Popular piety is ‘a precious treasure’

Pilgrimages, Stations, and the rosary extend but do not replace the Church’s liturgical life

By Father Randy Stice

All of the Church’s activities are directed to our holiness and God’s glory, and this is most efficaciously achieved in the liturgy, “and especially from the Eucharist,” from which, as a font, “grace is poured forth on us.”1

However, the Second Vatican Council noted that “the spiritual life…is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy.”2 We are called to pray together and alone “to our Father who is in secret” (Matthew 6:6). We are also nourished by various forms of popular piety, such as the veneration of relics, pilgrimages, the Stations of the Cross, the rosary, and medals, many of which are rooted in different cultures.3 These extend the liturgical life of the Church but do not replace it. In this column, I want to explore the relationship between the Eucharist and popular piety.

Pope Pius XII discussed this in 1947 in his encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei. Pious exercises, he wrote, “are of special import and dignity” and are a kind of addition to the liturgy. They benefit us in many ways. They prepare us to participate more fruitfully in the liturgy “because they urge the faithful to go frequently to the sacrament of penance, to attend Mass, and receive Communion with devotion.” They also encourage us “to meditate on the mysteries of our redemption and imitate the example of the saints.”4

The Second Vatican Council briefly addressed popular devotions, saying they are “to be highly commended.” They should, however, be reviewed and, when necessary, revised so that “they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since, in fact, the liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them.”5

The guidelines outlined by the council were developed by the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (DPPL), issued in 2001. Echoing the Second Vatican Council, the DPPL affirms that “The celebration of the liturgy does not exhaust the Church’s divine worship” or the spiritual life of the Christian, which must be nourished by individual and corporate prayer.6 A liturgical life “reduced to participation at the Eucharist cannot permeate a life lacking in personal prayer or in those qualities communicated by the traditional devotional forms of the Christian people.”7

The DPPL explains the sacramental basis for the liturgical and devotional life of the faithful. Baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist, the sacraments of initiation, form the faithful into “a prophetic, priestly, and royal people called to worship God in spirit and in truth.” This worship is exercised preeminently in the Eucharist, “but also in other forms of the Christian life, among which are numbered the various forms of popular piety.” The Holy Spirit enables us “to offer sacrifices of praise to God, to offer prayer and entreaty to Him, so that our entire life becomes a living and holy sacrifice, pleasing to God.”8

St. John Paul II highlighted the role of the family, the domestic Church, in nurturing both liturgical and devotional prayer.9 The family introduces “the children to the liturgical prayer of the whole Church, both in the sense of preparing for it and of extending it into personal, family, and social life.” Private prayer within the family serves as “preparation for the worship celebrated in church, and as its prolongation in the home.” The saint specifically encourages “reading and meditating on the Word of God, preparation for the reception of the sacraments, devotion and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the various forms of veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grace before and after meals, and observance of popular devotions.”

The saint drew special attention to the rosary, noting a distinctive relationship between the liturgical celebration of the liturgical year and the weekly distribution of the rosary. In the liturgical year, the Church “unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord.” In this way the riches of Christ’s powers and merits are opened to us, they “are in some way made present for all time,” and we can receive them and “become filled with saving grace.”10

Similarly, in the rosary the whole mystery of Christ unfolds by praying the joyful mysteries on Monday and Saturday, the mysteries of light on Thursday, the sorrowful mysteries on Tuesday and Friday, and the glorious mysteries on Sunday. This gives “the different days of the week a certain spiritual ‘color,’ by analogy with the way in which the liturgy colors the different seasons of the liturgical year.”11

The Eucharist, writes St. John Paul II, “as the activity of Christ and the Church, is a saving action par excellence,” and the rosary, “as a ‘meditation’ with Mary on Christ, is a salutary contemplation.” Immersing ourselves thus in the mysteries of Christ’s life “ensures that what He has done and what the liturgy makes present is profoundly assimilated and shapes our existence.”12

Popular piety is “a precious treasure of the Catholic Church.”13 It prepares us for the celebration of the sacred mysteries and naturally culminates in the celebration of the liturgy and extends it to our personal, family, and social life, so that we might gradually be transformed into the image of Christ.

1 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 10.
2 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 12.
3 Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1674 and 1679.
4 Mediator Dei, no. 183.
5 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 13.
6 DPPL, no. 82.
7 DPPL, no. 59.
8 DPPL, no. 85.
9 Familiaris Consortio, no. 61.
10 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 102.
11 On the Most Holy Rosary, no. 38.
12 On the Most Holy Rosary, no. 38.
13 Pope Benedict XVI quoted in Evangelii Gaudium, no. 123.

 

Father Randy Stice is director of the diocesan Office of Worship and Liturgy. He can be reached at frrandy@dioknox.org.

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