Paralyzed By Beauty

Since St. Raphael is the patron saint of my diocese, I made a point to attend Mass for the Feast of the Archangels on September 29. As I left Mass, pondering a wonderful homily on the place of angels in our world, two thoughts kept racing through my mind:

  1. How cool is it that we have angels to take care of us!
  2. How in the world am I supposed to fit devotions to angels into my spiritual life with everything else?!

Now, I happen to have two wonderful parish priests. So wonderful, in fact, that every devotion they laud during Mass makes me want to find a way to work it into my routine. The two devotions I took from my great RCIA program were Lectio Divina and the rosary. OK, got it. But as I began attending daily Mass more often, I kept hearing messages of devotions I should consider: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Seven Sorrows of Mary, the Divine Mercy, the Holy Face of Jesus, just to name a few.

They say knowledge is power, but there are certainly days where I feel overpowered by the intricacies of our faith.

Maybe it’s simply a convert’s awe, but sometimes I am completely paralyzed by the beauty of Catholicism. Not only do I humbly wonder who I am to shoulder some of the life of the Church, but I also gape at the richness of this faith. “Richness” may sometimes translate as “complicated nature” or “intellectual rigor.” When it comes to my prayer life, how much there is to know about all of Catholicism’s little treasures can be daunting.

Some days my coping mechanism is just a general prayer for all those who are in need of God’s help–you know, everyone. Other days, I pick one intention and stick to that. And there are days when I’m really in the zone and can thoughtfully pray for the intentions of many causes. Regardless of what each day brings, I always make an effort to learn about these devotions. God wants me to follow Him as a child. With that in mind, I aim to be simple in my approach to loving God while eagerly learning about what He has gifted to us through devotions.

The Church is rich in her knowledge, far richer than I will ever be. Devotions are a way to encapsulate small fragments of her knowledge for the faithful to take to heart. Although I may not be able to incorporate these devotions into my daily prayer life, they give me a model to keep in mind for times of need. What my soul needs to hear daily during this period of my life may be different in the next.

I may never be able to extol the virtues of most devotions outside of my Lectio Divina and rosary. But by learning about the myriad of devotions the Church has to offer, I am reminded of how God speaks to each of us where we are. We aren’t all encompassing, and so while we may want to utilize various devotions throughout our lives, we don’t need every one every day. Rather, we can look past our favorites into all of the possibilities, and recognize the beautiful and unique ways God calls each one of us into deeper union with Him.

Allie Terrell

Allie Terrell

Allie Terrell is a 2010 convert to Catholicism after dabbling in a few different trains of religious thought. She graduated from Rose-Hulman in 2009 with a degree in computer science, and is now pursuing her doctorate in the hopes of teaching some day. When she can spare a few hours, Allie likes to visit religious sites and work on her photography. She blogs about her journeys at Here Is The Church.

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7 thoughts on “Paralyzed By Beauty”

  1. I think it is probably a good thing that you do not embrace all these intense devotions. Nothings against any of them individually, but trying to take on too much can harm the good that you are doing with the Lectio and the Rosary. (Lectio is one of my favorites…now I just need to get to a normal schedule with that…) Our devotional life is very personal. Not every devotion is for everyone.

  2. Hey Allie! First, loved the post. I have a great fondness for devotions and like you mentioned, it’s hard to not get caught up in new and exciting ones ๐Ÿ™‚

    Second, I’m also a convert and very much understand the feelings of awe about the beauty of our faith. It’s vast and deep and awesome! So immensely thankful for the day of my confirmation (I have a party (or at least a cake) each year…no joke. It’s my Catholic birthday!).

    And third… I’m pretty sure we share a diocese and not only that, but a certain two priests! I may or may not work there with them. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Your name caught my eye and then I noticed the intro line about your diocese’s patron being St. Raphael. I’m pretty sure your name is so familiar because I saw it on the list of RCIA folks last year (love the Easter Vigil!).

    So I just thought I’d send a little shout-out. A blessed Friday to you!

  3. Gee, I thought this article would be about me.

    I found the way to do all of these devotions. Do the ones that are short at the times you can easily do them (that’s a happy pray-er). The longer ones, like the novenas or longer prayers, littanies, we do one per day and I made a list for which we do on Mondays, Tuesdays,…and that can branch out to “next set/month)this way the prayer never gets so comfortable that you drift too much mentally, only as much as the Holy Spirit inspires, and the new-ness keeps you re-discovering the beauty and teaching “moment” of each phrase or sentence.

    And a Rosary set.

    When we try to do too many each evening, we lose the focus on the prayer’s direct effect upon our own heart and the earnest but cheerful pray-er disposition that we ought be in naturally. Nature will allow for the suffering – the praying needn’t be the source.

    Now doing a couple-three hours at the local abortion mill during 40 Days For Life is a great way to get deep in prayer….alone times are best and you’re needed most when others can be there, or go with a friend who’s equally eager to pray the same prayers (you’ll meet some there!).

  4. @Carolyn Ah, yes, I suspect we do attend the same church! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Too funny that you remembered me from RCIA and put two and two together. Hope you had a wonderful Friday as well! ๐Ÿ™‚

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