the final journey of Jesus Christ to Calvary. Later, for the many who wanted to pass along the same route but could not make the trip to Jerusalem, a practice developed that eventually took the form of the fourteen stations currently found in almost every church. Similarly, the 150 Hail Marys that were recited for the rosary were an adaptation of the medieval monastic practice of reciting the 150 psalms in the Psalter.
http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...nal-practices-basic-questions-and-answers.cfm
 
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Every human being is different and thus prayer for each, guided by the Spirit, is unique. The Church overflows in treasures of spirituality for her sons and daughters. We are not obligated to chose any particular personal devotion but will gravitate toward those we find ourselves attracted to. Chose the ones that bring you closer to God.
 
My question is three fold: how could one possibly perform all of these;
It would be difficult if not impossible to do them ALL, and even if someone spent 24 hours a day just repeating prayers and got them all done, they probably wouldn’t be done very well.
God would rather you do 2 of them well than 2000 of them poorly.
are we expected to perform all;
No.
You aren’t “expected” to perform any. You are expected to pray to God regularly, which you could do by simply talking to God in your own words every day, or reading Scripture, without practicing any devotions.
and why would Mother Mary and Our Lord Jesus give us so many different ones?
Because different ones speak to different people. And different ones might appeal to the same person at different times in his or her life.

God likes variety in all things, and it’s reasonable to assume that extends to a variety of prayer forms.

Also, religious orders all have different charisms. They don’t all try to do all the things the other orders are doing. Some of them emphasize caring for the poor. Some focus on adoring the Blessed Sacrament. Some teach the young. Some of them are dedicated to contemplative prayer. Some of them concentrate on honoring Mother Mary. Etc.

You’re supposed to pick a couple of devotions you think are particularly useful or appealing to you and do them regularly. If your prayer life gets stale, it might be time to stop doing a devotion you usually do, and switch to a different one for a while.

Also, some devotions usually only last for a set period of time, like 9 days, or 1 month, unless you decide you like a particular novena and want to do it every day in perpetuity. The St. Bridget prayers last only 1 year in the case of the 12-month version, and only 15 years in the case of the 15-year version.

Think of devotions as like a grocery store. Do you buy and eat one of every food in the store every time you go? Or do you pick out things that look good to you (while the guy behind you may have picked out all different things that look good to him), only get as much as you can reasonably cook and eat before it spoils, and then eat those things, and on your next trip maybe you buy some of the same stuff because you like it or it’s nutritious for your body, but you also buy some different things? Same with devotions.
 
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As others have stated you aren’t required to perform them all. You can do the Sacred Heart devotion or the Divine Mercy or none at all! What matters is giving thanks to God and performing your obligations.
 
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