Two Popular Devotions

Second Conference on the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

by

Fr. Henry Brinkmeyer

In our last conference, we learned the meaning of devotion; we saw that devotion is truth in bloom, and that consequently it depends upon a clear understanding and a vivid realization of religious truth. Before concluding, we said that popular devotions are a special outpouring of divine grace, and are designed to meet some great evil or some special exigency of the times, and that there are in our age two such popular devotions, the devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and the devotion to the Sacred Heart; the first a preparative and a safeguard to the second. Now we will try to learn how these two devotions meet the wants of the times and thus answer the designs of God.

What are the wants of the times? Truth and Love! Because the evils of the times are what we call naturalism and concupiscence. Naturalism is the evil affecting the mind of the age, concupiscence is the evil affecting the heart; Christian faith is the remedy for the evil of the mind, Christian love the remedy for the evil of the heart; and just as naturalism engenders and strengthens concupiscence, so faith engenders and strengthens love. Now, devotion to the Immaculate Conception enlightens, animates, and strengthens faith; while devotion to the Sacred Heart inspires and fortifies love, and just as faith prepares the way for love, so the Immaculate Conception prepares the way for the Sacred Heart. Here you have a summary of what I wish to explain at present.

I say the radical evils of our age are naturalism and concupiscence, or if you prefer the word, sensuality. First, naturalism. By naturalism is meant a denial of the supernatural. Men nowadays believe only in the world around them; they believe only in what they can see and hear and feel, and perceive with their five senses, or what they can grasp with their intellect; they refuse to believe in a Divine Providence, in grace, in spiritual agencies, in prayer, or if they do theoretically assent to these truths, they permit them to have no practical influence upon their lives, and are more or less indifferentists in matters of religion. Again, they deny the supernatural end of man; or if they have a belief at all in a future world, they picture it to themselves a natural world like the present, only more perfect in degree. In one word, all that which is above and beyond visible nature, they deny, doubt or practically ignore.

What is the consequence of this naturalism, this evil in the minds of men? They give themselves over to nature, they enjoy this world, they live for it and become wholly sensual. I need scarcely enlarge on this statement. Who does not know that sensuality, or to speak more plainly, impurity, is already the social evil of our day, especially in our country?

The world is flooded with a literature imbued with its venom, and literature mirrors the spirit of the age. We may safely say that of every one hundred in mortal sin, ninety, if not ninety-nine, are in that state because of impurity. But leaving aside this gross kind of sensuality, was there ever during the Christian era such a love of bodily ease, of comfort? Was there ever a stronger, a more universal thirst for riches, for pleasure and honor? Is not a thing most valued only in as much as it can contribute to ease and pleasure, and serve as a means to acquire gold, or as a stepping-stone to a higher position in life? Do you often hear it asked, how, for instance, such and such a discovery or invention will facilitate the saving of souls, or advance the interests of religion? And is it not humiliating to have to confess that even in persons called religious there is frequently so much worldly calculation when there is question of saving souls, or in general of advancing the interests of God? These two then, naturalism and sensualism, are the radical evils of the age; the remedies for these two evils are found in the devotions to the Immaculate Conception and the Sacred Heart, and the first devotion leads to the second, as naturalism leads to sensuality. Let us try to see in what manner all this is done.

We cannot honor the Immaculate Conception without believing in it. What is meant by believing in the Immaculate Conception? We believe that Mary alone of all the children of Adam was conceived without sin; in other words, we believe that all the rest of mankind were born, or at least conceived deprived of that supernatural grace which Adam and Eve had at their creation, and that she alone was conceived with grace, and indeed, from the first moment of her existence, had all that fullness of grace which Adam and Eve possessed before they fell. By professing a belief in this doctrine, what do we affirm? We affirm at once the existence of the supernatural, we affirm that man was originally created for a supernatural end, and endowed with supernatural grace, we affirm man's fall and the necessity of man's redemption, we affirm a Divine Providence, a Redeemer, an Eternity; finally, we affirm that man must live a supernatural life in order to reach his supernatural end. All this, naturalism denies or ignores. Consequently, faith in the Immaculate Conception is diametrically opposed to the intellectual error of our age, and therefore, devotion to the Immaculate Conception is, from its very nature, apt to destroy or weaken this error, or at least to strengthen and shield men's minds against it.

