Which devotions do you practice?

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Hermione

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I’m in RCIA and am trying to figure out what to do as a Catholic.

I’ve heard about the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Liturgy of the Hours, the first-Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, the first-Saturday to the Immaculate Heart, etc.

To say the least, I am very confused! How do these devotions fit into your lives?
 
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Hermione:
I’m in RCIA and am trying to figure out what to do as a Catholic.

I’ve heard about the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Liturgy of the Hours, the first-Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, the first-Saturday to the Immaculate Heart, etc.

To say the least, I am very confused! How do these devotions fit into your lives?
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I am a single mom of 2 boys. I have no one else as babysitting backup - just me. So I am busy. I recently realized that as busy as you are, give abundant time to God and He will give back to you even more. Like the fish and loaves story - He multiplies your time in amazing ways. It really is a miracle.

I do all of those devotions except Liturgy of the Hours. Plus I attend daily mass at my lunch hour, go to daily Adoration at night. I take my boys with me. I do the Stations of the Cross while at Adoration. I do the daily rosary and try to be always in thoughtful prayer when I drive, walk or exercise. I take 1/2 hour when I wake for quiet prayer before the kids get up. Confession monthly, too.

WHY? Because I am sinfully spiritually sick and hurting and need a hospital. A little dose of this would not help me - so I went all out and did what I needed to to get healthy.

What have I given up? A few friends, TV, bad relationships, a few bad habits. I miss none of it. I am really a new person.

What have I gained? Peace, peace, peace and 2 happy children.

Now, only you can decide what YOU want to fit into your day as none of these devotions are required.

God will give back abundantly. You get back what you put in - just as anything in life. What you are shooting for is a personal relationship with Jesus and His Mother. Like all relationships, time is required for a healthy fulfilling relationship.
 
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jrabs:
I am a single mom of 2 boys. I have no one else as babysitting backup - just me. So I am busy. I recently realized that as busy as you are, give abundant time to God and He will give back to you even more. Like the fish and loaves story - He multiplies your time in amazing ways. It really is a miracle.

I do all of those devotions except Liturgy of the Hours. Plus I attend daily mass at my lunch hour, go to daily Adoration at night. I take my boys with me. I do the Stations of the Cross while at Adoration. I do the daily rosary and try to be always in thoughtful prayer when I drive, walk or exercise. I take 1/2 hour when I wake for quiet prayer before the kids get up. Confession monthly, too.

WHY? Because I am sinfully spiritually sick and hurting and need a hospital. A little dose of this would not help me - so I went all out and did what I needed to to get healthy.

What have I given up? A few friends, TV, bad relationships, a few bad habits. I miss none of it. I am really a new person.

What have I gained? Peace, peace, peace and 2 happy children.

Now, only you can decide what YOU want to fit into your day as none of these devotions are required.

God will give back abundantly. You get back what you put in - just as anything in life. What you are shooting for is a personal relationship with Jesus and His Mother. Like all relationships, time is required for a healthy fulfilling relationship.
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Wow! 🙂 I am so impressed with what you are doing!!!

Reading your post was very inspiring, because I often find myself too lazy to pray long prayers and resentful of the time it makes me give up. 😦

I need a spiritual hospital too, and could learn a lot from you.

Thanks for your response! 🙂
 
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Hermione:
I’m in RCIA and am trying to figure out what to do as a Catholic.

I’ve heard about the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Liturgy of the Hours, the first-Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, the first-Saturday to the Immaculate Heart, etc.

To say the least, I am very confused! How do these devotions fit into your lives?
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Hi Hermione,
Perhaps you could try to become affiliated with some organisation / apostolate in the Church that offers a spirituality you find acceptable. They should offer you a spiritual director too. Who will guide you in your spiritual life. I see a priest of Opus Dei for spiritual direction and find their spirituality suits me. But there are many others.
Other yhan that you could just try saying 5 decades of the Rosary every day. This prayer has been the most commended to the faithful by the Popes for centuries. It’s the greatest prayer besides the Mass.
You don’t need to say lots of prayers to please God. You can also turn your work, family duties, social activities etc into prayer and offer this to God. This is how you can pray 24 hrs/day. Do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. Sanctify them and offer them up to God. Then even your sleep and rest will be turned into prayer.
I advise you not to become a slave to devotions etc, but be a slave to God. To do His will. If you cannot find a good spiritual director pray to the Holy Spirit to guide you.
I am not saying you should not say many prayers. But you need to be careful not to try to run before you can crawl. You will fall down in a heap. Thats where a good spiritual director can be handy. Also ask advice in confession. He can help too.
 
