Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:
1. Excommunication means: (a) separation from the familyof the faithful; (b) loss of the right to share in the prayers andgeneral good works of the Church; (c) loss of the right to receivethe sacraments.
2. The Church imposes this stern penalty ofexcommunication only when the reasons demanding it are most grave.And the Church always hopes that her stern action will humble thepride of the person excommunicated, and so bring him to repentanceand amendment, and thus win him back to his place among herchildren. The Church hopes also, by imposing the censure ofexcommunication, to prevent or lessen the bad effect exercised onothers by the excommunicated person's evil example.
3. The reason for excommunication is always a grave sin,in which the sinner is obstinate. Sometimes even temporal thingscan enter into grave and stubbornly persistent sin; bodilyintegrity, for instance, or liberty, or valuable property. And soit is possible that a person may incur excommunication forinflicting even temporal harm.
4. Excommunication is effective; that is, it produces thesad effects mentioned in the first paragraph above. However, it isnot actually effective if it should be imposed by mistake orerror.
"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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"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri
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"Does our conduct correspond with our Faith?"
The Cure D'Ars
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