Any study of late medieval religion must begin with the liturgy, for within that great cycle of fast and festival, of ritual observance and symbolic gesture, lay Christians found the paradigms and the stories which shaped their perception of the world and their place in it….In the liturgy and the sacramental celebrations which were its central moments, medieval people found the key to the meaning and purpose of their lives.
–Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580
I like this quote very much, but…it might have given you the wrong impression.
This is a tidy little sum-up of the “medieval” way of life of European Christians, completely woven through with Catholicism, and exactly what a historian would write to begin his history of religious tradition. But I personally don’t look on the devotions and religious traditions of the Age
of Faith as historical curiosities. I see them as a living template, living unobserved and silent, like the life inside a seed about to sprout. If we nurture it, the life of grace will come out of these practices and devotions–just like it did for European Christians hundreds of years ago.
Some years ago now Gretchen Rubin, an American (New York City) writer and blogger, became famous for her book The Happiness Project, which was a chronicle of a year she spent trying to put into practice words of wisdom for better living in order to find out if she could be happier. It was not a religious book at all, of course, or it wouldn’t have been a popular book in our era. But it has made me think that Catholics should do something similar with Catholic traditions, and week by week try and incorporated new practices and devotions into their lives.
To help Catholics more fully live their tradition day by day, I plan to be posting many snippets of Catholic practices, mostly from the riches of the glorious Age of Faith, that will be excellent for us today. This is especially important since our lives today are lived in the exact opposite environment of the Catholic culture of Christendom at its zenith: we have had local Sunday Masses and all public liturgical activity reduced, or even stopped altogether this year. This could not have been comprehended even a hundred years ago! So, then, here’s to making a greater personal effort to live the Catholic life through historic and vibrant devotions at home: praying more beautifully and cultivating a greater love of the Faith we have been given!
St. Catherine Catholic Culture Center 