What classifies as superstition in catholicism?

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Excuse me, but I want an honest answer on this:
What classifies as superstition in Catholicism? What forms does it take? Does saying rosaries on All Hallow’s Eve to speed up the forgiveness of holy souls count? Does sage count? Does sea salt and a certain leaf around the house count as superstition? My mother did that last part of it.
 
thestudentAD said:
Excuse me, but I want an honest answer on this:
What classifies as superstition in Catholicism? What forms does it take? Does saying rosaries on All Hallow’s Eve to speed up the forgiveness of holy souls count? Does sage count? Does sea salt and a certain leaf around the house count as superstition? My mother did that last part of it.
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Superstition: The attribution of a kind of magical power to certain practices or objects like charms or omens. Reliance on such power instead of on trust in God constitutes an offense against the honor due to God alone, as required by the first commandment. (Catechism, Glossary)

Saying specific prayers on a feast or memorial day, saying rosaries for the faithful departed, Good and Holy practices each that rely on God, not magic. Sage is one of the components of incense and in that context is used to worship God. If you were to use sage as the new agers do to magically cleanse your space of ‘‘negativity,’’ this would be superstition. Salt used to be placed on the tongues of the newly baptized as an addition symbol of the cleansing received in the sacrament. Salt and leaves at doors and windows instead of prayer and a house blessing from a priest, definitely superstition.

Any pious act or sacramental can be used sacrilegiously for superstition if you take God out and treat it like a magical amulet or incantation:(
 
thestudentAD said:
Excuse me, but I want an honest answer on this:
What classifies as superstition in Catholicism? What forms does it take? Does saying rosaries on All Hallow’s Eve to speed up the forgiveness of holy souls count? Does sage count? Does sea salt and a certain leaf around the house count as superstition? My mother did that last part of it.
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Some things people do culturally because they picked it up from mom or dad or grandmom, it isn’t actual Catholicism but maybe something that an Italian Catholic grandma did around the house and gave the impression that it was Catholic to a kid that doesn’t know, wouldn’t get a straight answer, and never asked

Good ex. of a superstitions: the ol’ burying the statue of St. Joseph to sell a house. Ridiculous.
Wearing a medal or a scapular, but not praying the associated prayers or doing the good works.
 
From Fr. Hardon’s Catholic dictionary (catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36723):🙂
[Superstition is t]he unseemly or irreverent worship of God, or giving to a creature the worship that belongs to God. Rendering unbecoming worship to God may stem either from false devotion or from a tendency toward magic. Giving divine worship to a creature is either idolatry, divination, or vain observance. The term “superstition” more commonly means unbecoming worship to God.
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When supersitition arises from false devotion, it is really superfluous worship of God, which may take on a variety of forms. Their common denominator is an excessive concern that **unless certain external practices, such as multiplication of prayers, are performed God will be displeased.
**
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When superstition stems from a tendency toward magic, it reflects a false mentality that may or may not be the root of false devotion. Behind the false mentality is t**he notion that certain ritual practices, such as chain prayers or veneration of unapproved objects, carry with them an efficacy that is contrary to sound reason or the teaching of the Church. **
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Don’t they sell blessed salt? I have never used blessed salt [or any salt] as a charm, but could blessed salt not be used in a situation where one felt the presence of evil, simply on the basis that it would be found “unpleasant” by demons and other nefarious things?😃
 
Here are some additional examples:

Saying “God Bless you” when someone sneezes because you actually wish for God to bless that person – Good.

Saying “God Bless you” when someone sneezes because you because you fear that the their soul left their body with the sneeze – superstition

Wearing green on St. Patrick’s day because you want to identify with your Irish and/or Catholic heritage – can be OK, if not too prideful.

Wearing green on St. Patrick’s day for good luck – superstition

Wearing costumes on Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve) because it’s a cultural tradition - OK (though I personally believe many Halloween costumes have gotten out of hand)

Wearing costumes on Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve) to scare away the evil sprits – superstition

Wearing a rosary while playing baseball and kissing it when you hit a home run because you are honestly venerating the Cross and thanking God for blessing you with the skills necessary to make a ton of money playing a child’s game – Good

Wearing a rosary while playing baseball and kissing it when you hit a home run because you think that it’s good luck or that God is actually helping you win a baseball game – superstition
 
On the celebration of Chinese New Year, at the end of the Mass, there was a dragon that was zig zagging throughout the Church. It was announced from the altar, that if you touch the dragon as he is weaving his way throughout the Church, you would get good luck. I am not sure if this is a new teaching since Vatican II, or would it be a superstition.
 
Tomdstone said:
On the celebration of Chinese New Year, at the end of the Mass, there was a dragon that was zig zagging throughout the Church. It was announced from the altar, that if you touch the dragon as he is weaving his way throughout the Church, you would get good luck. I am not sure if this is a new teaching since Vatican II, or would it be a superstition.
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ahhh… that would be (a) liturgical abuse (b) borderline, if not blatant, blasphemy (c) not allowed by Vatican II, and (d) 100% superstition

Things like this happen when you have lay controlled liturgical committees and when priests lack the courage or strength to put them in their place. 😦
 
thestudentAD said:
Excuse me, but I want an honest answer on this:
What classifies as superstition in Catholicism? What forms does it take? Does saying rosaries on All Hallow’s Eve to speed up the forgiveness of holy souls count? Does sage count? Does sea salt and a certain leaf around the house count as superstition? My mother did that last part of it.
Click to expand...
CCC 2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.

CCC 2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.
 
I need to learn more about this too. What about the little St. Anthony prayer when you lose something? Is that ok?
 
Examples of superstition in catholicism:
Saying a rosary because you got a chain letter that says you have to say a rosary or something bad will happen if you break the chain.
Insisting that you have to say a certain prayer at a certain time of the day because you don’t think it counts if you say the prayer, let’s say a half hour earlier.
 
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