Moreover, mark that we can scarcely think of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin without thinking at the same time of her divine maternity, for the one is the reason of the other; Mary was immaculately conceived because she was to be Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception, therefore, leads us to Jesus; devotion to it begets devotion to Him; in thanking Him for His bounty to her and to us, we cannot but think of His love, His Heart! Now it is precisely devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that is the remedy for sensualism, the second great evil of our day. This is evident almost at first thought.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is in every sense a devotion of love. The object of the devotion is love, for the heart is the symbol of love, and we pay special honor and adoration to the Heart of Jesus because it recalls and symbolizes His divine and human love. The aim of the devotion is to repair the injuries done to His love and to repay love with love. The effect of the devotion is to enkindle love. The Pope himself in the decree of Blessed Margaret Mary's beatification, declares it in these words:

Jesus Christ wished that the veneration and worship of His Sacred Heart should be established and promoted in His Church, in order that He might the more enkindle the fire of Charity.

Our Lord Himself, in revealing His Sacred Heart to Blessed Margaret Mary, said:

The great desire I have to be perfectly loved by man, has made Me foresee the design of disclosing to them My Heart, and of giving them in these latter times this last effort of My love, by proposing to them an object and a means so calculated to engage them to love Me, and to love Me solidly.

But can divine love be associated with illicit love? Can the love of our Lord be in the heart side by side with the love of the world? Does not the love of God drive out the love of triple concupiscence? Is it not true that, when God takes possession of a heart, all that is not God's becomes worthless to it? Therefore, just as the devotion to the Immaculate Conception is a specific remedy for the first evil of our age, naturalism, so the sister devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a remedy for the second consequent evil, viz., sensualism.

Verily, we have reason to exclaim: digitus Dei est hic, "the finger of God is visible here!" Plainly it is the work of the Almighty God which wills the cultivation of these devotions, especially that of the Sacred Heart. For the heart is most of all affected and diseased; if the heart of man is good, his mind will soon be healthy too. We will endeavor to enter into the designs of God; we will cultivate, practice and promote devotion to His Heart. That we may do so the better, we will study It; we will study Its love that we may learn how to love; we will study Its patience that we may learn how to suffer; we will study Its meekness and humility that we may learn how to find peace for our souls.

Devotions in the Church

First Conference on the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

by

Fr. Henry Brinkmeyer

There is a distinction to be made between faith and devotion. We cannot be devout without faith, but we may have faith without devotion. The doctrines of faith do not grow; they are always the same; but devotion to these doctrines may and does grow; in other words, the objects of faith are always the same, but they are not always felt, and in consequence, the same honors and the same love are not always rendered them. Thus the sun in the spring-time will have to shine many days before it is able to melt the frost, open the soil, and bring out the leaves; yet it shines out from the first, though it makes its power felt but gradually. In like manner, some truth may shine out in the Church for a long time before it is fully seized and realized and melts men's hearts into love and veneration of it. Moreover, just as the sun thaws in spring-time some particles of snow and ice more quickly than others, and causes some trees and flowers to sprout and bloom more readily than their fellows, so too, some truth may affect one soul more quickly and deeply than it does another, and though understood equally well by all, yet will not call forth equally well from all, religious honor, respect, veneration, fear or love. So, you see, Devotion is really "truth in bloom," and since there are many truths and many souls in the Church, we must expect to see these many devotions.

And such is the case. Any large parish church will illustrate this. The edifice itself is dedicated to Almighty God, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, or some particular saint; but within, there are sometimes three, five, seven or more altars, each of which has its particular saint or mystery to honor. The worshippers kneel here, each according to his own inclination. No one interferes with another. And as Mass is celebrated, and all follow the sacred rite, each one has his own devotions which are all more or less diversified, and though distinct, converge to one and the same God. Some associate to pray for a good death, others for the repose of the departed souls, others finally for the conversion of the heathen and the sinner; some join confraternities to honor the Precious Blood, others the Sacred Heart, others again the Immaculate Conception. In a word, there is a variety of devotions open to individual Catholics to choose from according to their religious task, their character, their tendency, and the prospect of personal edification.

What follows from the foregoing remarks? This: that Devotion depends principally on the lucid manifestation and the profound realization of a religious truth. Truth must be presented to the mind before it can meet with any recognition. We cannot honor and love what we do not know. The better we know a thing, and the more we see in it of the true, the good and the beautiful, the more potently can it influence us. Now, by devotion in general, we understand an ardent affection, which will show itself in outward acts when opportunity offers. Therefore, the better and the more generally a religious truth or object is understood and realized, the more ardent and the more universal is devotion for it apt to become. To be devout then, to be solidly pious, we stand in need of study or instruction or reflection; for, naturally, the more we learn of religion, and the deeper we enter into it, the more firm and fervent must our devotion grow; consequently we ought always to be learning: above all, by meditation and prayer, we ought to endeavor to bring religious truths home to our hearts in order to realize them; then only can we expect to obtain and foster devotion.

