Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Friendliness or affability is a virtue which strives tomake things pleasant. But there are situations in which the effortof friendliness must fail of its object: that is, particular casesin which people cannot or will not be friendly. In such situations,flattery is likely to show itself. Flattery is a sort of lying, andhas the evil of lying. It is the effort to please people bypraising them for good qualities they do not possess, or approvingtheir bad qualities which should be condemned. Flattery usually hasthe ulterior view of getting something from those who are subjectedto it.
2. Unless flattery is praise of a person's sin or ismeant to draw him into sin, it is usually a venial, not a mortalsin.
"Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director."
St Philip Neri
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"It is not God's will that we should abound in spiritual delights, but that in all things we should submit to his holy will."
Blessed Henry Suso
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"Obedience is a short cut to perfection."
St Philip Neri
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