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Author Topic: "Other" devotions  (Read 1136 times)

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Offline Stephen Francis

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"Other" devotions
« on: September 23, 2013, 08:56:17 AM »
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  • I've seen the Cord of St. Francis and various other cords, medals, scapulars, badges, etc offered for sale in Catholic shops and at shrines and so on.

    Do any of the members here wear any of these other (probably less-well-known, but I'm not a cradle Catholic so I can't be sure) sacramentals/devotional items?

    Do any members here belong to a Society, Sodality, Association or other formal or informal group dedicated to the veneration of a particular saint that might not be one of the "big ones" that everyone knows these days?

    I'm curious to know whether any traditional devotional/sacramental practices that are less familiar to modern Newchurchers or NeoCaths are still in use among Catholics.

    What fascinates me is the continuing superstitious/idolatrous attraction many so-called Catholics (usually old ladies in my experience) have to the most "famous"/well-known saints and especially Our Lady. They talk about her as if she were Deity. I've heard her referred to as "the light of the world"; I've heard other attributions made to her that rightly belong to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Similarly, of course, there's the "St. Anthony helps me find my car keys" thing. I know he is invoked when important things are missing, etc, but I'm reading an 80-year-old book about St. Anthony, and believe me, this is no "Dear St. Anthony, please come down" jingle.

    It surprises me how shallow some people's notions of these holy men and women really are.

    That's why I want to know about these less-common devotions to saints and the sacramentals associated with them; these are probably saints who are venerated for their holiness and heroic charity, not just because they are treated like fairy-godparents.

    St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us.

    St. Fiacre, pray for us.

    Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

    Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
    This evil of heresy spreads itself. The doctrines of godliness are overturned; the rules of the Church are in confusion; the ambition of the unprincipled seizes upon places of authority; and the chief seat [the Papacy] is now openly proposed as a rewar


    Offline Viva Cristo Rey

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    « Reply #1 on: September 23, 2013, 09:07:13 AM »
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  • I tried pm. You back but had problems.   Yes I will look out if I find anything

    May God bless you and keep you


    Offline Viva Cristo Rey

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    « Reply #2 on: September 23, 2013, 09:11:36 AM »
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  • Yes. I wear the brown scapular, miraculous medal, and St Benedict crucifix.  
    I have Third order Cord.  

    May God bless you and keep you

    Offline Viva Cristo Rey

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    « Reply #3 on: September 23, 2013, 09:18:19 AM »
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  • It's not the people's fault.  It is the priests fault for not correcting them.

    Where I'm from its Padre Pio this and that.  Our Lady of Pompeii was changed to Padre Pio parish which goes against Padre Pio.  On past article in Catholic paper they had dinner and festival in honor of Padre Pio and it showed old lady in mini skirt.  And we all know what Padre Pio would have thought of that.  

    May God bless you and keep you

    Offline Hobbledehoy

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    « Reply #4 on: September 23, 2013, 09:18:55 AM »
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  • Quote from: Stephen Francis
    What fascinates me is the continuing superstitious/idolatrous attraction many so-called Catholics (usually old ladies in my experience) have to the most "famous"/well-known saints and especially Our Lady. They talk about her as if she were Deity. I've heard her referred to as "the light of the world"; I've heard other attributions made to her that rightly belong to Our Lord Jesus Christ.


    I understand what you are saying here, because your further remarks illustrate the point, but you have to express yourself very prudently when saying such things as "continuing superstitious/idolatrous attraction many so-called Catholics (usually old ladies in my experience) have to the most 'famous'/well-known saints and especially Our Lady." This is because the enemies of Holy Mother Church, especially the Jansenists who had the gall to attack St. Alphonsus as a supposed innovator for his Glories of Mary (the same charge was laid against St. Louis-Marie and many other Saints), have verbalized their stances in a very similar manner. The Psalter of St. Bonaventure has also been the favorite target of Protestant heretics and Jansenists.

    All Catholics know Our Lady is a creature, infinitely inferior to Our Lord Who is the Sole-Begotten of the Eternal Father, co-equal and co-eternal to Him in the unity of the Holy Ghost, the one, true, living God. Our Lady knew this better than anyone and her beautiful Canticle recorded by St. Luke expresses the humility, self-abasement and gratitude that is concomitant with such knowledge. However, together with St. Elizabeth at the Visitation, we praise Our Lady precisely because all her excellence comes from the Lord God who fore-chose her as the Virgin Mother of His Son.

    Of Mary there is never enough, and no praise of her is excessive in the mouths of right-believing Catholics because it rebounds to the greater glory of her Divine Son.

    Together with the works of St. Louis-Marie and St. Alphonsus, the works of Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda show how this is the case:

    http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/Notice-on-the-Works-of-Ven-Mary-of-Jesus-of-Agreda
    Please ignore all that I have written regarding sedevacantism.


