As Jesus teaches about prayer this week from the Sermon on the Mount, it’s might be good to look further at how we pray. There’s liturgical prayer– the Mass, the sacraments, and then there’s devotional prayer–the rosary, stations of the cross, other devotional prayers. How are they related?

An important church study in 2001 said that liturgical prayer after the Council of Trent “entered a static period of substantial uniformity, while popular piety entered a period of extraordinary development.”The rosary, novenas, parish missions and retreats “were seen as an important means for defending the Catholic faith and nourishing the piety of the faithful…they still continue to nourish the faith and religious experience of the faithful.” 

Ordinary Roman Catholics at the time of the Second Vatican Council were deeply attached to the Catholic devotional tradition. They still are.

Devotional prayers “were sometimes more important than the Liturgy.” (Directory on Popular Piety and Liturgy, Rome, 2001,  41) The Second Vatican Council in its constitution, Sacrosanctum Concilium, sought to restore the primacy of liturgical prayer by revising the liturgy of Mass and the sacraments. 

The council considered popular devotions in one short paragraph: “Devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the sacred seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, and are in some way derived from it, and lead the people to it, since in fact the liturgy is by its nature far superior to any  of them.” (SC 13) 

Efforts to enhance the place of church’s prayer, however, often failed to reckon with the attachment of ordinary people to the devotional tradition. Balancing the liturgical and devotional traditions still has to be done.

Some examples? Liturgical prayer is rooted in the scriptures and so we need to know and appreciate the bible. The lectionary of scripture readings throughout the year is a treasure of wisdom and spirituality that still awaits widespread use by believers. 

Liturgical prayer is rooted in symbols, and people today have a weak sense of the symbolic. We need to develop a sensitivity to symbols and symbolic thinkings to appreciate liturgical prayer.

More and more, we need to pray the church’s prayer: its holy days – Sundays, the seasons of Advent, Lent and Easter– the feasts of its saints, especially Mary, the Mother of God, and its prayers, especially the psalms.

Devotional prayer is meant to lead us to the liturgy.