Choose a topic from Part 2B:
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.
"Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them."
St Philip Neri
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"Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it."
St Philip Neri
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