Resources for Faith and Practice

Are You in Desolation, “Stuck in a Rut” Making No Spiritual Progress?

Posted on by Catholic Candle

What Can I Do When My Spiritual Life Feels Dry and Boring, and I Feel Like I Am Only “Going Through the Motions” of Practicing My Faith?


This condition is a description of a classic case of spiritual desolation. Here is how the great spiritual master, St. Ignatius of Loyola, defines this desolation:


I call desolation everything contrary to the consolation explained in the third rule, such as darkness of soul, disturbance in it, movement to things low and earthly, the unquiet of different agitations and temptations, moving to lack of confidence, without hope, without love, when one finds oneself all lazy, tepid, sad, and as if separated from his Creator and Lord. Because, as consolation is contrary to desolation, in the same way the thoughts which come from consolation are contrary to the thoughts which come from desolation.1


Although God can (and sometimes does) give desolation in order to test even a very holy soul, the most usual reason for desolation is because of the person’s sins and his negligence in his spiritual duties.

Here is St. Ignatius’ advice for the person in desolation:

Although in desolation we ought not to change our good resolutions, it is very helpful to intensify our good efforts against the temptations that come during desolation, by insisting more on prayer, meditation, on much examination, and more penance.2

We can do this – viz., intensify our good efforts – even when we are in desolation! And God will help us!


How Can I Make Spiritual Progress?

So how does one advance in the spiritual life? Well, there are a lot of very important parts of this program. And we should strongly desire to make great efforts to attain spiritual progress. Our future happiness is determined by this progress in the spiritual life. The greater a person’s future holiness is, the greater will be his future happiness.

The secret of holiness is a person’s generosity with God. If a person asks himself: “What do I need to do to avoid sin and hell?”, that is a stingy goal! Looking at things that way, the spiritual life is a burden and most people fail (and go to Hell) because they aim so low and the result is even lower.

The spiritual life is Divine Friendship3 and so we should seek to be generous with our Divine Friend. We don’t have to feel generous but nonetheless we should resolve with our will to be generous.

How many times has a parent done what he should do (such as take care of a sick child in the middle of the night), not because of feelings, but because of a will to do good! That is how our love and friendship with Christ should be – generous and willed by us regardless of feelings.

Remember, sin is an offense against our Divine Friend Whom we should never want to offend! Therefore, we must avoid occasions of sin, including persons who make it more likely that we will sin. We humans easily fool ourselves and have many excuses to continue to expose ourselves to our past occasions of sin. We must be unshakably firm in avoiding bad companions and other occasions of sin.

We should associate with persons who will influence us with greater generosity toward our Divine Friend! We should avoid persons who influence us toward greater ease, less sacrifice, and less generosity with Christ our Lord. Even if such people do not explicitly lead us into sin, their influence on us is “in the wrong direction” and that fact makes them bad for us.

We must pray more4 – much more – every day – especially when we are in desolation. We should especially pray the rosary5 – ideally all 15 decades every day. We should implement a daily meditation.6

We must avoid bad music. We should not watch TV, movies or use the internet for entertainment. We should avoid most things on the internet, especially “social media”.7 Even aside from the many sins involved, these weaken us and make the spiritual life (and prayer) distasteful to us.

We should avoid “smart” phone use as much as we can. If we must use a “smart” phone, we should use it only for necessary tasks. We should not scroll or shop on our phone as a form of “recreation”.

We should study our Catholic Faith every day. We should do some spiritual reading every day without fail, e.g., a chapter from the Imitation of Christ.

Do some extra penances every day. A generous amount! Three really good ones are to take totally-cold showers, don’t eat in-between meals, and abstain from junk food, desserts and alcohol, especially outside of social occasions and when we are alone.8

Again, Dear Reader, we can do this! God will help!

