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?
I find it off putting to find photo-copied novenas to saints like St. Jude in the pews of church with the instructions to pray this or that for a certain number of days and a miracle will happen. These to me a superstitious and just like an e-mail that says you must forward to at least 10 people or something bad will happen. I was told many years ago by a priest that these are like chain letters and if we find them in the church we should either bring them to the parish office of destroy them. I choose the former. I believe that the perscribed prayers of the church are sufficient and novenas are beautiful but to say that you will receive what you have asked for in a certain time is hogwash.
I’m very leerie (did I spell that properly?) of things that the Church has not officially approved, personally, and it’s often BECAUSE of the people I meet who are promoting it. My problem with the super zealous and sometimes a slight hysterical promotion of this or that thing, devotion, place, is that often these people seem LESS free, LESS at peace than because they are so into the assurance of miracles if you do this or that and it seems to take over their rational selves. I might be naturally skeptical, but I do agree that it’s also frustrating to feel judged if your Catholicism doesn’t include this of that. God draws us to Himself and His mother through different devotions at different times, and I love that. Not a fan of feeling pushed into anything (I don’t know anyone who is actually)