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.
"Lord, take from me everything that hinders me from going to You. give me all that will lead me to You. Take me from myself and give me to Yourself."
St Nicholas Flue
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"O Lord, my God, who will seek you with simple and pure love, and not find that you are all one can desire, for you show yourself first and go out to meet those who seek you?
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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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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