1 Quoted from Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Rule #4 for the Discernment of Spirits, First Week.

2 Quoted from Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Rule #6 for the Discernment of Spirits, First Week.

3 This all-important love of God is Divine Friendship. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, explains this truth:


It is written (John 15:15): “I will not now call you servants . . . but My friends.” Now this was said to them by reason of nothing else than charity. Therefore, charity is friendship. …


According to the Philosopher (Ethic. viii, 2,3), not every love has the character of friendship, but that love which is together with benevolence, when, to wit, we love someone so as to wish good to him. If, however, we do not wish good to what we love, but wish its good for ourselves, (thus we are said to love wine, or a horse, or the like), it is love not of friendship, but of a kind of concupiscence [i.e., the seeking of the pleasures of the senses]. For it would be absurd to speak of having friendship for wine or for a horse.


Yet, neither does well-wishing suffice for friendship, for a certain mutual love is requisite, since friendship is between friend and friend: and this well-wishing is founded on some kind of communication.


Accordingly, since there is a communication between man and God, inasmuch as He communicates His happiness to us, some kind of friendship must needs be based on this same communication, of which it is written (1 Corinthians 1:9): “God is faithful: by Whom you are called unto the fellowship of His Son.” The love which is based on this communication, is charity: wherefore it is evident that charity is the friendship of man for God.


Summa, IIa IIae, Q.23, a.1, sed contra and respondeo (emphasis added).



4 Here is a brief explanation about what prayer is essentially: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/10/cc-in-brief-essence-of-prayer/

5 Read this article about how to properly pray the rosary: https://catholiccandle.org/2019/12/23/the-rosary-how-why/

6 Here is a brief explanation about how to do a meditation and why it is important to mediate: https://catholiccandle.org/2021/09/03/lesson-2-meditation-how-why/

7 Read this article, especially the section about social media: https://catholiccandle.org/2023/12/12/the-connection-between-virtue-and-happiness-part-2/

There are many noxious effects of “social media”. It is very unwholesome, is unsocial, and fosters the antithesis of real, deep friendship (especially a profound friendship with God – which is our reason for living).


Beyond the very obvious mortal sins which are virtually everywhere on the internet, e.g., sins against the holy virtue of purity, additionally the sins of worldliness, superficiality, immodesty, time-wasting, and many other types of sin are endemic and pervasive there. This is evident to faithful and informed Catholics whose goal is to live every day the way that, at their judgment they would want to have lived.


Of course, there are countless mainstream studies also, which discover what faithful and informed Catholics already know, viz., that “social media” makes a person unhappier and more isolated. Here are just a few of those mainstream studies:







Lastly, the Government and Big Tech use “social media” (and many other activities on the internet) to spy on us and to amass huge dossiers on us for their future commercial exploitation and political use against us. Here is a small sampling of articles on this subject:








8 Read this article about the ideal penance of not eating for pleasure when you are alone: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/the-spiritual-benefits-of-not-consuming-sweets-and-junkfood-when-you-are-alone


Lesson #52: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat Part XVII

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Philosophy Notes

Catholic Candle note: The article below is part seventeen of the study of the Choleric temperament. The first sixteen parts can be found here:

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36: About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Part I: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

  2. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament– Part II: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

  3. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38: About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part III: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

  4. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

  5. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #40: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part V: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/12/30/lesson-40-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-v/

  6. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #41: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat — Part VI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/01/27/lesson-41-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vi/

  7. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #42: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part VII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/02/21/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vii/

  8. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #43: About the Temperaments –Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament — Their Spiritual Combat Part VIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-viii/

  9. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #44: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat, Part IX: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/04/23/lesson-44-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-ix/

  10. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #45: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part X: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/05/20/lesson-45-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-x/

  11. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #46: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat – Part XI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/06/28/lesson-46-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xi/

  12. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #47: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/07/24/lesson-47-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xii/

  13. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #48: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/08/29/lesson-48-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiii/

  14. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #49: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIV: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/09/24/lesson-49-temperaments-choleric-temperament-the-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiv/

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #50: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XV: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/10/26/3050/

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #51: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat Part XVI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/11/25/lesson-51-temperaments-choleric-temperament-the-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xvi/

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #52 – About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XVII: the Objects of Fear1


Note: In this article, when referring to a person with a choleric temperament, we will simply refer to him as a “choleric”.