    Offline jen51

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    « Reply #5 on: September 23, 2013, 09:20:31 AM »
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  • Just recently I started wearing St. Philomena's cord. Here is some information on it.

    http://www.saintphilomena.com/thesaint.htm

    I wear it for protection of body and soul, and especially to gain her intercession to attain for me perfect chastity for my state in life.

    Come to think of it, you have some young daughters, right? This would be a wonderful devotion for them. If I am blessed with children, I will encourage them in this devotion.

    I also wear the brown scapular.
    Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.
    ~James 1:27

    Offline Hobbledehoy

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    « Reply #6 on: September 23, 2013, 09:25:18 AM »
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  • Quote
    It surprises me how shallow some people's notions of these holy men and women really are.

    That's why I want to know about these less-common devotions to saints and the sacramentals associated with them; these are probably saints who are venerated for their holiness and heroic charity, not just because they are treated like fairy-godparents.


    This is what I alluded to when I wrote about how "I understand what you are saying here, because your further remarks illustrate the point."

    The notion of the interior has been derogated so much in our days, so it is not surprising that when modern people do search for devotions they forget what devotion really is: that is, a giving over of one's self over to God, having already done so through the vows of Baptism. Therefore, their spirituality is superficial and frivolous.

    I encourage everyone to study the spiritual masters such as St. Alphonsus, St. Louis-Marie, St. Fracis de Sales, Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Grou, Rev. Fr. Tanquerey, &c.
    Please ignore all that I have written regarding sedevacantism.

    Offline Hobbledehoy

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    « Reply #7 on: September 23, 2013, 10:16:37 AM »
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  • Quote from: Stephen Francis
    Similarly, of course, there's the "St. Anthony helps me find my car keys" thing. I know he is invoked when important things are missing, etc, but I'm reading an 80-year-old book about St. Anthony, and believe me, this is no "Dear St. Anthony, please come down" jingle.


    Actually, I found a footnote to a Litany of St. Anthony in Kyrie Eleison: Two Hundred Litanies with Historico-Liturgical Introduction and Notes by Rev. Fr. Benjamin Francis Musser, O.F.M. (Westminster, MD: The Newman Bookshop, 1944) that echoes what you are saying here but he does so with prudence, though one may see he obviously frustrated at the sentimentalization and frivolity that lamentably accompanies devotion to St. Anthony in many cases:


    Please ignore all that I have written regarding sedevacantism.


    Offline poche

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    « Reply #8 on: September 25, 2013, 02:08:14 AM »
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  • How about the Holy Childhood Society, They are celebrating 25 years in Sri Lanka;
    A group which aims to foster a missionary spirit among children celebrated the 25th anniversary of its establishment in the Archdiocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a Mass said Sept. 7.

    The Mass was held at St. Joseph's College, a primary and secondary school located in the Sri Lankan capital.

    “It’s an important event that coincides with the Year of Faith, which impresses upon us the importance of rediscovering our faith mission, in our life and our diocese,” Father Sunil De Silva, parish priest of St. Mary’s in Colombo's Bambalapitiya neighborhood, told CNA Sept. 18.

    While the Holy Childhood Society had been in Sri Lanka for over 60 years, it was Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, presently the Archbishop of Colombo, who first introduced it to the diocese when he was a priest there, in 1988.

    In his speech, Cardinal Ranjith invited the children to be the “torchbearers of faith… to be the little lamps of faith in the world.”

    Thousands of children participated in the Mass, which was concelebrated by two of Colombo's auxiliary bishops, Maxwell Silva and Lionel Fernando, as well as the archdiocese's Holy Childhood Society director, Fr. Kithsiri Thirimanne, and the organization's national director, Fr. Reginald Saparamadu.

    Bishop Silva, addressing the children in his homily, said that “as the children of the Holy Childhood Society, you have been commissioned with a special mission of learning the Word of God deeply, living what you learn, and sharing it and bearing witness to the Word in all of life's circuмstances.”

    “It is for this purpose that God has called you and commissioned you. If you continue to bear witness to your Christian life and God's love in your own way and capacity, surely you will make a difference in the world."

    The Holy Childhood Society was founded in 1843 by Bishop Charles Forbin-Janson of Nancy, in France, to awaken in every Catholic child a strong sense of commitment to Christ and a zeal for the spread of the Good News everywhere by deepening one’s faith, living it faithfully, and sharing it joyfully.

    Today it functions in many dioceses, under the Pontifical Mission Societies office of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

    The group helps educators to rouse in children a universal missionary conscience; to move them to share their faith and material means, especially with the children of the neediest dioceses; and promotes missionary vocations.

    “It assists the Catholic children in Sri Lanka towards a deeper and stronger experience of their faith, through a spiritual communion with Christ, and awakens a stronger sense of mission in them, enabling them to proclaim their faith boldly and authentically,” Fr. Sunil said.

    Sri Lanka is a primarily Buddhist country; six percent of the population is Catholic. Most Sri Lankan Christians are found on the western coast of the island, where Colombo is located. In the Colombo archdiocese, roughly 12 percent of the population is Catholic.

    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy-childhood-society-celebrates-25-years-in-sri-lanka/