Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. In our present study, irony does not have its usualmeaning as a kind of ridicule or mockery. It has the original Greekmeaning of dissimulation of one's good qualities; it meanspretending, not in honesty and humility but dishonestly,that one is less or worse than one actually is. Thus understood,irony has the character of dissimulation and lying.
2. One lie may be worse than another either in thematter lied about or in the motive of the liar.Now, irony and boasting deal with the same matter, forboth are a speaker's words about himself. But the two thingsdiffer in motive. And the motive of boasting is usually viler thanthe motive of irony. The boaster wishes to glorify himself in theopinion of others; the ironical person rather wishes to avoid theoffense of seeming prideful or snobbish. Yet sometimes irony isworse than boasting; it is so, for example, when it is used as acunning means of deceiving persons with a view to subsequentcheating.
"It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience."
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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"Whom do you seek, friend, if you seek not God? Seek him, find him, cleave to him; bind your will to his with bands of steel and you will live always at peace in this life and in the next."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God's will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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