Now that we have examined the types of fear,2 let’s now consider with St. Thomas the object of fear – which logically comes next. The object of fear is simply what we fear. But there is a lot to be said about this!

Humans of all temperaments are afflicted with fear. All of us have felt fear. But have we ever stopped to ponder deeply what it is that we fear? Again we have the blessing of St. Thomas’ guidance when answering this question.

St. Thomas probes all subjects deeply and takes each one to its foundation, so when inquiring about the object of fear he begins by asking the question, Whether the Object of Fear is Good or Evil?

As always, St. Thomas examines this question humbly and methodically. He does not assume that the great thinkers who preceded him cannot help him with the inquiry. As with other inquiries, St. Thomas searches what the Fathers and Doctors of the Church teach on this question.

First, he informs us that St. John Damascene, Doctor of the Church, teaches that, “Fear is of a future evil.”3


St. Thomas explains how fear works in the soul

St. Thomas explains that fear is a movement of the appetitive power. By “appetitive power”, he means the power of the soul by which it desires.

There are three types of appetitive powers:

  • The natural appetite – which seeks what is suitable according to nature. An example of this is a tree naturally seeking the sunlight and so a tree which is always in the deep shade of other trees will grow sideways in order to obtain un-shaded sunlight;

  • The sensitive appetite – which seeks what is desirable in relation to the power of sensation of a man’s (or other animal’s) soul. One example of a sensitive appetite is an animal’s hunger for food; and

  • The intellectual (or rational) appetite – otherwise known as the will. This appetite desires the good known by the intellect in a way analogous to the sensitive appetite desiring the good which is sensed by man or another animal.

St. Thomas explains what is involved with this appetitive movement in the soul. Here are his words:

It belongs to this [viz., appetitive] power to:

  • Pursue the good. Consequently, whatever movement of the appetitive power that implies pursuit, has some good for its object; and

  • Avoid the evil. Consequently, whatever movement implies avoidance, has, for its object, some evil.

However, fear can regard good also, in so far as referable to evil. This can be in two ways.

  1. Inasmuch as an evil causes privation of a good. A thing is evil from the very fact that the evil thing is a privation of some good. Wherefore, since evil is shunned because it is evil, it follows that evil is shunned because it deprives a person of a good that one pursues through love. St. Augustine explains that there is no cause for fear except the loss of a good that we love; and

  2. Good can be related to evil as its cause in a way: viz., in so far as some good can, by its power, bring harm to another good that we love. And so, fear regards things in two ways, namely,

  1. The evil from which it shrinks; and

  1. That good which by its power can inflict that evil [on us]. In this way God is feared by man [although God is All-Good], inasmuch as He can inflict punishment, spiritual or corporal. In this way, too, we fear the power of man; especially when the power of the man has been thwarted, or when the power of the man is unjust because then that power is more likely to do us harm.

In like manner one fears a person who is over him or that has the power to do him harm. Thus, a man fears another who knows him to be guilty of a crime, lest he reveal the crime to others.4

Therefore, we can see that the passion of fear is a good thing when it is used properly – when we fear the appropriate things, e.g., when we fear sin or anything that displeases God, and when we fear something else which is truly harmful and so this fear can help us to avoid the evil. By contrast, when we fear inordinately, that is, irrationally in any way, then we are not using fear as God intended.

We must remember that God created the passions in us and they are good. But we must use fear (and the other passions) correctly because fear (and all things created by God) can be abused, resulting in sin and chaos in our lives.

If we reflect well, we see that there are many things that we are accustomed to fear. But we must learn to distinguish – by using our reason – exactly what is appropriate for us to fear and what is not.


A Preview …

In our next lesson we will continue our study of the objects of fear. We will discuss what St. Thomas calls the evil of nature – viz., things that cause pain and/or death, and how it is that man fears these. We will also make some practical considerations concerning how we should handle our fears.

