Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Abstinence is essentially a keeping away, a refraining,entirely or in some degree, from anything. Specifically, as weemploy the term here, abstinence is a retrenchment in the use offood or drink. It may be a total abstaining from certain kinds offood or drink; it may be a partial abstaining from nutriment in thesense that it is observed at certain times or in certaincircumstances. When abstinence is ordinate, that is, in completeaccord with right reason, it is either a virtue (that is,an enduring good habit) or it is a virtuous act.
2. As a moral virtue, abstinence tends to good under aspecial aspect, and therefore is a special virtue.
"Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good. "
St Philip Neri
* * *
"As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers"
St Augustine
* * *
"There is nothing which gives greater security to our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for us, than to follow another person’s will, rather than our own, in doing good."
St Philip Neri
* * *