Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Magnificence aspires to great things and does notshrink from paying for them. Yet it is not foolish, norover-lavish, nor wasteful; for it is a virtue, and therefore anordinate thing, a thing in good relation to reason. Opposed to thisvirtue of magnificence is the vice of littleness or meanness. Thisvice either (a) aspires to little things only, when greater shouldbe attempted; or (b) exercises a pinchpenny care which refuses tonoble enterprise its full greatness of execution.
2. Magnificence, to which littleness or meanness isopposed, is not the direct contrary of this vice. For magnificencestands between two opposed vices, namely, meanness on theone hand, and wastefulnessor prodigality on the other. A meanman spends less than his undertaking is worth; a wasteful manspends more than the work deserves.
"Lord, here burn, here cut, and dry up in me all that hinders me from going to You, that You may spare me in eternity."
St Louis Bertrand
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"The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart. "
St Philip Neri
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"If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of serenity in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the divine will. Reflect that all the sins of your past wicked life happened because you wandered from the path of God's will. For the future, embrace God's good pleasure and say to him in every happening: "Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight." "
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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