13. Marian Devotions & Other Devotions

13. Lineamenta on Marian Devotion and Other Devotions

MARIAN DEVOTIONS AND OTHER DEVOTIONS

The search for God, which is a yearning rooted deeply in the human soul, is sometimes expressed in a particular form of piety among common people called popular devotions. They are called “popular” because they originated from the people at a certain time and in a given culture and so loved and cherished by the people that they become widespread and are more practiced by them than the official liturgy of the Church (Bernhard Raas, SVD, Popular Devotions [Manila: Divine Word Publications, 1992], p.13). “Devotions”, from Latin devotio meaning consecration, surrender or dedication to perform all for God or anybody who is object of one’s desire, add life to the otherwise stale formality of the official traditional liturgy. A great number of these popular devotions have long and glorious history with them, such that the Church has considered them as veritable helps in one’s sanctification and in building Christian communities. Vatican II commended them to be practiced in proper context and in accord with the existing norms and guidelines of the Church. “Popular devotions of the Christian people are warmly commended, provided they accord with the laws and norms of the Church” (Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], 13). The liturgy, however, takes precedence over popular devotions. “These devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since the liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them” (Ibid., 13).
In the Diocese of San Carlos, popular devotions are prayers and practices which originate from different circumstances and are promoted by some groups and take the form of novenas and pious practices to the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Blessed Sacrament, Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, particularly St. Vincent Ferrer. Christian values are learned through these devotional practices and the people are lead to God through them. We know Christ is our savior because we have the Friday novenas to the Sacred Heart and prayers to the Lord of the Divine Mercy and we understand His Passion and death through the Stations of the Cross. We venerate Mary as our spiritual Mother because we pray the Rosary, have our Wednesday devotion to our Mother of Perpetual Help, honor her in Flores de Mayo and have our Marian novenas. Popular devotions play an important role in the life of faith of the people (Catechism for Filipino Catholics, 1470-1471).
The factors that contribute to the spread and rise of Marian devotions and other popular devotions are political and historical events and circumstances, private revelations and visions, cold liturgy, and charismatic promoters of devotions. Even if popular devotions are a help in sustaining faith, there are inherent dangers to popular devotions. They can become more important than the liturgy since sentimentalism and subjective external experiences in the practice of popular devotions can give a wrong feeling of security in the presence of the living God and can easily degenerate into superstitious practices and idolatry. They can also be one-sided and can cause people to develop false priorities and values that they can be abused by their promoters for other purposes like moralizing or didactic intentions. There should be a proper way of dealing with popular devotions since they affect a great number of our lay faithful. There will always be a tension between liturgy and popular devotions but liturgy must remain the critical norm for popular devotions since it is superior to any of the popular devotions. That is to say that one must have a positive attitude to popular devotions and learn from them. To deal properly with popular devotions one must know the people’s conditions and their needs and desires. They must have good knowledge about popular devotions and a solid knowledge about the liturgy and a love for it. What matters most is the sincerity one witnesses to his or her faith and the intimacy with God one gains with the practice of piety and devotions.

Questions for small group discussions:
What are the existing popular devotions in your parish? What are the positive elements brought about by the practice of these devotions? What are the negative elements?
How can we shepherd these devotions so that we can harness their great potential for the well being of the parish, the Christian communities and families?