Fr. McBrien explains it all for me....
Somewhere between the Rosary group this morning and anticipatory sulking because work keeps me from attending the parish's monthly Holy Hour, I found time to amuse myself by reading the new issue of the National Catholic Reporter Distorter. In Waning devotions may be sign of liturgical health, Fr. Richard P. McBrien explains how devotions are indicative of immature faith, bad catechesis, rampant cretinism, what-have-you. Not wanting to shoulder all the blame for the ill-will, he quotes liberally from other authors, such as Fr.James Martin, associate editor of America, saying that many Catholics "regard devotions as 'inconsistent with a mature faith, antithetical to a contemporary understanding of religion, overly reliant on things - beads, medals, scapulars - and even faintly superstititious.' " Poor Fr. McBrien is confused by a younger generation that is taking up devotions that their parents were eager to abandon.

Private devotions flourish when the church's liturgical life is poorly understood or when it does not satisfy the spiritual needs or ordinary people. Private devotions seem to be doing just fine, right here in the affluent, extremely well-educated 'burbs of Chicago.

The fact that Catholics today are less interested in private devotions should not be taken as a negative reflection on the current state of the church's spiritual well-being. On the contrary, the lessening of interest in private devotions is more likely a sign the the church is spiritually healthier now because its spiritual life is, as the [Second Vatican] council hoped it would be, rooted more directly and more deeply in the liturgy itself, and especially in the Eucharist. So......the church is spiritually healthier, even though approximately 75%-80% of its members don't show up for Mass on any given Sunday. Hmmm. Speaking stricly from my own empirical observations, it is those people who are participating liturgically 7 days a week who are often also quite strong in the private devotion department. Something in this article is not making sense.

I've just answered the fourth or fifth call of the day asking about the time of the Holy Hour. I'm not going to clue these folks on in Fr. McBrien's musings. In the light of our own renewed understanding of the communal nature of the Eucharist and of the church's encouragement of full lay participation in it....Jesus left us the Eucharist to be eaten, not adored.

I'd scream - but I'm working in a Church.