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parishioners identify interest in a particular devotion, it is posted within this document. There are numerous Catholic devotions beyond the current contents of this document; send a message to the web site master to request additioinal devotion content posting.
Mary's special role in the mystery of the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it.
"The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an intrinsic element of Christian worship. The honor which the Church has always and everywhere shown to the Mother of the Lord, from the blessing with which Elizabeth greeted Mary cf. Lk 1:42-45 right up to the expressions of praise and petition used today, is a very strong witness to the Church's norm of prayer and an invitation to become more deeply conscious of her norm of faith. And the converse is likewise true. The Church's norm of faith requires that her norm of prayer should everywhere blossom forth with regard to the Mother of Christ. Such devotion to the Blessed Virgin is firmly rooted in the revealed word and has solid dogmatic foundations."—Pope Paul VI, Marialis cultus § 56 (1974)
Following a brief introduction of Catholic theology on doctrine about the Blessed Virgin Mary is a description of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The rosary is comprised of two things: mental prayer and vocal prayer. In the Holy Rosary, mental prayer is none other than meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Vocal prayer consists in saying fifteen decades of the Hail Mary, each decade headed by an Our Father, while at the same time meditating on and contemplating the fifteen principal virtues, which Jesus and Mary practiced in the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
In the first five decades, we must honor the five Joyful Mysteries and meditate on them. In the second five decades the Sorrowful Mysteries and in the third group of five the Glorious Mysteries. Therefore, the Rosary is a blessed blending of mental and vocal prayer by which we honor and learn to imitate the mysteries and virtues of the life, death, passion and glory of Jesus and Mary.
For those who prefer to follow the traditional order of the days it is:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyful | Sorrowful | Glorious | Joyful | Sorrowful | Glorious | Glorious |
For those who wish to say only five decades per day, Pope John Paul II proposed a fourth group in October 2002, the Luminous Mysteries; use this schedule:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyful | Sorrowful | Glorious | Luminous | Sorrowful | Joyful | Glorious |
| Mystery | Virtue | Holy Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joyful | Annunciation | Humility | incarnate |
| Visitation | Charity | who sanctifies us | |
| Nativity | Poverty | born in poverty | |
| Presentation | Obedience | sacrificed | |
| Finding of the Child Jesus | Piety | Saint among saints | |
| Sorrowful | Agony in the Garden | Contrition | in His Agony |
| Scourging | Purity | scourged | |
| Crowning with Thorns | Courage | crowned with thorns | |
| Carrying of the Cross | Patience | carrying His cross | |
| Crucifixion | Self-Denial | crucified | |
| Glorious | Resurrection | Faith | risen from the dead |
| Ascension | Hope | who ascended into heaven | |
| Descent of the Holy Spirit | Love | who fills us with the Holy Spirit | |
| Assumption of Mary | Eternal happiness | who raises us up | |
| Coronation of Mary | Devotion to Mary | who crowns us in glory | |
| Luminous | Baptism | Rebirth in Christ | who gives us new life |
| Miracle at Cana | Trust in the Lord | who answers our prayers | |
| Proclamation of the Kingdom of God | Perseverance | who leads us to heaven | |
| Transfiguration | Reverence | who reveals His majesty | |
| Eucharist | Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament | who nourishes us with His Body and Blood | |
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Each Mystery of the four groups has an associated Virtue; consider the virtue within the context of the mystery for each decade. You can add the Holy Name phrase after the name of Jesus in each Hail Mary of the decade, to remember the theme of the mystery. If you want to print a copy (8.5x11) of the mysteries including Bible book, chapter and verse references, use this PDF format file. |
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The Five First Saturdays are intended to honor and to make reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for all the blasphemies and ingratitude of people.
This devotion and the wonderful promises connected with it were revealed by the Blessed Virgin at Fatima, a small village in Portugal. Our Lady appeared to three children there in 1917, and one of the little girls, Lucy, tells us that she said:
"I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the First Saturday of five consecutive months shall:
- Confess and receive Communion;
- Recite five decades of the Rosary;
- And keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
Fatima is a call from the Mother of God for a renewed fidelity to penance and prayer, which basically is the message of the Gospel. Too, it brings out the desire of Our Lord that His Mother be better known, loved and venerated through devotion to her Immaculate Heart.
