Choose a topic from Part 2B:

82. Devotion

1. Devotion, in the religious sense, is the will to giveoneself steadily to the service of God.

2. Devotion is not a virtue, but the act of a virtue.Indeed, it is anact of charity, as all the moral virtues arewhen they are supernatural. But specifically it is an act of thevirtue of religion.

3. The extrinsic cause of devotion in a person is God. Theintrinsic cause (which is in the person himself) is meditation orcontemplation. When a person thinks upon God and ponders hisgoodness and loving kindness, he is stirred to a love of God thatbegets devotion. And, pondering his own insufficiency and hisfaults, a man is moved to turn to God and to lean upon him; out ofthis consideration too, devotion arises.

4. The direct and chief effect of devotion is joy in God.Its secondary and indirect effect is sorrow for one'sshortcomings and sins.

"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine

* * *

"The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in hearing the word of God and living by it."
R. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP

* * *

"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri

* * *