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What True Devotion Is

What True Devotion Is

Last updated on: March 14, 2025 at 8:09 am by Mark Wilson

What True Devotion Is 2025-03-14T08:09:28-05:00 Mark Wilson

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For your spiritual edification

Here is a selection from St. Francis de Sales classic work of spirituality
Introduction to the Devout Life.
Perfect for Lent or any other time of the year.

Let all our employment be to know GOD: the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him. And as knowledge is commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our knowledge shall be, the greater will be our love: and if our love of GOD were great, we should love Him equally in pains and pleasures.- BROTHER LAWRENCE.

CHAPTER I. What true Devotion is.
Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis of Sales
Christian Classics Ethereal Library

YOU aim at a devout life, dear child, because as a Christian you know that such devotion is most acceptable to God’s Divine Majesty.
But seeing that the small errors people are wont to commit in the beginning of any under taking are apt to wax greater as they advance,
and to become irreparable at last, it is most important that you should thoroughly understand wherein lies the grace of true devotion;
—and that because while there undoubtedly is such a true devotion, there are also many spurious and idle semblances thereof;
and unless you know which is real, you may mistake, and waste your energy in pursuing an empty, profitless shadow.

Arelius was wont to paint all his pictures with the features and expression of the women he loved, and even so we all colour devotion according to our own likings and dispositions.
One man sets great value on fasting, and believes himself to be leading a very devout life, so long as he fasts rigorously, although the while his heart is full of bitterness;
—and while he will not moisten his lips with wine, perhaps not even with water, in his great abstinence, he does not scruple to steep them in his neighbour’s blood,
through slander and detraction.

Dr Jean Fortunet – Own work

Another man reckons himself as devout because he repeats many prayers daily, although at the same time he does not refrain from all manner of angry, irritating, conceited or insulting speeches among his family and neighbours.

The Minnesota state photograph Grace by Eric Enstrom

This man freely opens his purse in almsgiving, but closes his heart to all gentle and forgiving feelings towards those who are opposed to him;
while that one is ready enough to forgive his enemies, but will never pay his rightful debts save under pressure.

Woman giving alms by János Thorma

Meanwhile all these people are conventionally called religious, but nevertheless they are in no true sense really devout.

When Saul’s servants sought to take David, Michal induced them to suppose that the lifeless figure lying in his bed, and covered with his garments, was the man they sought; and in like manner many people dress up an exterior with the visible acts expressive of earnest devotion, and the world supposes them to be really devout and spiritual-minded, while all the time they are mere lay figures, mere phantasms of devotion.

Person Lying On White Bed · Free Stock Photo

But, in fact, all true and living devotion presupposes the love of God;
—and indeed it is neither more nor less than a very real love of God,
though not always of the same kind;
for that Love one while shining on the soul we call grace,
which makes us acceptable to His Divine Majesty;
—when it strengthens us to do well, it is called Charity;
—but when it attains its fullest perfection,
in which it not only leads us to do well,
but to act carefully, diligently, and promptly,
then it is called Devotion.

The ostrich never flies,
—the hen rises with difficulty,
and achieves but a brief and rare flight,

Donarreiskoffer – Own work

but the eagle,
the dove,
and the swallow,
are continually on the wing,
and soar high;—
even so sinners do not rise towards God,
for all their movements are earthly and earthbound.

Transport Pixels from England – Touchdown

Well-meaning people, who have not as yet attained a true devotion, attempt a manner of flight by means of their good actions,
but rarely, slowly and heavily; while really devout men rise up to God frequently, and with a swift and soaring wing.
In short, devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us,
and causes us to work briskly and lovingly; and just as charity leads us to a general practice of all God’s Commandments,
so devotion leads us to practise them readily and diligently.

And therefore we cannot call him who neglects to observe all God’s Commandments either good or devout, because in order to be good,
a man must be filled with love, and to be devout, he must further be very ready and apt to perform the deeds of love.
And forasmuch as devotion consists in a high degree of real love, it not only makes us ready, active, and diligent in following all God’s Commands,
but it also excites us to be ready and loving in performing as many good works as possible, even such as are not enjoined upon us, but are only matters of counsel or inspiration.

Christenelle Diroc

Even as a man just recovering from illness, walks only so far as he is obliged to go, with a slow and weary step,
so the converted sinner journeys along as far as God commands him but slowly and wearily,
until he attains a true spirit of devotion, and then, like a sound man, he not only gets along,
but he runs and leaps in the way of God’s Commands, and hastens gladly along the paths of heavenly counsels and inspirations.

The difference between love and devotion is just that which exists between fire and flame;
—love being a spiritual fire which becomes devotion when it is fanned into a flame;
—and what devotion adds to the fire of love is that flame which makes it
eager, energetic and diligent,
not merely in obeying God’s Commandments,
but in fulfilling His Divine Counsels and inspirations.

To the Rescue by Norman Rockwell from March 28, 1931

He has been pleased to create great Saints who may be compared to the lily and the rose, but He has also created lesser ones, who must be content to be daisies or simple violets flowering at His Feet, and whose mission it is to gladden His Divine Eyes when He deigns to look down on them. And the more gladly they do His Will the greater is their perfection. As the sun shines both on the cedar and on the floweret, so the Divine Sun illumines every soul, great and small, and all correspond to His care—just as in nature the seasons are so disposed that on the appointed day the humblest daisy shall unfold its petals. -“Story of a Soul” , Chapter 1– Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

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