But you may ask: "If true devotion depends on understanding and realizing a religious truth, why is it then that the most learned theologians are not the most saintly men? See, here is a poor, ignorant man, who has never learned to read; he was neglected in his youth; he scarcely knows the Lord's Prayer by heart. There is a great scholar, a doctor of divinity. He knows the Bible in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He has read through all the Fathers. He knows St. Thomas and Suarez by heart. He can solve almost any difficulty and talk for hours on some abstruse, mystical point of Theology. Why is it that the poor, ignorant man is sometimes exact in observing the laws of the Church, is charitable, avoids sin, and loves God, while perhaps the great doctor of divinity does none of these things?" The answer to this difficulty is easily given. The learned doctor may know more of truth, but he scarcely realizes any; while the poor man may know little, but the little he does know, he realizes intensely; it has entered deep into his heart and moves him to act accordingly. Therefore, I have said: devotion depends on the lucid manifestation and the profound realization of a religious truth.

To one other fact I wish to lead your attention, one which must not surprise us if we meet with it in history or books of travel, viz.: That devotions come and go, increase and decrease, are local and universal. In the so-called Raccolta, or prayer book, in which you have all the prayers and acts indulgenced by the Popes of various centuries, in this Raccolta, I say, we find numbers of devotions of which we perhaps never heard before; some of them were formerly loved and revered and widely practiced, but are now perhaps passing away.

For instance, at first great devotion was paid to the apostles, then followed others to the martyrs; though all along there were saints nearer to our Lord than either martyrs or apostles; but, as if they had been lost in the effulgence of His glory, and because they were not manifested in external works separate from Him, it happened that, for a long time, they were less thought of. In the process of time, the apostles and then the martyrs exerted less influence than before over the popular mind, and the local saints, who were new creations of God's grace, took their place. Then, owing to the religious meditation of holy men and their gradual influence upon Christian people, those names which might at first sight have been expected to enter somewhat into the devotions of the faithful, shone like stars in the ecclesiastical heavens.

St. Joseph furnishes a most striking instance. It was always known that he was the foster-father of our Lord and the chaste spouse of Mary, and still, though he had so great a claim to the veneration and love of the faithful, devotion to him is comparatively of late date, at least among Christian people. When once it began, men seemed surprised that it had not been thought of before; and now they justly hold him next to the Blessed Virgin in their religious affection and veneration.

Again, some saints are greatly honored in one locality, and scarcely at all in an other; the reason of it is frequently that he is the evangelist or patron, the child or benefactor or pride of that particular nation or city. Thus: St. Genevieve and St. Martin are greatly honored in France; St. Patrick in Ireland; St. Wenceslaus in Poland; St. Philip in Rome; St. Januarius in Naples; St. Anne in Canada; etc.

Finally, there are popular devotions - devotions that move not only individuals and localities, but also the masses, aye, the world. Such popular devotions are abundant outpourings of the Holy Ghost, moving multitudes to love and religion, working out divine purposes, developing and protecting some divine principle or institution, or shielding from some imminent danger threatening religion or society. From time to time, Almighty God lets, as it were, a ray of intense light stream in upon some truth or object of Faith, which, illuminating it, throws other truths and objects in a dark background. This truth or object, though always known, being thus prominently held up, strikes men's attention and seizes upon their affections; in this way popular devotions arise and spread: they are evidences of Divine Providence in general, and especially of God's loving care of His Church.

In our century there are two such popular devotions, which evidently came from God. They are devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. These two devotions should be especially cultivated because they are intended in the designs of God to answer to the wants of the age. Of the two, that of the Immaculate Conception holds of course a subordinate place; it is intended as a preparation for the other. For Jesus is obscured when Mary is kept in the background. She has protected Him; as in His infancy, so in the history of devotion; and we shall see in a future instruction that devotion to the Immaculate Conception protects devotion to the Sacred Heart and ministers to it.

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!" Truly, He reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly. Let us submit to His inscrutable judgments, and endeavor to realize all His designs; for, on the one hand, God's glory is man's happiness, and man's happiness is God's glory; and on the other hand, God would cease to be God if He sought not in all things His glory and man's happiness.