The practice of saying the Rosary nine times in the form of a Rosary Novena in petition or thanksgiving is another way of heeding Our Lady of Fatima's admonition to Pray the Rosary.
The 54 Day Novena Devotion which originated in 1884 at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei, consists of the daily recitation of five decades of the Rosary for twenty-seven days in petition and five decades for twenty-seven additional days in thanksgiving. In reality you will be making three Novenas in petition for a particular favor and three Novenas in thanksgiving for a particular favor.
The Medal of the Immaculate Conception, popularly known as the Miraculous Medal, is unique among all medals. It was designed by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself! Our Lady manifested the Medal to Sister (now Saint) Catherine Laboure on November 27, 1830 in the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac, in Paris.
Catherine saw Our Lady standing on a globe, with dazzling rays of light streaming from her outstretched hands. Framing the figure was an inscription: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Then Mary spoke to Catherine:
"Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck."The vision then seemed to turn to show the reverse of the Medal: the letter M surmounted by a cross with a bar at its base; below this monogram, the Sacred Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword.
Our Lady is an excellent model to follow in our quest to know the Word of God. Her example as shown in Scripture is a standard toward which we all should strive.
Our Lady of Sorrows is a loving refuge for us. Her spiritual motherhood is a sanctuary.
The message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.
In 1941, hardly three years after the death of Sr. Faustina, The Divine Mercy devotion was brought to the USA from Poland by Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, MIC, a member of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
On the 70th anniversary of the revelation of the image and 60th anniversary of the Congregation of Marians' involvement in the spread of the Message and Devotion to the Divine Mercy, the Holy Father, John Paul II sent a special apostolic blessing and a renewed call to be apostles of the Divine Mercy under the maternal guidance of Our Lady.
"Be Apostles of The Divine Mercy under the maternal and loving guidance of Mary "—Pope John Paul II, in a Papal Blessing to the Marians on Oct. 5, 2001.
In His revelations to St. Faustina, Our Lord asked for a special prayer and meditation on His Passion. Pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy each afternoon at the three o'clock hour, the hour that recalls His death on the cross.
Divine Mercy Novena
Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good Friday. He gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena, saving for the last day the most difficult intention of all, the lukewarm and indifferent of whom He said:
"These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of Olives. It was on their account that I said: 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.' The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy."In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:
"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls."
The particular object of this devotion is the immense love of the Son of God, which induced Him to deliver Himself up to death for us and to give Himself entirely to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. His immense love is for men who, for the most part, have nothing but contempt or at least indifference for Him.
Love is its object, love is its motive and principle, and it is love that ought to be the end result of the devotion.
This devotion consists of ardently loving Jesus Christ and in showing this ardent love by our grief at seeing Him so little honored by men, and by our acts of reparation for this contempt and this want of love.
The heart of the Incarnate Word
478 Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God... loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20. He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, Cf Jn 19:34. "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception.—Pius XII, encyclical, Haurietis aquas (1956): DS 3924; cf. DS 3812. Catechism of the Catholic Church
theandric—Relating to, or existing by, the union of divine and human operation in Christ, or the joint agency of the divine and human nature.
Latria is sacrificial in character; it may be offered only to God. Other degrees of reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Saints have their own terms.
Non-sacrificial types of reverence are termed hyperdulia (veneration for the Blessed Virgin Mary) and dulia (honor to the Saints).
Hyperdulia is essentially a heightened degree of dulia provided only to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St.Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae (A.D. 1270) detailed this distinction originally made by St. Augustine of Hippo (circa 4th century).
After the glorious Ascension of Our Lord, His gift of the Holy Spirit began the new era of the Age of the Church on that first Pentecost Sunday.
This is the prototype of all novenas. It commemorates the nine days between the Ascension of Our Lord and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost Sunday. During this time Our Lady and the twelve Apostles prayed in the upper room for the coming of the Paraclete.
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