olics — who say many prayers, hear many Masses, make many communions in honor of Our Lord or His blessed Mother — hold to their own will in many things, small if you like, which they know are not pleasing to one or the other; hold to their own ways against theirs; fail in sweetness of temper, charity of tongue, unselfish fidelity to the duties they owe to others, in patience and resignation when the cross comes — who are in some, perhaps in many ways, unlike them. Surely such persons could not be called, yet at least, devoted, in the full meaning of the word, to Jesus and Mary. Here, again, the true test of devotion is the hard thing — imitation. To perform any amount of lip devotion is easy, compared to the practice of that charity, patience, resignation, obedience in trying circumstances — which marked their holy lives.
In this matter of devotions persons may, and perhaps should, be guided by their own spiritual taste, practising those which they like best, and which help them most toward what should be the end of all devotions, namely, laboring sincerely to make themselves as like as possible to the person to whom they are or desire to be devoted. We may, however, study devotions, comparing one
