Choose a topic from Part 2B:

15. Vices Opposed to Knowledge and Understanding

1. A person who turns away his mind from all considerationof God, or who so busies himself with creatural things that he hasno time to think of God and of his own soul's needs, is subjectto mental and spiritual blindness; in so far as this is aperson's own fault, it is a sin.

2. Blindness of mind is a complete privation ofthe consideration of spiritual goods. Dullness of sense isa partial privation; it is a weakness, not a total absence, ofmental vision which beholds spiritual goods. Thus dullness, in sofar as it is voluntary, is also sinful.

3. It appears that both dullness of sense and blindness ofmind arise primarily from sins of the flesh; the former fromgluttony, and the latter from lust.

"God has no need of men."
St Philip Neri

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"Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them."
St Philip Neri

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"Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise. "
Thomas á Kempis

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