1 Fear influences all temperaments but not in the same way. Later, when we study the other temperaments, we will draw upon the teaching of St. Thomas about fear which we now set out in the context of the choleric temperament.

2 See Lesson #51, found here: Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #51: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat Part XVI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/11/25/lesson-51-temperaments-choleric-temperament-the-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xvi/

3 Taken from St. John Damascene, De Fide Orthodox ii,12, as quoted in the Summa, Ia IIae, Q.42, a.1, Whether the Object of Fear is Good or Evil?

4 Taken from Summa Ia-IIae Q. 42 a. 1 Whether the Object of Fear is Good or Evil? Respondeo [Bracketed words added for clarity.]

The Comfort of the Catholic Faith and God’s Care During Our Perilous Times

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: This article below was written by one of Catholic Candle’s more senior editors, who has a wealth of experience and wisdom.


The Comfort and Security of the True Catholic Faith and God’s Providential Care, Living During Our Perilous Times

It’s a pretty scary world out there.

Nuclear war, cancer, street crime, heart attacks, the steady decline of public morals, the decaying of educational standards, the subversion of the human element of the Church … there are so many other things that could be added to this catalogue of perils in our modern life.  

If one chose to dwell on what could happen to us at any time, he might be paralyzed and unwilling to even get out of bed in the morning.  And to carry this a step further, he may then wonder how he could possibly survive the dangers that threaten to prevent his death from being a happy and holy death – which would be the ultimate tragedy for him.

That is, and should be our biggest concern: whether we have the fortitude to make it safely through the “minefield” of our life on earth to the safe harbor of heaven.

Some time ago, I found the answer.  Not that it was unique to me.  Undoubtedly many of you have long known what it is:

Nothing that happens to me today can hurt me because God allowed it to happen.1 And if the God who loves me allows it, then it must be for my good.2

How can we argue with that?  This is comforting and reassuring, especially when we lose a job, get unhappy news from the doctor, are deceived by a friend or relative, suffer a financial loss, or experience any other of the wide variety of the travails of this life. 

Of course, this trust in God pertains to all things – including all evils – which are out of our control, as shown by the few examples listed above: (e.g., nuclear war, cancer, street crime). It should “go without saying” that we should not rashly suppose that God will protect us from all of the consequences of our own sins and the decisions which we make without seeking His will.

For example, it would be folly to get drunk and, because of this, to miss work and be fired from our job, on the excuse that “Nothing that happens to me today can hurt me because God allowed it to happen.” Rather, we are speaking of the complete trust we should have in God regarding what happens to us beyond our control and through no culpability on our own part.3


Conclusion


Let us have complete security and confidence in Divine Providence!4 He will take perfect care of our needs, both spiritual and temporal!

1 Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this important truth:


It is impossible to trust too much in the Divine assistance.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.17, a.5, ad 2 (emphasis added; capitalization added).


2 As St. Paul teaches us: “All things work together unto the good, for those who love God”. Romans, 8:28.

3 For an explanation of the crucial difference between the Theological Virtue of Hope and the vice of presumption, read this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-the-new-sspx-teaches-the-vice-of-presumption-as-if-it-were-the-virtue-of-hope

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Words to Live By – From Catholic Tradition

Our Life on Earth is Warfare!
We Must Fight Tirelessly for Christ the King!

Nothing is so incongruous in a Christian, and nothing so foreign to his character, as to seek ease and rest. To be engrossed in the present life is foreign to our profession and enlistment [as Soldiers of Christ]. Thy Master was crucified, and dost thou seek ease? Thy Master was pierced with nails, and dost thou live delicately? Do these things become a noble soldier?

St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, quoted from his sermon #13 on Philippians, 3:18-21 (bracketed words added to show the context).

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Words to Live By – From Catholic Tradition

If We Wish to Choose Christ,
Then We Must Wish to Receive the Hatred of the World

A person refuses to be in the Mystical Body of Christ if he does not wish to receive, along with Christ our Head, the hatred of the world. We ought to patiently receive the hatred of the world out of the love for Christ. For it is necessary for the world to hate us because we resolve to reject what the world loves.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Greatest Doctor of the Church, Quoting St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, in the Catena Aurea on St. John’s Gospel, ch.15, §5.

