Devotion
“Devotion, is simply the promptitude, fervour, affection, and agility which we have in the service of God: and there is a difference between a good man and a devout man; for he is a good man who keeps the commandments of God, although it be without great promptitude or fervour; but he is devout who not only observes them but does so willingly, promptly, and with a good heart.”
~St. Francis De Sales
“The life of devotion will grow in this steadiness and in this agility. Those who possess it are often plain people. They often bear scars. They may have been at one time very difficult personalities. There is a striking realism in their recognition of the power of the destructive forces that dissipate and divide life, of the cleft between the ideal and the real. Yet they seem to see beneath the cleft, to be confident that it can be healed, and to turn up at unexpected moments, prepared for action. For them marriage, and birth, and the family, and the community, and work, and the seasons, and even suffering and death are good – for they, too, are related to the center. These men and women seem to be living from within outwards and to be inwardly awake and alive. They are far from perfect in their conduct, but they usually know where they are weak and they are not led to conceal it from themselves or to be unnerved by it. They are teachable. And they seem to be extremely well satisfied with their schoolmaster.”
~Douglas Steere
~St. Francis De Sales
“The life of devotion will grow in this steadiness and in this agility. Those who possess it are often plain people. They often bear scars. They may have been at one time very difficult personalities. There is a striking realism in their recognition of the power of the destructive forces that dissipate and divide life, of the cleft between the ideal and the real. Yet they seem to see beneath the cleft, to be confident that it can be healed, and to turn up at unexpected moments, prepared for action. For them marriage, and birth, and the family, and the community, and work, and the seasons, and even suffering and death are good – for they, too, are related to the center. These men and women seem to be living from within outwards and to be inwardly awake and alive. They are far from perfect in their conduct, but they usually know where they are weak and they are not led to conceal it from themselves or to be unnerved by it. They are teachable. And they seem to be extremely well satisfied with their schoolmaster.”
~Douglas Steere
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