I advise those in my confirmation and RCIA classes to start small, and be faithful in small ways, rather than adopting a multiplicity of devotions, and failing to complete a program you have set for yourself. Begin by praying morning and evening prayers, grace for meals, and night prayer just before falling asleep. Prayer with your family is doubly blest, but give yourself a little time to pray alone as well. Find time to read scripture each day. the daily lectionary readings, or just the gospel, are perfect, and give yourself a little time to meditate on what you have read. 20 minutes is a good rule of thumb for this.

If you are moved to do a little more, begin with a decade of the rosary, gradually moving up to a 5-decade rosary each day. some do it while taking their daily walk, some in the car with a CD, some with friends in a prayer group, some right before bedtime. This is the perfect family prayer.

Give yourself a long time to develop a habit of prayer, which is more important than the type and quantity of prayer. By habit I mean the practice of setting aside time during the day, especially morning and evening, that belongs to God and you for conversation. Even if it is only 5 minutes, give it to God.
 
John Russell Jr:
I advise you not to become a slave to devotions etc, but be a slave to God.
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This is very good advice and very much in keeping with the theme of your post about praying always. Brother Lawrence in his little book “Practicing The Presence Of God” said much the same thing.

Sometimes I think we forget that devotions are simply the means to the end . . . not the end itself. The “end” is to know God’s presence. And the easiest way I know to do that is to pray the Jesus prayer (or simply invoke his name) repeatedly throughout the day . . . in all times and circumstances.

That having been said, I’m not in anyway trying to minimize the importance of any of the devotions listed in this thread . . . just don’t loose sight of the real “end.”
 
tell you what… say at least one Rosary per day… every day, and you will be well on your way to the foot of the cross… 👍
 
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puzzleannie:
I advise those in my confirmation and RCIA classes to start small, and be faithful in small ways, rather than adopting a multiplicity of devotions, and failing to complete a program you have set for yourself. Begin by praying morning and evening prayers, grace for meals, and night prayer just before falling asleep. Prayer with your family is doubly blest, but give yourself a little time to pray alone as well. Find time to read scripture each day. the daily lectionary readings, or just the gospel, are perfect, and give yourself a little time to meditate on what you have read. 20 minutes is a good rule of thumb for this.

If you are moved to do a little more, begin with a decade of the rosary, gradually moving up to a 5-decade rosary each day. some do it while taking their daily walk, some in the car with a CD, some with friends in a prayer group, some right before bedtime. This is the perfect family prayer.

Give yourself a long time to develop a habit of prayer, which is more important than the type and quantity of prayer. By habit I mean the practice of setting aside time during the day, especially morning and evening, that belongs to God and you for conversation. Even if it is only 5 minutes, give it to God.
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Excellent advice!

For Example: I tend to bite off more than I can chew, so I’ve been gradually praying the Divine Office. My goal is to pray all of it, but I need to take it slowly.

IMHO, it depends on how you deal with failure. If you beat yourself up for not doing everything you planned like I do, then add things on slowly.

God Bless,

Robert.
 
I generally pray the Liturgy of the Hours. I get up in the morning and pray the Office of Readings (I skip the Psalms, substitute the reading for the Mass of the day for the biblical reading, followed by the non-biblical reading), then I pray Morning Prayer. Then I pray the Rosary while riding the exercise bike. On the way to work I pray the Stations of the Cross along with EWTN on Sirius Radio. At lunch break I stop by the chapel at the hospital I work at and pray the Angelus. After work before I head for home I pray Evening Prayer.
 
I have some questions for anyone who’d care to answer them. They never tell us practical things like this in RCIA.

(1) When you pray the Liturgy of the Hours do you say it out loud or whisper it or just read it silently or … ?

(2) How do you “pray” the Stations of the Cross? I thought they were plaques on the wall of the Church.