Lesson #51: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat Part XVI

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Philosophy Notes

Catholic Candle note: The article below is part sixteen of the study of the Choleric temperament. The first fifteen parts can be found here:

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36: About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Part I: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

  2. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament– Part II: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

  3. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38: About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part III:: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

  4. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

  5. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #40: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part V: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/12/30/lesson-40-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-v/

  6. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #41: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat — Part VI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/01/27/lesson-41-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vi/

  7. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #42: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part VII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/02/21/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vii/

  8. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #43: About the Temperaments –Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament — Their Spiritual Combat Part VIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-viii/

  9. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #44: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat, Part IX: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/04/23/lesson-44-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-ix/

  10. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #45: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part X: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/05/20/lesson-45-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-x/

  11. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #46: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat – Part XI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/06/28/lesson-46-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xi/

  12. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #47: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/07/24/lesson-47-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xii/

  13. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #48: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/08/29/lesson-48-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiii/

  14. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #49: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIV: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/09/24/lesson-49-temperaments-choleric-temperament-the-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiv/

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #50: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XV: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/10/26/3050/

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #51: About the Temperaments –
Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament –
The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat Part XVI

Note: When referring to a person with a choleric temperament in this article, we simply will call him a choleric.

In our last lesson we explained the basics about the passions and how they work in the soul. With this preparation finished, we now begin our look at the passion of fear in particular.

Using St. Thomas Aquinas as Our Guide

Because St. Thomas is so thorough in his treatment of everything, he is called the Doctor Communis, that is, the Common Doctor of the Church, because he is the one, most of all, to guide and instruct us in anything.1 We will let St. Thomas, greatest Doctor of the Church, be our guide in our study. It is very valuable to look at St. Thomas’s explanation because he shows us so clearly how we are affected by our passions – in this case, by fear.

Where do we begin?

First, after showing that fear is indeed a passion in the soul (as we saw in our last lesson), St. Thomas then addresses two important questions, “Whether Fear is a Special Passion?” and “Whether There is a Natural Fear?

To the first question he answers simply that, yes, fear is a special passion – and explains why this is true. Here are his words:

The passions of the soul derive their species2 from their objects; hence, that is a special passion which has a special object. However, fear has a special object, as hope has. For just as the object of hope is a future good, difficult but possible to obtain, so the object of fear is a future evil, difficult and irresistible. Consequently, fear is a special passion of the soul.3

To the second question (Whether There is a Natural Fear), St. Thomas begins by having us first understand what he means by the word “natural” in this context. Summarizing St. Thomas, movements can be called natural in two ways:

  1. A movement is said to be natural simply speaking when the movement occurs without the involvement of the senses or the intellect. Some examples of this are the movement of fire which naturally inclines upward, the movement of a stone which tends to fall downward, and nutritive powers of animals and plants which tend to growth and life.

  2. A movement is also said to be natural when nature inclines in a certain direction but man (or a different animal) does not move invariably. Such movement involves the senses or the intellect. St. Thomas remarks, “In this way, even the acts of the apprehensive power, such as understanding, feeling, and remembering, as well as the movements of the animal appetite, are sometimes said to be natural.”4

In this quote St. Thomas is acknowledging the fact that animals and man both have an animal nature. However, St. Thomas makes an important distinction that, for irrational animals, God put in them the ability to act in an ordered, reasonable way, and this is called instinct. By contrast, God created man to want the good and created man to use his reason to seek the good. Nevertheless, man is able to delude himself about what is good and in this way, St. Thomas tells us, that man is able to pursue the apparent good instead of the true good. So, for example, a tired student is able to pursue the apparent good of sleeping longer in the morning instead of the true good of attending class.

