Private Revelation
In my various wanderings I have, on occasion, come across a certain breed of Catholic who is extreeeeeemely attached to stuff like the Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, as well as medals and other specific prayers and devotions, all of which leave me feeling rather…meh.
Now, I’m not rubbishing any of these devotions, not at all. In fact, some of them eventually won me over and now feature significantly in my spiritual life, such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet. However, I’ve often found the rather overzealous promotion of some of these devotions to be rather off-putting.
I think what I have found unsettling is the unspoken (although sometimes spoken!) assertion that such-and-such a devotion IS Catholicism, or at least a fundamental part of it. My expressions of disinterest, therefore, have been taken almost as acts of apostasy! How could any self-respecting Catholic NOT be absolutely enthralled by this devotion?!
So why am I bringing this up? Well, this morning I was clearing out some of my old browser bookmarks and came across a great article by Mark Shea where he addressed this very question and gave some superb advice:
“[T]he good news is that the Church binds you to none of it… If it helps your devotion to Christ, then great. If not, or if it gives you trouble, just stick with the public revelation [i.e. the official, binding teaching of the Church] and it will be fine.” – Mark Shea
You can read the full article here:
What do you think? Are there any devotions which you follow which you’ve found helpful? Or have you ever been put off by someone’s extremely zealous promotion of one?