What devotions should a new Catholic have?

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dallas_r

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I’m new around here and am looking for some devotions that are fairly simple and not too overwhelming. I heard that if I try to do all the devotions at once I’m going to get burned out so I definitely don’t want that to happen. Any answers would be much appreciated, Thank you:D
 
You are not required to do any “set” devotions, indeed no lay person is. 🙂 Devotions should aid our spiritual growth, help us keep our baptismal vows, thus allowing us to become one with God in his will and love.

If the rosary helps you, then do that. If praying the Liturgy of the Hours helps, then do that. Lectio Divina is also good. As lay people we are not bound to any of them, but usually having one that we practice faithfully is a good thing. And by faithfully, I mean as you are able to do it.

There’s no hurry in choosing one or more devotions. Pray about it, and see which one(s) seems best for you. It’s really that simple. 🙂
 
Our favorite…along with the Rosary…is The Divine Mercy…it’s also recited on your Rosary…the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy is on EWTN at 3pm daily…you can get EWTN live on your computer as well as your TV…also you can watch on You Tube…same with the Rosary…your church should have brochures as well…as the previous poster said…it isn’t mandatory for Catholics…but it does help your prayer life:)
 
The Rosary is of course a most popular devotion. I would suggest doing it as a Scriptural Rosary, as the devotion is intended to focus on the mysteries of Jesus’ life.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet is also a popular devotion, as is the Liturgy of Hours. For the latter, there are many apps, such as iBreviary, which can assist you. The LotH has seven daily segments (Office of Reading, Morning (Lauds), Mid Morning, Noon, Mid Afternoon, Evening (Vespers), and Night). However, as a beginner and not a cleric or part of a religious order, I’d say that it’s pretty common for the laity to only do one to three of these (Morning/Lauds, Evening/Vespers, and Night/Compline). My own recommendation would be Lauds and/or Vespers as a daily devotion, if you’re interested in the LotH.

I’m not recommending doing all of these at once, but to pick one (listed here or elsewhere) and see if it speaks to you. You can of course change your devotion if anything feels stale.
 
Do whatever it is you’re attracted to. Especially in the very beginning like this, make sure you pick something you really look forward to doing. My personal favorite is Eucharistic adoration. (It doesn’t have to be a whole hour. Try St. Alphonsus Longuori’s Visits to the Blessed Sacrament; each “visit” takes about 15 minutes.) Whatever it is for you, start with just the one devotion, at intervals, and build up only as you feel attracted to do so.

Whatever you do, remember that devotions are not obligatory. For example, if you decided to go to Eucharistic adoration every week, and you did that for years – and then you couldn’t or didn’t want to anymore, it’s not a sin.

I’ve prayed that you’ll find a devotion that will draw you closer to Jesus and your big brothers and sisters in heaven.
 
Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Read the Scriptures, especially the New Testament.

Weekly Mass and Confession.

Participate in your Parish life, whether it be a Bible study, the Knights of Columbus, a prayer group. Something. Get involved in the community.

🙂
 
I watched a good video wherein a priest suggested choosing ONE devotion and sticking with it for a season (like Lent or Advent or a calendar month) and then looking back on the season to evaluate whether it aided you spiritually. It makes a lot of sense. Gives a person time to adopt a new habit, to rise above the “learning curve”, as it were.

One thing that he advised strongly not to do was to try a devotion for a couple if days and ditch it and then skip on to another, rinse and repeat.

Give whatever you choose a fair trial.
 
trek17 said:
I watched a good video wherein a priest suggested choosing ONE devotion and sticking with it for a season (like Lent or Advent or a calendar month) and then looking back on the season to evaluate whether it aided you spiritually. It makes a lot of sense. Gives a person time to adopt a new habit, to rise above the “learning curve”, as it were.

One thing that he advised strongly not to do was to try a devotion for a couple if days and ditch it and then skip on to another, rinse and repeat.

Give whatever you choose a fair trial.
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This.’'A good place to start is www.sacredspace.ie

Short, relatively simple meditations with “aids” if you need them.
 
You may just want to start with the Angelus.
The Angelus originated during the time of the Crusades as a prayer for peace and tranquility for France. It is depicted in Millet’s famous painting. That was one of two of his paintings (replicas) my mother had hanging in our dining room while I was growing up beside the Last Supper. We moved much, and my youngest brother saw that us as being home once those pictures were on the wall.

The Angelus is prayed at 6am, noon, and 6pm. It is replaced by the Regina Caeli during Easter time. It would be a fairly simple devotion for a start.

Later you might add the Divine Mercy at 3pm, or the Rosary.
I recently purchased A Book of Marian Prayers off Amazon. I grew up praying the rosary. It suggests beginners should probably only try one or two decades at a time to begin with, concentrating on the readings before starting the vocal prayers. “Many people spread the twenty mysteries over a week, three decades each day, Sunday through Friday, and the remaining two decades on Saturday.”

