Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. If a man, from lack of love, or from pride, should bewholly without fear in any circumstance, he would be guilty of anevil. Such insensibility is in conflict with reason. If, however,insensibility comes merely from dullness of mind, which is not aman's own fault, it is not a sinful insensibility.
2. Insensibility to fear is opposed to fortitude. Thevirtue of fortitude regulates or moderates fear, so that a manfaces grave danger in spite of it. But insensibility is a dullness,stupidity, or pride which has no fear to regulate. Fortitude facesdangers; to insensibility, there are no dangers.
"This is the greatest wisdom -- to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. "
Thomas á Kempis
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"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri
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"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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