Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Opposed to perseverance is the vice of softness oreffeminacy, which tends to give way under the effort of sustainedvirtue, even when the stress is slight. Effeminacy takes no joy ingood, and quickly wearies of it.
2. Also opposed to perseverance is pertinacity, which isthe vice of headstrong, stubborn, opinionated people who want theirown way rather than what is right, and who wish to humble anddefeat their opponents. While effeminacy falls short ofperseverance, and sins by defect or deficiency, pertinacity runsahead of perseverance and sins by excess. Cicero (De Inv. Rhet.ii) says that pertinacity is to perseverance as superstitionis to religion.
"A single act of uniformity with the divine will suffices to make a saint."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"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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"It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it."
St Philip Neri
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