It only takes 15 minutes a day, 3 chapters a day to read the Bible in a year.

You are right to begin slowly. Think about your prayer life as you would a physical fitness program. If you rush in, you are likely to become frustrated, to find excuses. If however, you begin slowly and build up, it will become a natural part of your day. This is the recommendation of Cursillo.
 
dallas_r said:
I’m new around here and am looking for some devotions that are fairly simple and not too overwhelming. I heard that if I try to do all the devotions at once I’m going to get burned out so I definitely don’t want that to happen. Any answers would be much appreciated, Thank you:D
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With 2000 years of history across numerous different cultures, the Church has definitely stored up a wealth of devotions. 🙂 There aren’t enough hours in the day to do them all.

All the previous suggestions are good. The rosary. The Divine Mercy Chaplet (which uses a rosary, but takes less time to pray). The Liturgy of the Hours (particularly Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer). Eucharistic Adoration is great. Reading the Bible. Of course, you can’t go wrong with daily Mass and frequent Confession.

If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend trying different things. Whatever you try, commit to do it for a week. In that time, you can get more familiar with it and see if it’s helping you.

I like novenas. A novena is a prayer that you pray for 9 days, usually for a specific intention. There are all sorts of novenas to Jesus, Mary, and many, many saints. And after 9 days, you can try another one. 🙂

Pick up a Handbook of Prayers and work your way through praying one or two of them a day for a week or two. Before long, you will have a bunch of good Catholic prayers committed to memory.

And, most importantly, just set aside a block of time (maybe 10 minutes to start with an aim to work up to half an hour) to spend in prayer each day. Be sure to leave time to pray in your own words in addition to the form prayers. This is where Scripture reading is great. You can begin by reading a passage from the Bible and then spend some time just reflecting on it and what it tells you about God and how it applies to your life.

What can get people into trouble is if they keep adding more devotions while still maintaining every devotion they have ever started because they feel guilty for stopping. :o That’s when people get burned out.

God bless!
 
Because it’s the Hour of Our Lord’s Passion, many people set 3pm as their prayer hour.
It is the time that is set for praying the Divine Mercy, a prayer that doesn’t take much time.
As mentioned earlier, it takes 15 minutes a day to read 3 chapters of the Bible, which will allow you to read the entire Bible in the course of one year.
6 am and 6pm are the traditional times for Lauds and Vespers, which are part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the prayer of the Church.
Since you are a new Catholic, I mentioned only the Angelus, which is much simpler and a good start. It too uses the traditional times of 6am, (noon), and 6pm.

There was a priest who gave a talk about the nightly examen using the acronym GRACE.
I need to look for my notes to give a better description than this rudimentary attempt. It’s basically how I use it since I didn’t go to the seminar. Some people do an examination of Conscience. This is different.
Begin with Gratitude. Thank God for your day. It’s a time of Praise and thanksgiving.
I read in a book about the importance of writing down 3 good things to increase optimism. Using a simple steno pad write down 3 things good things. They can be as simple as a good meal or the sunset, or as big as seeing somebody you haven’t seen in years. Gratitude increases optimism which increases opportunities. It’s part of nightly pray.
R=Request for light. How was your day? Good or bad. Resolution for improvement.
A=Action Plan. Filling in the calendar for the next day is part of pray.
C= Contrition. Pray an Act of Contrition.
E= Exhortation. More praise.

Part of GRACE is normal activities like evening reflection of the day and making plans for the next day become part of prayer. Everything we do, we give to God, instead of prayer being separated from daily life.
 
dallas_r said:
I’m new around here and am looking for some devotions that are fairly simple and not too overwhelming. I heard that if I try to do all the devotions at once I’m going to get burned out so I definitely don’t want that to happen. Any answers would be much appreciated, Thank you:D
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Hi (do you prefer Dallas or R?)

…correct! There’s so much Catholic things out there that your head could spin for days…
what is good about devotions is that you set the rhythm… this comes to us naturally… you pick up Scriptures (that’s my big one) Novenas, prayer books, the Rosary… read the lives of the Saints (one good one is St. Francis of Assisi–I’m partial cause he was one of Mom’s favorite or el Divino Niño Jesús–the Child Jesus); the Novenas usually have several versions (short [prayer card] to long); then there are several versions of the Rosary or Rosary-like Novenas/Prayers; then there are the specific patron Saints–each has a prayer or novena that speaks to their succor of the needy, poor, sick, pregnant…

…I tell you, it’s like walking into a candy store: ‘ah, the flavors… the colors…’

Yet, as with any full course meal… slow and steady; God always knows where our heart is so we don’t have to rush into over committing in an attempt to please Him–of course, that’s not to suggest to refrain from commitment to God.

PM me with your special request and I’ll hunt down the prayer/novena for you.

Maran atha!

Angel
 
I have my set standards that I’m attached to, but I also like to cycle through different sets of prayers on a seasonal (Advent, Lent, Christmas, Easter, etc) or monthly basis.

