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Elements of a Devotional Life


Living a devotional life which pleases God requires that we have a balance of various elements. This article explores what the ingredients to a God-honoring devotional life are for Catholics and how we should balance these. They are:

It is common for people to emphasize some aspects of the devotional life to the exclusion of other aspects. We are to have a balance of these various elements to truly prosper in God's ways.


Index:    Connected to Catholic Church | Living a Virtuous Life | Charity | Prayer / Meditation | Fellowship | Doctrine / Dogma | Errors


Connected to Catholic Church

The infallible teaching magisterium of the Catholic Church provides the surest way of knowing what it is that God desires for us to do, to believe, and to practice.

God created the church (the Catholic Church) to bless his people. The closer we are to living a life in union with the church and her teachings, the more we will be able to receive God's blessings.

There are various Christian churches and Christian (Protestant) communities that are connected to the Catholic Church in various degrees. The closer we are to the Catholic Chuch, her infallible teachings, her sacraments, and her church hierarchy (pope, bishops, priests, deacons) the closer we are to God.

Some emphasize this to the exclusion of the other elements of a devotional life. Too bad.

Catholics truly receive many blessings from God through the Eucharist (mass, and devotion to the blessed sacrament), confession, and many other Catholic sacraments, teachings, rituals, etc.

Requirements such as that Catholic must attend mass every week and that they must confess their mortal sins once a year are truly blessings for those who believe and obey the commandments of the Catholic Church.

Only the Catholic Church still follows the teaching of Jesus that there is no such thing as divorce.

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Living a Virtuous Life

While some non-Catholic Christians emphasize the importance of behaving in a way pleasing to God, only the Catholic Church considers that our faith life is a salvation issue. Thus, Protestants can teach and preach that we should do such-and-such, but in the end it doesn't affect our salvation as long as we truly believe that Jesus is our savior and Lord, and that He has forgiven us of all our sins.

The Catholic view is that a key way in which we express our faith in God and love of God is through our obedience to God's law and commandments. If we don't change our behavior (repent from our sins), then we are not really saved at all because we don't really have faith at all. Having true faith requires that we change our behavior and turn from sin.

The Catholic Church teaches which behaviors are sinful and which are not. We must study and learn moral theology as taught by the Catholic Church and commit our will to these teachings and dogmas in order to please God. To believe that God merely sees Christ's righteouness insead of our sins is madness.

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Charity

Charity is our expression of our love of God through our love of each other and of those who are in need.

The "Peace Prayer of St. Francis" is a good guide to follow:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

We should actively strive to improve the world in our interactions with others.

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Prayer / Meditation

Non-Catholic Christians (Protestants) typically have a narrow view of prayer and meditation. They usually limit themselves to extemporaneous prayer. Charismatics usually encourage "prayer in the Spirit" such as speaking in tongues and proclaiming the word of God in the Spirit. However, most Protestants de-emphasize repeating or reciting prayers which were composed by others.

Many Protestants read various devotional writings from the Bible or from Christian writers / teachers / preachers. Thus, some might read the Psalms daily, or some might read the Proverbs daily (one chapter per day), or some might choose to read various meditations / devotionals written and published by various people — but the prayers and meditations of those devout Catholics over the centuries of the church are ignored. Protestants rarely read or meditate on the writings of Augustine, Aquinas, or other Catholic Saints.

A sincere and devout devotional life requires that we daily spend time in prayer and meditation. In my opinion, the Catholic Church has the proper view of what this entails. For more info, read Christian Prayer.

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Fellowship

Christians should interact with one another. Many times, "fellowship" meetings consist of discussing sports or politics. True fellowship should inspire us to live a life of faith more diligently.

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Doctrine / Dogma

Correct dogma is essential. Many Christians de-emphasize the importance of dogma. Some claim that the role of the Spirit supercedes the role of dogma. Others have incorrect views of which teachings are dogmatic and which are merely the opinions of man.

Only the teaching magisterium of the Catholic Church has correct, infallible, and true dogma.

Perhaps it is not such a big deal that some (many?) believe things as being true which are not true. There was a time in which the majority of Christians were Arians (Jesus is not deity, but a created being). Did that prevent them from attaining salvation?

While God, in His mercy blesses those who believe in things which are not true, it is preferable that we know true dogma, believe it, and conform our lives to it. God can bless those who believe in error, but it is better if we believe in truth.

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Errors

Non-Catholic Christians think that by discarding the so-called man-made traditions of the Catholic Church and by ignoring church history that they have in some way restored "true" ("New Testament") Christianity. However, in doing so they have ignored the continuity of church history from the early church and have not even considered the "eastern" Orthodox church at all.

Some Catholics emphasize the "church" and her sacraments and rites / rituals / ceremonies to the exclusion of the other elements of Christianity. I call this "churchiness".

Some Catholics (including bishops and priests) seem to think that merely being Catholic is sufficient — that God does not require us to believe the doctrine (including moral teaching) taught by the teaching magisterium of the Catholic Church, nor that we must submit to her rules. This is a tragedy.

Non-Catholic Christians (Protestants) have discarded the Catholic Church, her sacraments, the mass, and the hierarchy of ordained church leaders (popes, bishops, priests, deacons) and in doing so have lost the benefits and blessings which God abundantly provides from these.

In my opinion, the Catholic Church has neglected the importance of fellowship. They seem to think that every Catholic was born Catholic and that all our friends and family are also Catholic. This makes it very difficult and lonely for converts to Catholicism, especially those whose friends were all connected with their non-Catholic church and who now reject them because they have become Catholic. It is cross many Catholics must bear.

Many non-Catholic (Protestant) Christians agree that we should live moral lives but they mistakenly think that their actions have no role in their salvation.

Many non-Catholic (Protestant) Christians have rejected the richness of Catholic prayer, mediation and devotion and prefer to limit their devotional life to improvisational prayer and the reading of Protestant devotional materials. The devotional and mystical life of a Catholic Christian is, in my opinion, one of the many benefits the Catholic Church provides to her members. Many Catholic Saints contributed to this wealth of Catholic devotional teaching and exsperience.

Many non-Catholic (Protestant) Christians have a strong emphasis on charity, evangelism, and serving the poor. This is commendable except that in some (many?) cases anti-Catholic teaching accompanies these efforts.

Non-Catholic (Protestant) Christians are missing-out on the sacramants of the Catholic Church. Too bad.

Many non-Catholic (Protestant) Christians have incorrect moral teaching. For example, they seem to think that, even though the slightest sin offends God, that He readily forgives all sins we commit without us even needing to ask or beg for forgiveness because, once saved, the sinlessness of Jesus "covers" our sins. The result of this is that there is not a very strong emphasis to live sin-free lives nor the knowledge of how to do so. Examples of mortal sins (sins resulting in loss of salvation) which many Protestants think are not salvation issues:

Yet the Catholic Church teaches that these are mortal sins and that we lose our salvation by practicing these.

Some Catholics emphasize their devotion to various Saints and the various Catholic devotions and de-emphasize their relationship with Jesus. Their religious practice is superstitious and rule-based rather than faith-based. However, I should note that some Protestants who attempt to judge the faith life of Catholics often do so from their limited Protestant persepective and miss the significance of the life of the Saints and the various Catholic devotions.

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John Shepard

© Copyright 2011

email: js17@northforest.org

http://www.northforest.org/CatholicFoundations/DevotionalLife.html

Revised: March 14, 2011