Choose a topic from Part 2A:
1. Concupiscible passion, which tends simply to an end, precedes irascible passion, which is aroused by difficulty in achieving the end. Thus desire for a thing precedes the courage with which one faces difficulty in obtaining the thing. But concupiscible passion, which rests or is quiet in an end attained or lost (joy; sorrow) follows the irascible passion which overcame difficulty or succumbed to it. Hence, in passions of movement concupiscible precedes irascible; in passions of repose irascible precedes concupiscible.
2. In the order of execution, that is, in the carrying out of the drive of passion, love of the end sought comes first, then follows desire, then comes joy in the end attained or sorrow in its loss. But in the order of intention, the thing first wanted is joy in the object attained; by this anticipated joy, love and desire are aroused.
3. The first of the irascible passions is hope. Hope looks for a good to come, but involves knowledge that difficulty may lie in the way, and that the end hoped for may not, as a fact, be achieved. A person does not have hope for what is certainly to come; thus no one hopes that tomorrow will come, although he may desire its coming.
4. The four principal passions after love are joy, sorrow, hope, and fear; love is the fundamental passion. Joy and sorrow mark the subsiding of the passions; hope and fear direct their movement. Joy and sorrow are in things present; hope and fear are for things to come.
"The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart. "
St Philip Neri
* * *
"The Lord has always revealed to mortals the treasures of his wisdom and his spirit, but now that the face of evil bares itself more and more, so does the Lord bare his treasures more."
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
* * *
"Obedience is a short cut to perfection."
St Philip Neri
* * *