For example-- May is for Mary, so we might be more regular in saying our rosary. July was for the Precious Blood, so we would do our Chaplet of the Precious Blood. November is for souls in Purgatory, so you’d be more careful do something like that then.

I liked having my Raccolta, and I’d get four or five stickynotes, and use them to mark pages. I might keep that for a week, or maybe a month, but I’d shuffle my stickynotes around and find new prayers to mark. That way, I wouldn’t feel bad about “dropping” a particular prayer from my routine, but I also wouldn’t overwhelm myself by trying to do too many— and doing what I did out of habit, rather than putting my heart into it.
 
jcrichton said:
Hi (do you prefer Dallas or R?)

…correct! There’s so much Catholic things out there that your head could spin for days…
what is good about devotions is that you set the rhythm… this comes to us naturally… you pick up Scriptures (that’s my big one) Novenas, prayer books, the Rosary… read the lives of the Saints (one good one is St. Francis of Assisi–I’m partial cause he was one of Mom’s favorite or el Divino Niño Jesús–the Child Jesus); the Novenas usually have several versions (short [prayer card] to long); then there are several versions of the Rosary or Rosary-like Novenas/Prayers; then there are the specific patron Saints–each has a prayer or novena that speaks to their succor of the needy, poor, sick, pregnant…

…I tell you, it’s like walking into a candy store: ‘ah, the flavors… the colors…’

Yet, as with any full course meal… slow and steady; God always knows where our heart is so we don’t have to rush into over committing in an attempt to please Him–of course, that’s not to suggest to refrain from commitment to God.

PM me with your special request and I’ll hunt down the prayer/novena for you.

Maran atha!

Angel
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Thank you for your advice and activity on my threads!😃 I found a novena I think I like called the novena to the Holy Spirit.

praymorenovenas.com/novena-to-the-holy-spirit/

I think I like this Novena because I have a small interest in the Holy Spirit which I feel like will grow. The only request I have is for me to be close to God and have strong faith. Thank you for all the help:thumbsup:

By the way, Dallas is fine
 
St. Therese once opined that there were so many beautiful prayers/devotions in Catholicism that it gave her a headache! As others have mentioned, I’d stick with a couple tried-and-true ones, for starts.Not every devotion appeals to every person, so you’ll have to see what suits you. As a life long Catholic, I’m a big fan of: daily Mass, rosary, Divine Mercy chaplet, morning/evening Liturgy of the Hours, and occasion novenas when I have special needs. I also have a strong devotion to St.Joseph–I think his “time” is now coming!
 
3 Hail Mary’s in the morning and again before bed for purity. You say "For purity of mind - Hail Mary…, then say "For purity of heart - Hail Mary…, and then say "For purity of body - Hail Mary… Followed by “Holy Mary my Mother, preserve me from mortal this day (or say night when before bed) and the rest of my life. Amen.”

This is one of the first “devotions” I started when I came back to the church and I still have this practice. I’ve seen many graces from it. Only takes 2 minutes tops, I think it’s a great place to start.
 
dallas_r said:
Thank you for your advice and activity on my threads!😃 I found a novena I think I like called the novena to the Holy Spirit.

praymorenovenas.com/novena-to-the-holy-spirit/

I think I like this Novena because I have a small interest in the Holy Spirit which I feel like will grow. The only request I have is for me to be close to God and have strong faith. Thank you for all the help:thumbsup:

By the way, Dallas is fine
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Hi, Dallas!

Excellent!

This is a wonderful Novena because (I gave it a quick glance) it offers you 9 points of Contemplative Prayer/Goals.

May the Holy Spirit Fill your Heart, Mind, and Spirit with God’s Love and Knowledge.

Maran atha!

Angel
 
You should simply find a devotion that works for you. Take your time, there is no hurry. I found that when I try to do too much, I ended giving up.
In the meantime you could go to daily mass sometimes. You could pray for those you know. I would say these are good for any Catholic.
 
The Catholic Grout List
Converts and reverts to the faith are often unaware of the little things that good cradle Catholics “absorb” as children that make day-to-day Catholic living run smoother. While not as essential to the Faith as doctrinal belief and sacramental participation, these “little things” are the grout that binds the mosaic of Catholic living in place, giving it context and texture.
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I didn’t absorb most of these things even though I’m a cradle Catholic and went to Catholic school for six years, but I embraced most of these as an adult.

ETA:
  1. When you walk or drive by a Catholic Church, even if you’re running late, stop. Walk in. Pray for someone. Tell Jesus you love him. Your visit doesn’t have to last more than a few seconds. If the door is locked, genuflect and pray.
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One of the most beautiful witnesses to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament I ever saw was seeing a man standing outside of the parish with his hand touching the wall. I realized that the tabernacle was just inside of that wall.The church was locked and that was as close as the guy could get.
 
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