m
the service of the Divine Master.

III

Is Contemplation, that is Meditation, the Cause of Devotion?

In Ps. xxxviii. 4 it is said: _And in my meditation a fire shall flame
out._ But spiritual fire causes devotion. Therefore meditation causes
devotion.

The extrinsic and principal cause of devotion is God Himself; thus S.
Ambrose says[86]: "God calls those whom He deigns to call; and whom He
wills to make religious He makes religious; and had He willed it He
would have made the Samaritans devout instead of indevout."

But the intrinsic cause of devotion on our part is meditation or
contemplation. For, as we have said, devotion is a certain act of the
will by which a man gives himself promptly to the Divine service. All
acts of the will, however, proceed from consideration, since the will's
object is good understood. Hence S. Augustine says[87]: "The will starts
from the understanding." Meditation must, then, be the cause of devotion
inasmuch as it is from meditation that a man conceives the idea of
giving himself up to God.

And two considerations lead a man to do this: one is the consideration
of the Divine Goodness and of His benefits, whence the words of the
Psalmist: _But for me it is good to cling close to my God, to put my
hope in the Lord God._[88] And this consideration begets love, which is
the proximate cause of devotion. And the second is man's consideration
of his own defects which compel him to lean upon God, according to the
words: _I have lifted up mine eyes to the mountains, from whence help
shall come to me; my help is from the Lord Who made Heaven and
earth._[89] This latter consideration excludes all presumption which, by
making him lean upon himself, might prevent a man from submitting
himself to God.

Some, however, argue that contemplation or meditation is not the cause
of devotion, thus:

1. No cause hinders its own effect. But subtle intellectual meditations
often hinder devotion.

But it is the consideration of those things which naturally tend
to excite love of God which begets devotion; consideration of
things which do not come under this head, but rather distract
the mind from it, are a hindrance to devotion.

2. Again, if contemplation were the real cause of devotion, it should
follow that the higher the matter of our contemplation the greater the
devotion it begot. But the opposite is the case. For it frequently
happens that greater devotion is aroused