Old time religion

The Church has a treasure house of prayers many of which seem to be well and truly hidden away these days. Apart from older Catholics and those pre Vatican folk, there are probably few now who pray some of the traditional prayers and novenas. Whether these have been actively discouraged in a renewed and more modern church or whether they have just been replaced by other prayer forms is anybody's guess. But generations of Catholics have been sustained in their faith by these prayers and novenas and ,though their piety may be unacceptable to more modern mindsets, it would be completely wrong to dismiss or diminish the faith of those who prayed them as, sadly, often happens today. The fashion for more "personal" and spontaneous prayer seems to reflect our more individualistic age; and it is true that older prayers could be said by rote without much meaning. But such prayers have much to recommend themselves. After all, the Our Father, is such a prayer.
Perhaps we need to go back and look again at the way others prayed and continue to pray. There is great treasure to be found in the prayers of the past. More to come.