Choose a topic from Part 2A:
1. The weariness of sorrow or pain is relieved by pleasure, just as bodily fatigue is relieved by rest.
2. Tears and other outward expressions of sorrow give some relief to the afflicted person; these are natural manifestations; they seem to disperse sorrow, letting it escape outwardly, rather than keeping it pent up in the sufferer.
3. Pain is assuaged and sorrow is abated by the consolation of kindly words and deeds, the sympathy of friends.
4. The contemplation of truth, which is the noblest employment of the mind, gives the greatest pleasure, and therefore is a powerful relief for pain or sorrow. The greater is one's love of wisdom, the more powerfully does contemplation of truth counteract pain.
5. Bodily remedies, such as sleep and baths, are valuable remedies for sorrow or pain in so far as they quiet the disturbance of nature caused by pain.
"Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts."
St Philip Neri
* * *
"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?"
Thomas á Kempis
* * *
"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
* * *