Untitled - Saints' Books

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254 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
wish to be secure, Remove thy way far from her. Do 1
not
even pass near the door of her whom the devil makes an
occasion of temptation to you: pass at a distance from
it; and should it be really necessary for you to speak to
a woman, your words, says St. Augustine, should be few
and reserved. 2 St. Cyprian gives the same advice. He
says that our intercourse with women should be passing,
and as if we were in flight.
3
But some one may say, The woman with whom I am
familiar is a person of deformed figure; God forbid she
should be an occasion of sin to me. But St. Cyprian
answers that the devil is a painter who, when concupis
cence is excited, makes a deformed countenance appear
beautiful. 4
But she is a relative. St. Jerome answers: "Allow
not to stay with you even the person that is your rela
tive."
Relationship sometimes serves to take away re
straint and to multiply sins by adding the guilt of incest
to impurity and sacrilege.
"The sin will be only the
more criminal," says St. Cyprian, the more easily one
can remove the suspicion of misconduct. St. Charles
Borromeo 7 passed a decree that his priests should not
without his permission dwell in the same house with
women, even with near relatives.
But she is a spiritual soul and a saint: there is no
danger. Is there no danger? Yes, says St. Augustine.
1 "
Longe fac ab ea viam tuam, et ne appropinques foribus domus
Prov. v. 8.
ejus."
2
Cum " feminis, sermo brevis et rigidus."
Transeunter feminis exhibenda est accessio, quodammodo fugi-
De Singular, clcr.
:i "
tiva."
4 "
5 "
Diabolus, pingens, speciosus efficit quidquid horridum fuerit."
Prohibe tecum morari, etiam quae de genere tuo sunt."
Ep. ad
Ocean.
6 "
delictum."
Magis illicito delinquitur ubi sine suspicione securum potest esse
1
A eta Mcdiol. p. 2, syn. 4, Monit.