Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Opposed to perseverance is the vice of softness oreffeminacy, which tends to give way under the effort of sustainedvirtue, even when the stress is slight. Effeminacy takes no joy ingood, and quickly wearies of it.
2. Also opposed to perseverance is pertinacity, which isthe vice of headstrong, stubborn, opinionated people who want theirown way rather than what is right, and who wish to humble anddefeat their opponents. While effeminacy falls short ofperseverance, and sins by defect or deficiency, pertinacity runsahead of perseverance and sins by excess. Cicero (De Inv. Rhet.ii) says that pertinacity is to perseverance as superstitionis to religion.
"It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it."
St Philip Neri
* * *
"Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts."
St Philip Neri
* * *
"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis
* * *