In a future article, we will discuss man’s ability to deceive himself. We will discuss this later, as we proceed with our study of the temperaments in general and in our focus on how fear affects each of the temperaments.

With these basic concepts in mind, let us now turn to St. Thomas’ division of the types of fear and apply them to the temperaments with a special focus on how fear hinders the intellectual life of the soul.

The Types of Fear

St. Thomas divides fear into six kinds. Here are his words:

Fear regards a future evil which surpasses the power of him who fears, so that it is irresistible. However, man’s evil, like his good, may be considered either in his action or in external things.

In his action, he has a twofold evil to fear.

1. First, there is the toil that burdens his nature: and hence arises laziness, as when he shrinks from work for fear of too much toil.

  1. Second, there is the disgrace which damages him in the opinion of others. And thus:

    1. If disgrace is feared in a deed that is yet to be done, there is shamefacedness;

    2. If, however, it be in a deed already done, there is shame.

On the other hand, the evil that consists in external things may surpass man’s faculty of resistance in three ways.

  1. First by reason of magnitude; when, that is to say, a man considers some great evil the outcome of which he is unable to gauge; and then there is amazement.

  2. Second, by reason of its being unwonted;5 because, to wit, some unwonted evil arises before us, and on that account is great in our estimation. And then there is stupor, which is caused by the representation of something unwonted.

  3. Third, by reason of its being unforeseen; thus, future misfortunes are feared, and fear of this kind is called anxiety.6

Some Considerations Regarding the Kinds of Fear Listed and Some Practical Applications

When St. Thomas is speaking of laziness here, he is referring to a man recoiling from the “toil of external work.” This pertains to a person who fears excessive toil. Anyone of any temperament could have this fear. This kind of person does not want to work but rather seeks to have fun or be idle. Of course, there are degrees of this kind of fear. In the worst case scenario, this fear prevents someone from being able to function in society and in his life. This displeases God very much.

We will discuss the various aspects of fear as we proceed with our investigation. In our study of the temperaments, one crucial thing to remember is that, in all of the difficulties people face, God expects man to use his reason to deal with all of his dilemmas. Indeed, when a person uses his reason properly – including when he forces himself to step back to consider his situation – then there is no problem that he cannot solve the way God wishes.

Shamefacedness is the fear of a base action.7 In other words, one anticipates that if he were to act in a low or base manner, he would bring embarrassment upon himself. If one uses shamefacedness properly, he would avoid doing bad deeds.

On the other hand, as St. Thomas explained above, when one does not think ahead concerning the consequences of an action, he is not using shamefacedness and is “leaping” into a bad deed. Then afterwards, he has the shame of having done the disgraceful deed. St. Thomas tells us here that shame is a kind of fear because a person fears that the past deed will be the occasion of future reproach or disgrace.

The amazement and stupor that St. Thomas is speaking about here are in regard to evil. Here are his words.

Not every amazement and stupor are species of fear, but that amazement which is caused by a great evil, and that stupor which arises from an unwonted evil. Or else we may say that, just as laziness shrinks from the toil of external work, so amazement and stupor shrink from the difficulty of considering a great and unwonted thing, whether good or evil: so that amazement and stupor stand in relation to the act of the intellect, as laziness does to external work.8

Here we find how St. Thomas aptly describes the fear of intellectual effort that affects so many people of all temperaments. We had discussed how the choleric who has bad will does not make the necessary efforts to think. One reason for this is because he does not want to take the time necessary to do a good job (by thinking carefully). Yet, the underlying cause is his fear of the mental toil. If he were to build the habit of thinking carefully, then he would no longer fear the effort required. As we will see in future articles, it is not only cholerics that fear intellectual efforts.

The devil certainly does not want anyone to enjoy using his highest faculty, viz., his intellect. Thus, the devil has been tempting man from the time of Adam’s fall until now, to believe that thinking is too hard. Of course, we must counteract this wretched falsehood of the devil and do everything we can to promote careful thinking in ourselves and in others and foster the further development of our minds.

