Why has Eucharistic devotion declined?

[TableServant]

The youth groups in the three parishes in our area are all gathering each Monday in Advent for Adoration. They are doing it in what is essentially a modified Evening Prayer.

What an inspiration to see so many youth gathering in worship of the Lord!

 

[mcliffor]

palmas85:

I think that it declined for several reasons. One was a general growing of disbelief in the real presence. A lot of people apparently believed that when you received Holy Communion it was the actual body and blood, but stopped being so if not consumed. Others accepted the Lutheran belief that it is your belief that changes the bread and wine into the body and blood upon consumption, not anything else. Still others assumed Communion was only symbolic. These views were probably the result of the extremely poor or non existant catechisis that has existed in the past forty years or so. Another culprit is a general lack of reverence and respect towards the sacred that has existed since the 60’s at least and maybe longer, Another was pointed out in this forum, that since Christ exists in the congregation there was no need to have adoration, benediction etc. I actually think the last one is particularly important.

The reason, OK, if Christ exists in the congregation, and I’m in the congregation, then Christ is in me, and if he’s in me, we are the same, so I, in essence, am Christ, and so is my neighbor ,so we can worship each other and ourselves.

Now before all my liberal friends start in, sit back and think. I have been accused often of illogical thinking and of making incredible leaps in some of my arguments. Maybe so, but if I could think up something like this, how many others could as well? I doubt that I am the only one. And I bet you dime to a dollar, a lot of people actually feel that way.

Pure and simple. Respect adore and worship each other.

Now recently, say in the past ten years or so, there has been significant growth in the practices of adoration, benediction, public rosaries and devotions etc. Why? Simply put, people are beginning to realize the humanist model that we have been following has serious flaws in it. People are starting to realize that mistakes were made, misinterpretations were made and things need to change to put us back on the right track.

No doubt there are those who view these rituals and practices as being old fashioned and not necessary in todays enlightened times. I’ll also bet you that they are also vehemently opposed to tradition in most respects and generally feel that new is better and old is bad.

Just my opinion.

I completely agree. I’m tired of people telling me my life isn’t Christian because I don’t put the same emphasis on the humanist aspects of the gospel. It’s hard to convince someone that prayer is just as altruistic as social services. I think people desperately want to be a good Catholic and a “good person” as the world would define it at the same time. Adoration, or any devotion for that matter, is wasted time as far as most people are concerned.

 

[Kielbasi]

mcliffor:

I was wondering though why this devotion has practically disapeared. Could it be because this is what liturgical reforms implied and what seminarians were taught? Why have devotions become so unpopular in general? I can’t remember ever having seen a novena or adoration advertised before this one, and I was crushed to see the pastor talk about it the way he did.
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There are a lot of reasons why the eucharistic devotions have declined in popularity.

-In decades past, the faithful lived in the same neighborhood as the church, nowadays, with sprawl, that isn’t nearly as common, most Catholics don’t live within the sounds of the church bells, a trip to church is a get into the car deal.

-Many parishes don’t have resident priests and nuns living on the premises to keep and eye on the property, that wasn’t the case in the past.

-In the past, the faithful ordinarily only received the Sacrament perhaps quarterly or even less frequently, not weekly as in the current era. Eucharistic devotion helped to keep the people’s faith focused.

 

[Elzee]

It’s hard to get a firm statistic I guess, but in my diocese this devotion is on the upswing ( with the exception of my parish, unfortunately). Many churches have Adoration at least once a month, some every Friday.

 

[MarySon]

I bet that the reason why the Eucharistic devotion declined is that people stop believing in Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. For many it is just a simbol and nothing else.
Growing up in Poland we had plenty of opportunities to participate in Eucharistic devotion: Corput Christi feast, First Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Rosary said every day in October, May Marian devotion and June Sacred Heart Devotions. During all these services the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and people paid due reverence to It.
My current parish has a weekly adoration on Wednesdays. The parish I previously attended has a perpetual adoration.

 

[Corki]

mcliffor:

I meant from the pre-VII years, when it was something all parishes had end most people attended.

I was around pre-VII and there is more adoration now and more variety of options, in my opinion.

Pre-VII, the practice in most parishes was to have adoration, often perpetual, in front of the tabernacle. My grandmother called this her assigned time for “a visit”. Now, you are more likely to find adoration in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament and many churches have chapels designed especially for this purpose.

Forty hours devotions seem to be fewer than before but Holy Hours more common. This may be because Benediction directly after Mass is now discouraged while it used to be more common (especially after First Friday Mass, in my own experience).

I am fortunate to live in easy reach of two parishes with “perpetual” Adoration. One of those reposes the Blessed Sacrament for the period of Sat night/Sunday Masses while the other is truly 24/7.

I have lived in several states over the years and always found most churches open for prayer during the day. The only exception was a rural church where the office and rectory were set away from the Church itself and that Church was locked when not used. It would be opened for anyone who requested it, however. It was just a security thing.

 

[mcliffor]

Corki:

I have lived in several states over the years and always found most churches open for prayer during the day. The only exception was a rural church where the office and rectory were set away from the Church itself and that Church was locked when not used. It would be opened for anyone who requested it, however. It was just a security thing.

I live in SE PA, and most Churches seem to be locked when I try to open the door. The Church at Villanova wasn’t locked when I went in, but it took me a LONG time to find where they had hidden the tabernacle that once sat on the main altar and there was no kneeler anywhere near it. I prayed on the floor for a little while before a group of very loud students came in to socialize. I guess that’s what I mean when I say it’s hard to find. A perpetual adoration chapel would be magnificent, but if Villanova won’t even put the tabernacle in a central place, I doubt they’d have a monstrace out either.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

Bad catechesis. Bad examples. Heretical theology.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

mcliffor:

I completely agree. I’m tired of people telling me my life isn’t Christian because I don’t put the same emphasis on the humanist aspects of the gospel. It’s hard to convince someone that prayer is just as altruistic as social services. I think people desperately want to be a good Catholic and a “good person” as the world would define it at the same time. Adoration, or any devotion for that matter, is wasted time as far as most people are concerned.

Hmmmm…it’s important to be precise (as far as one is able) in using language, so what precisely is the “humanistic” aspect of the gospel? I would argue that in terms of the classical definition of humanism, there isn’t one, there’s only a Christian aspect of the Gospel.

Prayer is far more altruistic than social services, if you mean pursuing some quasi-marxist utopia of Hard Rock Candy Mountain, where the streams are made of liqour and cigarettes grow on trees (an old hoboes song). If, however, you mean the Works of Mercy, I shouldn’t be so sure of that. They might, in fact, be seen as prayers in and of themselves. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and Levite who passed the poor and injured Samaritan by on the other side of the road may well have been hurrying off to the Jewish equivalent of Adoration. Our Lord seems not to have thought much of them.

Yes, you’re quite right, what makes a good Catholic and what the world sees as making a good human being are, sadly, two different things. And prayer, before the Most Blessed Sacrament or not, is scarce in our society.

 

[netmilsmom]

My opinion?
People are stupid and don’t want to see that it’s Jesus you are spending time with.
Doesn’t fit in with the modern lifestyle. They are totally ungrateful for the gifts Our Lord has given us. Starting when that first cell divided.