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Objection 1: It would seem that devotion is not a special act.
That which qualifies other acts is seemingly not a special act. Now
devotion seems to qualify other acts, for it is written (2 Paralip
29:31): "All the multitude offered victims, and praises, and
holocausts with a devout mind." Therefore devotion is not a special
act.
Objection 2: Further, no special kind of act is common to various
genera of acts. But devotion is common to various genera of acts,
namely, corporal and spiritual acts: for a person is said to meditate
devoutly and to genuflect devoutly. Therefore devotion is not a
special act.
Objection 3: Further, every special act belongs either to an
appetitive or to a cognitive virtue or power. But devotion belongs to
neither, as may be seen by going through the various species of acts of
either faculty, as enumerated above (FP, Questions 78, seqq.;
FS, Question 23, Article 4). Therefore devotion is not a
special act.
On the contrary, Merits are acquired by acts as stated above (FS,
Question 21, Articles 34). But devotion has a special reason
for merit. Therefore devotion is a special act.
I answer that, Devotion is derived from "devote"; wherefore those
persons are said to be "devout" who, in a way, devote themselves to
God, so as to subject themselves wholly to Him. Hence in olden
times among the heathens a devotee was one who vowed to his idols to
suffer death for the safety of his army, as Livy relates of the two
Decii (Decad. I, viii, 9; x, 28). Hence devotion is
apparently nothing else but the will to give oneself readily to things
concerning the service of God. Wherefore it is written (Ex.
35:20,21) that "the multitude of the children of Israel . .
. offered first-fruits to the Lord with a most ready and devout
mind." Now it is evident that the will to do readily what concerns
the service of God is a special kind of act. Therefore devotion is a
special act of the will.
Reply to Objection 1: The mover prescribes the mode of the movement
of the thing moved. Now the will moves the other powers of the soul to
their acts, and the will, in so far as it regards the end, moves both
itself and whatever is directed to the end, as stated above (FS,
Question 9, Article 3). Wherefore, since devotion is an act of
the will whereby a man offers himself for the service of God Who is
the last end, it follows that devotion prescribes the mode to human
acts, whether they be acts of the will itself about things directed to
the end, or acts of the other powers that are moved by the will.
Reply to Objection 2: Devotion is to be found in various genera of
acts, not as a species of those genera, but as the motion of the mover
is found virtually in the movements of the things moved.
Reply to Objection 3: Devotion is an act of the appetitive part of
the soul, and is a movement of the will, as stated above.
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