CAPG's Blog 

"KEEP this day of penance in such a manner as may be acceptable to God, in humiliation and self-denial. If you practice some penitential works, and yet find ways to court your appetite, commit excesses, and indulge yourself in all your usual liberties, will this be a good preparation for the blessings of heaven? Endeavour in this point to reform yourself and others.

Self-denial is absolutely necessary for a Christian life. This necessity arises from the corruption of our nature, which spreading itself through all the faculties of our soul and body, inclines them all, with a sort of violence, to evil; so that if they have the liberty of following their own inclination, they will all run into sin, and seek satisfaction in it. This corruption then obliges us to self-denial; because the will and law of God are holy and we cannot walk according to these, unless we check and suppress in us all those inclinations, which would carry us out of the way of this holiness, and lead us to evil. If we follow that which is just and good, we must of necessity stand against and resist that which binds us to sin.

This is declared by Christ Himself, who thus says to His disciples: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me". Here self-denial is expressly declared a necessary condition for becoming a disciple of Christ. This is to be practiced by keeping a strict watch upon all the faculties of the soul, and senses of the body; and bringing them into subjection to the will of God, as often as any motions or inclinations are perceived in them, contrary to the divine will. Hence a guard is to be set upon the inward and outward man: all is to be kept under government. The understanding, the will, the memory, the heart, the affections, the desires, the whole list of passions, the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the taste, the hands and feet, and the rest. No liberty is to be allowed to any of them, but in accordance with the divine will. Thus is a Christian to practice what he professes, that is, to be a follower of Christ." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

TEMPTATIONS.-There are temptations which every one may avoid, and this is a positive duty; for "he who loves the danger shall perish therein," says the Holy Gospel. Some there are which no man can fly from, inasmuch as he bears them about him; neither the desert, nor the cloister, nor the solitary retreat shuts them out; fasting, prayer, and confidence in God are the only safeguards. St. Paul, the first hermit, St. Anthony, and St. Jerome, are cases in point. St. Paul, an anchorite of Bithynia, experienced temptations while on the arid rocks of Mount Latre, whither he had betaken himself. Although living merely on raw herbs, bitter acorns, and the water flowing near his grot, he had terrible conflicts to endure; but at length the spirit, or rather the power of grace, triumphed over the flesh. The outer world became aware of his virtues and admired him; he founded several retreats, or monasteries, for anchorites. Emperors, princes, pontiffs, and prelates sought the aid of his counsel and profited thereby, for holiness is a good counsellor. He died in 956.

MORAL REFLECTION.—“God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it." -(1 Cor. x. 13.)