Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. What a lie is in words, dissimulation is in outwardaction. Hence, dissimulation has the character and evil of lying.Yet not every pretense is dissimulation; there is figurative actionas well as figurative speech.
2. Hypocrisy is a kind of dissimulation. A man is asimulator when his actions express any falsity. He is ahypocrite only when the falsity which his actions expressis that he is a better, or wiser, or holier person than he actuallyis.
3. All dissimulation is a lie in action. Hypocrisy is atype of dissimulation. Therefore hypocrisy is a he in action, andconsequently it is a sin.
4. Hypocrisy (and, indeed, all dissimulation) is a mortalor a venial sin, according to the end intended by the simulator orhypocrite. If this end be directly opposed to charity, and isa matter of importance, the sin is mortal.
"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri
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"Lord, take from me everything that hinders me from going to You. give me all that will lead me to You. Take me from myself and give me to Yourself."
St Nicholas Flue
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"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine
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