Untitled - Saints' Books

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INSTR. in.] The Chastity of the Priest. 257
away from sanctity into sin. 1 St. Jerome wrote to Nepotianus:
Do not confide too much in your past chas
be careful not to sit alone with a woman without
tity;
2
a witness,"
that is, do not remain with her.
St. Isidore
of Pelusium says: If necessity obliges you to converse
with women, keep your eyes cast on the ground; and
after you have spoken a few words, go away imme
1
diately."
Father Peter Consolini of the Oratory used
to say, that we should practise charity towards women
who are even saints as towards the souls in purgatory,
that is, from a distance, and without looking at them.
This good Father would say, that in temptations against
chastity priests would do well to reflect on their dig
nity; and would add that a certain Cardinal, when
molested by thoughts, began to look at his cap, and to
think of his cardinalitial dignity, saying:
recommend myself to you."
tation.
cap, I
Thus he resisted the temp
III. It is also necessary to fly from bad company. St.
Jerome says that a man becomes like the companions
with whom he converses. 4 We walk in a dark and slip
pery way; 5 such is the present life ;
Lubricum in tenebris :
if a wicked companion impels us to the precipice, we
are lost. St. Bernardine of Sienna relates 6 that he knew
a person who had preserved her virginity for thirty-
"Magnos praelatos Ecclesiae sub hac specie coruisse reperi, de
quorum casu non magis prsesumebam, quam Hieronymi et Ambrosii."
S. Thomas, De modo con fit.
8
"Ne in praeterita castitate confidas; solus cum sola, absque teste,
non sedeas."
"Si cum ipsis conversari necessitas te obstringat, oculos humi
dejectos habe; cumque pauca locutus fueris, statim avola." Lib. 2,
ep. 284.
"Talis efficitur homo, qualium societate fruitur."
Eusebius, De
Morte Hiet.
l<
5
Lubricum in
6
tenebris."
T. III. Serin, extr. s. 13, n. 6..
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