(3) Do you memorize prayers? Or just read them out of a book?
 
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Hermione:
I’m in RCIA and am trying to figure out what to do as a Catholic.

I’ve heard about the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Liturgy of the Hours, the first-Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, the first-Saturday to the Immaculate Heart, etc.

To say the least, I am very confused! How do these devotions fit into your lives?
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That does seem to be a big list. I pray the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet. I also pray from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (though I want to start the office of the hours again, when I can afford the books). Getting rid of TV and video games helped free quite a bit of my time.

I know TV and video games can be harmless fun, but for me I simply used them to the point of addiction.😦 As I read earlier in this thread, Catholic Radio can be helpful since you can pray the devotions along with the program. Tapes and/or cds can help in this area too.

Just pray the devotions the Holy Spirit guides you to, it does not have to be all of them. Also, your parish may offer some devotions, like mine will say the “stations of the cross” once a week during lent.
 
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buzzcut:
I have some questions for anyone who’d care to answer them. They never tell us practical things like this in RCIA.

(1) When you pray the Liturgy of the Hours do you say it out loud or whisper it or just read it silently or … ?

(3) Do you memorize prayers? Or just read them out of a book?
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My husband says the Hours should be sung. I’ve seen the priest at church praying the Hours in his head. I’m curious to know the answer as well. I say them in my head, sing the the hymns mostly but I read them out loud when I’m praying them with a family member.

I read my prayers out of a book until I have them memorized. I have a hard time memorizing the Apostle’s Creed. Have to read out of the book every time I say the rosary.

I have some favorite prayers that I’m starting to put to memory.

Peace,
Jen
 
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buzzcut:
I have some questions for anyone who’d care to answer them. They never tell us practical things like this in RCIA.

(1) When you pray the Liturgy of the Hours do you say it out loud or whisper it or just read it silently or … ?

(2) How do you “pray” the Stations of the Cross? I thought they were plaques on the wall of the Church.

(3) Do you memorize prayers? Or just read them out of a book?
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they are supposed to answer these questions in RCIA, ask your catechist to allow 10-15 minutes at the beginning or end of class for questions.

Liturgy of the Hours goes much better now that I say it out loud in a normal speaking voice (when I am alone or with my Oblate buds). If I read it silently I get easily distracted. I usually chant at least one of the psalms to practice the chant mode. If the full LOTH is too much at the moment, Magnificat is a great little booklet with a shorter morning and evening prayer, as well as the Mass readings for each day.

the stations of the cross are indeed those plaques in the church. Each one represents a “station” or event of Christs passion, death and burial on Good Friday. Originally they were Churches in and around Jerusalem where each event was commemorated, and pilgrims went around them to pray in Lent. When the Holy Land was taken over by Moslems, and pilgrims could no longer go there, the custom (some say introduced by St Francis) of putting up pictures in the churches, or outdoors, to represent the stations, came into being. You walk from one to the next, read from a booklet for the purpose if you have it, or say “We adore you O Christ and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world” with an Our Father, Hail Mary and glory Be.

the best way to memorize the more common prayers (the ones I just listed) is to pray them, not to try to memorize like the times tables.
 
I read the Morning Prayer, Everning Prayer and Office Of Readings, in the Liturgy Of The Hours quietly every day. I also say the Legion Of Mary Prayer, with the Rosary daily, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Lady Of Sorrows Devotion, St Michael Chaplet, and Holy Spirit Chaplet.

:blessyou:
Annie
 
Hi, Jenlyn and Puzzleannie, thanks for your answers. I don’t want to complain about the RCIA program because I’m very glad to have it and I know the people involved put a lot of time and effort into organizing it. I just wish they included more of the practicalities. For example they told us that everyone should have a Spiritual Director. That’s good information. But then we don’t get any instructions on how to find a SD, how often to meet, how to prepare for a meeting, and so on. So I’m also glad that forums such as this exist, and that you both are kind enough to answer questions.
 
jrabs, I just want to agree with AnnieD. What a beautiful post. Thank you.
 
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jrabs, I just want to agree with AnnieD. What a beautiful post. Thank you.
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Jrabs I am agreeing too. You have inspired me so much today, and I really needed that.
 
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