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Post by Dr. Robert Gotcher on Jul 1, 2021 16:52:01 GMT
What are trivial devotions?
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Post by Kevin Doll on Jun 26, 2023 22:03:47 GMT
When looking at trivial devotions, I think of one night in the parlor when my son came home from college and he asked to say a rosary. I agreed that would be a fine thing to do while we were milking. I asked him to lead. He went so fast I couldn't even understand the words that he was saying. I know the Blessed mother will take whatever she can get. If it is 10 Hail Mary's or 53 but when you say it so fast I don't think that is a true devotion to the Rosary. When we do other devotions in church, like Divine Mercy chaplet, not just saying the words, but meaning the words is the difference between devotion and trivial devotion. Many things in this world we do without thinking or do just because everyone is doing it makes what you just a little less important. In Mark 12:41-44 when Jesus told the disciples that the woman that gave her last 2 coins showed true devotion to God, compared to the others that just gave from their wealth. That is where I see true devotion and trivial devotion in the Bible. True devotion is from the heart and for the Love of God. Trivial devotion is for yourself and not truly for God.
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Post by spaeth09 on Jun 27, 2023 20:56:13 GMT
I agreed with Kevin. A trivial devotion is something that done just to say you did it! This is a form of pride that centers on the self and not on God. In order to avoid this type of thing, I need to remember to think of specific intentions so as to focus my mind of someone other than myself. Now, its not to say that praying for personal strength in order to overcome concupiscence is bad either, but the end needs be present in my mind in order to avoid trivial devotion. I think of Fr. Rocky's Rosary on Relevant Radio at 7:00 PM Central every night. He always takes prayer requests and asks prayers to hold these requests in their mind before each decade of the Rosary. This is a great devotional practice. I find myself cringing sometimes when people call in and have really long elaborate stories to tell, but I know that this is all part of listening to others so that you can pray for them and their intentions. It is streamed live every night at the address below. relevantradio.com/listen/our-shows/family-rosary-across-america/Even the Liturgy of the Hours can get to be a trivial devotion at times if said without meaning. When I feel I am getting lax in my prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, I tend to think of people I know in the church that could use my prayers right now, and I offer my evening or morning prayer for them. I say Night prayer as well, and Friday night is always Psalm 88 and is a very depressing Psalm. I try to think of someone who may feel depressed this Friday night and offer my prayer to them. It keeps prayer from becoming trivial as we unite our prayers and sufferings through Christ to others. |
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Post by Chris Lauterbach on Jun 28, 2023 23:45:45 GMT
I think we start to trivialize devotions when we don't know what else to say or do, especially in the face of tragedy. Whenever we see something horrible happen, whether a mass shooting or other massive tragedy you see people offer "thoughts and prayers". What does that even mean? It almost seems like the thing to say similar to when we offer our condolences to someone when the lost a loved one.
I have found myself in that trap when I first started this path. I have learned that when someone is in trouble you ask their name. I have a little notebook where I write those names. I am certainly not perfect at it but when I pray I read the names. I think we need to make a concerted effort to devote what we are doing to them through direct intention. Say their names. When you say you will pray for someone write it down. Make it a commitment.
Brother Lawrence comes to mind when we talked in our group yesterday about how he devoted everything to God. All that he did was to please God and get closer to Him. I think that trivial devotions create a void between us and God. We are not being genuine. At the end of the day God knows our intentions. Are we merely gesturing, or do we really mean it?
When you pray the Rosary during Adoration, are you actually praying or just filling time because others do it? When we pray before a meal, do we do it because we have to, or are expected to? Are we just checking another box because we have to fulfill someone's expectation? Especially in our discernment, are we doing what we do because it is expected. I am reminded of Matthew 6:16-18 "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance so they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you". Make it count and do it in silence. Then it moves away from the trivial.
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Post by John Schroeder on Jul 6, 2023 22:53:44 GMT
I read Kevin's post regarding trivial devotions and tend to think similarly, although I'll reference a different bible verse to make my point along with a real situation. Last summer, I and around 30 people from St. Jerome's parish gathered at our village green square at the corner of Main Street and Wisconsin Avenue to begin a public square rosary on Saturday morning. A gentleman pulled up on his bicycle pulled up and began asking us why Catholics pray in public when there's a 'clear prohibition' against it in the scriptures. He used the Bible verse from Mt 6:5-6 that says "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may seen by men... But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to pray to your Father who is in secret..." He asked, sincerely I might add, why we would violate such a direct statement by the Lord? At the time some parish members either refrained from responding or prayed an Our Father for him. I, noticing his sincerity, responded by telling him we were praying in reparation for all the sins of mankind, praying for an end to abortion, praying for peace in our country and the world. But I also stated that I didn't have a direct answer for him and that I would be willing to discuss it later after I got him an answer.
I can only hope that the gentleman was getting at not making prayer 'trivial' in the eyes of God (I did meet him later along with a deacon from his church to discuss what his bible passage meant, but the deacon spoke 95% of the time with all kinds of bible verses about coming to the true faith at their nondenominational bible church! What a waste of time!). But the Bible verse he quoted does get at the intent in someone's heart when they go to pray ("that they may seen by men"). Any of our prayers or rosary's become trivial, when doing them just to get them done like a honey-do list, checking them off one at a time, when we're not having that conversation with God in the 'room of our heart'. The rosary and the scripture passage asks us to open our heart to hear God speaking, to have a heart-to-heart discussion with God.
Prayer in the public forum should not be frowned upon either but welcomed especially when a pluralistic group of people come together to pray for example at a Memorial Day celebration for all the fallen who gave their lives for our country. There's nothing trivial or ostentatious about that type of gathering. As a matter of fact, the public rosary or Memorial Day public prayer is definitely a way to make yourself not look good in public, as so many have left their faith, resorting to protestantism, atheism or paganism (golf, recreation, entertainment non-stop on Sundays...), as proven by our friend on the bicycle. He thought we were sinning when we were sincere in our hearts praying for ourselves and others.
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