Enciclopedia Cattolica

DEVOTIONE

Devotion

Volume IV · p. 878 · 1950

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

DEVOTION. —

I. GENERAL NOTIONS

The word devotion is not always rightly understood. It is often confused with devotions in the plural. The latter are rather certain means of attaining true devotion. At other times the term is used to indicate attention and a certain sensible fervour in prayer. In the strict sense, it may be defined as: “a reverential and at the same time affectionate movement of the soul towards God, Whom we acknowledge to possess prerogatives worthy of love and respect.” It is at once an act of the intellect, which knows the lovableness of God, and of the will, which gives itself to His service. St Thomas places it among the interior acts of the virtue of religion, together with prayer (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 82, a. 3).

The principal object of devotion is therefore God, Who is likewise its principal cause, inasmuch as He gives it, sustains it, and increases it according to His good pleasure. From man, however, it requires an act of the will, which must be firmly resolved to remain constantly consecrated to the service of God, despite all physical and spiritual trials. Devotion is not, in fact, the fruit of feeling, but of the will. The fervour of devotion, which is often mistakenly believed to be due to feeling and therefore inconstant, may instead be a permanent state of the soul, which, under the impulse of a strong will, constantly perseveres in the total exercise of the service of God. It is as necessary as the virtue of religion to which it belongs. St Ambrose says that devotion is “the first virtue and the foundation of the others, and God demands it of all” (De Abraham, I, 2).

II. QUALITIES OF DEVOTION

a) Detachment from earthly things. As St Thomas rightly notes, devotion (from devovere) etymologically means “consecration to the deity.” This necessarily implies a total giving of oneself without interference from other human objects. b) Complete submission to the will of God in all the happy and sad vicissitudes of life. c) Not eagerly seeking the interior consolations which sometimes, by God’s goodness, accompany devotion, but tending disinterestedly to the perfect union with God through charity. d) Consequently, devotion must be rooted, like the virtue of religion, in a conscious and lived faith. From all this it follows that true devotion must not be limited to a merely intellectual knowledge of God’s demands, but must tend to an effective union (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 182, a. 1 and 7).

III. MEANS OF OBTAINING II

St Thomas indicates one, which he calls however “the intrinsic cause of devotion on the part of man.” It is contemplation or meditation.

Meditation must above all consider two things: a) the goodness of God and the benefits which man has received from Him; b) the consciousness of one’s own failings, which obliges us to lift our eyes to heaven, to obtain from God forgiveness and aid. According to the best Doctors of the Church, a very effective means is the meditation on the mysteries of the life, Passion, and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Other means which may help to obtain and increase devotion are: 1) spiritual direction; 2) frequent use of the Sacraments; 3) the habit of interior life and union with God; 4) prayer, a means also indicated by St Thomas; 5) mortification of the passions which disturb and distract the soul from true devotion; 6) particular devotions approved by the Church and suggested by the saints.

IV. EFFECTS OF DEVOTION

According to the Angelic Doctor, these are spiritual joy, which arises from the consideration of God’s goodness, and at the same time a sense of sorrow which has its origin in the consciousness of one’s own failings and the influence of our nature in perfectly fulfilling our duties towards God. The hope, which becomes certainty, of God’s aid transforms even this feeling of repentance and humility into serenity and joy.

From what has been said it follows that true devotion is neither an experience nor consists in the observance of certain determined religious practices, but is sentimental, emotional, a living and positive expression of our faith in God and of the affection we feel in our heart for Him. Devotion presupposes a profound veneration for God, sincere gratitude towards Him, the desire to be united to Him, and resignation to His divine will.

V. PRACTICES OF DEVOTION

These are the means of attaining the end, which is devotion, that is, the interior act of the virtue of religion. Practices of piety and practices of devotion are one and the same thing.

The great Catholic devotions are directed to the Most Holy Trinity, to Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St Joseph, to the angels, to the saints, and even to the souls in Purgatory (cf. CULTO). The most common practices of devotion, such as the sign of the Cross, the Way of the Cross, the Holy Hour, visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament, processions, the nine First Fridays, etc., have received the explicit or implicit approval of the Church and the favour of spiritual masters.

These devotions offer precious advantages (indulgences, etc.) and particular graces of a spiritual and even material order. All produce moral and social effects of the highest interest. It is in the practice of these devotions, so foolishly despised or neglected by short-sighted or blind spirits, that children and adults, the learned and the unlearned, have learned and continue to learn to elevate their souls above the vulgarities or turpitudes of this world. Care must however be taken to avoid abuses. Practices of devotion become abusive when they place entirely secondary practices before the fundamental acts of religion; when they take up too prominent a place in life, even before the duties of one’s state; when all effect is made to depend on the external act or, worse still, on a particular combination of external acts. Interior worship with the practice of Christian virtue is the essential condition for practices of devotion to attain their purpose and to avoid superstition. There is moreover a certain order to be followed in the practices of devotion. What is obligatory in them is only what God and the Church prescribe in public worship, in the Commandments, and in the Precepts. Respect must also be shown for the norms of the Church in matters of worship. Some practices of devotion have been proscribed by the Church; such are the devotion to the Penitent Heart of Jesus (S. Office, 15 July 1893), the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Interior” (S. Office, 13 Dec. 1893), the devotion to the Heart of St Joseph (S. Congregation of Rites, in Nanneten, 14 June 1873), the devotion to the annihilated love of Jesus, and the rosary of the Five Holy Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ (S. Office, 12 Dec. 1939; AAS, 32 (1940), p. 24).

For the norms of the Code of Canon Law on this matter (can. 1259, 1261, 1279) cf. CULTO. The Holy Office, with a decree of 17 May 1937, returned to the subject of not introducing new forms of devotion into the Church (AAS, 29 (1937), p. 304). This decree is also cited in the recent encyclical Mediator Dei et hominum of 20 Nov. 1947 (AAS, 39 (1947), p. 588). Likewise, books of piety and devotion cannot be tampered with either by clerics or laity without ecclesiastical approval (can. 1385).

Bibl.: H. Leclercq, Devotion (Formules de), in DACL, IV, cols. 706-25; A. Tanqueray, Compendio di teologia ascetica e mistica (tr. II. by F. Trucco-L. Giunta), Rome 1928, nn. 206-305, 921-24; pp. 198-202, 372-75; E. Dublanchy, Devotion, in DThC, IV, cols. 680-85; A. L. Masson, Vie chrétienne et vie spirituelle, Paris 1929, pp. 60-63; F. Schubert, Andacht, in LTHK, I, cols. 402-403; I. W. Curran, The hoministic concept of devotion, River Forest, Ill. 1941; G. Schryvers, I principi della vita spirituale, Turin 1946, p. 62 sqq.; J. Bricout, Les dévotions catholiques, in R. Aigrain, Ecclesia, encyclopédie populaire des connaissances religieuses, Paris 1948, pp. 226-48; E. Janssens, De praxibus devotionis extraliturgicis, in Collectanea Meckliniana, 34 (1949), pp. 433-34.