I downloaded the Kindle version of “The Church and New Media”, by Brandon Vogt. My wife was first to set eyes on the book, via my tiny android phone, while I was finishing up my blog post from last night, on Archbishop Timothy Dolan and his blog. I was searching for aspects of “Social Media.”
Just before I called it a night, (late night again) I read the foreword and intro. The foreword was by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap. Archbishop of Boston and the intro by Brandon Vogt. As I was reading the intro a phrase jumped into my mind, Popular Piety. Let’s take a look at Piety, again.
Popular Piety
When the two word phrase popped into my mind, I was at first thinking of the separately. Popular came to me because “these” were all “popular people” that Brandon was sharing in the intro, with little bits and pieces of text to tease us as to what we would have ahead of us in his book. Piety was overwhelming in the foreword and intro, and I could clearly see that “The Church and New Media” was going to be wonderful resource for me, to use for my own future Piety, Study, and Action.
Now Popular Piety is a subject that is rarely talked about, in the manner of the term itself; Popular Piety. Overwhelmingly though, the styles, traditions, and objects of Popular Piety are used, shared, and praised probably more often the Piety we all know is “king of the hill”, “top dog”,”apex of our lives”,”most important”,… your getting the picture?
We are talking about Sacred Liturgy.
I really don’t want to get into a arm-wrestle on what, who, why and where, on Popular Piety. I just want to maker sure my brothers and sisters in Christ have access to a document I consider to be a very short read, that is going to allow them a bigger picture they probably have never really thought of, when it comes to “The Church and New Media.” Sacred Liturgy should always be in our sights, and above all other forms of Piety, that are Popular.
Let the words of this document speak for themselves,…
“as a parallel, or even an alternative to many liturgical expressions, several devotional forms appeared; for example, various forms of Eucharistic adoration served to compensate for the rarity with which Holy Communion was received; in the late middle ages, the rosary tended to substitute for the psalter; among the faithful, the pious exercises of Good Friday became a substitute for the Liturgy proper to that day;” (section 32, 3rd bullet point)
Now, you have read (seen) the words Eucharistic adoration, and rosary. Two main spiritually moving aspects of many devoted Catholics throughout the entire world. Eucharistic adoration, to me, is a very important part of my life. Many times I have had physical, financial, and spiritual “far moments” (as we say in Cursillo), where I found comfort and answers to those “far moments.”
The rosary, now that is one topic of discussion that wraps up Piety, Study and Action all in one. The Prayers are the Piety, the Mysteries (scriptures) are the Study, and the intentions are for Action.
Eucharistic adoration and the rosary are just two of the types (topics) of Popular Piety that are discussed and described in the document I want to share with you all. I promise it is a short read, and might be some-what hard to understand, if you are new to the faith, are just starting to get a bit more serious with your faith, or some of the types (topics) you might not have ever heard of,…
Here it is,…
DIRECTORY ON POPULAR PIETY AND THE LITURGY, PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES - Vatican City (2001) (link)
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About Michael Myers
Great post, Michael. I have long been a fan of the document on popular piety because it puts devotional practices into their proper context in relation to the Mass. For so many Catholics, pious devotional practices can take a primary place in their lives, without the understanding that all are subsidiary to the action of celebrating Eucharist – and that in the end, everything points back to Christ. They can lose sight of the forest because they are focused on the trees, so to speak.
An example I have seen in terms of social media: some who post faith-related items on Facebook and Twitter are so fixated on the Marian devotions, their evangelizing efforts so focused on promoting anything Marian, that it can become unclear they are really talking, in the end, about loving and following Christ through Mary. This can feed misconceptions by non-Catholics that we “worship” Mary.
My copy of “The Church and New Media” from Amazon should be arriving today… looking forward to reading it. (I wanted a hard copy to be able to promote this with diocesan and parish leaders.) Thanks for the preview.