Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. What a lie is in words, dissimulation is in outwardaction. Hence, dissimulation has the character and evil of lying.Yet not every pretense is dissimulation; there is figurative actionas well as figurative speech.
2. Hypocrisy is a kind of dissimulation. A man is asimulator when his actions express any falsity. He is ahypocrite only when the falsity which his actions expressis that he is a better, or wiser, or holier person than he actuallyis.
3. All dissimulation is a lie in action. Hypocrisy is atype of dissimulation. Therefore hypocrisy is a he in action, andconsequently it is a sin.
4. Hypocrisy (and, indeed, all dissimulation) is a mortalor a venial sin, according to the end intended by the simulator orhypocrite. If this end be directly opposed to charity, and isa matter of importance, the sin is mortal.
"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
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"Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit before it ripens.
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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"To do God's will -- this was the goal upon which the saints constantly fixed their gaze. They were fully persuaded that in this consists the entire perfection of the soul. "
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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