We are always and everywhere at our devotions. In some moments we are especially attentive to them. When we light a candle, kiss a photograph, scatter a handful of ashes, enter a voting booth, or whisper a prayer, it is easy to catch sight of ourselves enacting our beliefs and desires. But usually we are not so aware. We move through most ordinary hours without recognizing that here, too, or perhaps here even more, since indeed we are not watching so closely, we perform the devotions by which we make sense of the world and give body to what is happening in our hearts.

Pat Youngdahl, Subversive Devotions