One more consequence of the devil dissuading a person from thinking deeply and carefully about high truths is that he misses a valuable opportunity for humility through considering how ignorant he is, and comparing the little he knows to all the high and wonderful truths that there are to learn. God and His creation are marvelous and should fill us with a sense of awe! We could never learn enough to completely satisfy our natural thirst for knowledge! Therefore, thinking well promotes humility because we can better assess our limitations objectively. This is one reason why Satan does not want humans to think!

Anxiety is the last type of fear mentioned above. This fear certainly wreaks havoc on many fronts in our lives. Countless examples could be found of things that cause man anxiety. There is so much talk of stress in our lives but we rarely consider how our trusting dependence on God is a key remedy to all stress.9 This anxiety also has a direct connection to the concept of thinking deeply (discussed above). When one thinks carefully, he can be more objective in assessing his circumstances and is therefore less prone to anxiety and worry.

Something to Keep in Mind

So as we said in our last lesson, the passions are not bad in themselves. However, they must be used properly. Here we can see that fear in itself is a very important passion and when used well, it helps the moral life, and hence the spiritual life of a man.

A Preview… In our next lesson we will begin considering the Objects of Fear and will apply our understanding of fear to the temperaments.

1 Read this article explaining why faithful and informed Catholics follow Saint Thomas Aquinas more than anyone else: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/why-faithful-and-informed-catholics-especially-follow-the-doctors-of-the-church

2 Note: by “species” of passion, St. Thomas means the kinds of passions.

3 Summa, Ia IIae, Q.41, a.2, Respondeo.

4 Cf., Summa, Ia IIae, Q.41, a.3.

5 Unwonted: being out of the ordinary : rare, unusual. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unwonted

6 Taken from the Summa, Ia IIae, Q.41, a.4, Whether the Species of Fear Are Suitably Assigned?, Respondeo, (emphasis added; bracketed words added to show the context).

7

This is St. John Damascene’s definition taken from the Summa, IIa IIae, Q.144, a.1, Respondeo.

8 Taken from the Summa, Ia IIae, Q.41, a.4, Whether the Species of Fear Are Suitably Assigned?, ad 4.

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Words to Live By – From Catholic Tradition

Spiritual Blindness Characterizes Our Times – Let Us Beware!

The sin of impurity brings with it blindness and obstinacy. Every vice produces darkness of understanding; but impurity produces it in a greater degree than all other sins.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori Sermon 45 – 16th Sunday after Pentecost – On Impurity, Point 1, section 2.

The Blessing of a True, Catholic Liberal Education – Part V

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Catholic Candle note: Below is part 5 of the article concerning the best type of education, which is a Catholic Liberal Education. Do not confuse this education with many university programs called “liberal arts” but which are full of fluff, falsehood, and aimless so-called “cultural enrichment” courses and “humanities”.

A liberal education also does not refer to liberalism, nor is a true liberal education an indoctrination into that error of liberalism or political correctness. In fact, a true Catholic Liberal Education is the best antidote to the errors of liberalism.

Previously, in part 1 of this article,1 we examined the problems we see in modern education:

  • Modern colleges do not improve the quality of their students’ minds and their thinking ability much or at all.


  • Most “education” is merely job training, fluff courses, and/or leftist indoctrination.


  • The students are taught to sound like someone in their field but they do more memorizing and little thinking.


  • Grade “inflation” and degree “inflation” is rampant. Grades and academic degrees do not mean much anymore.

In part 2 of this article,2 we examined, in general, what education is. We considered the human soul and the perfection of its highest faculty (power) – the intellect – which is immaterial. We saw that our intellects are perfected through knowing eternal, unchangeable truths and their causes.

In part 3 of this article,3 after having seen what true education is, we examined the question who should perfect his intellect?

In part 4 of this article,4 having seen that modern universities do not provide a true education, we consider whether there is ever any reason for men or women to attend them.

However, even though women and girls should pursue a True Catholic Liberal Education – just as men and boys should, too – what is the best environment in which women and girls should do this? Below, in Part 5, we will consider this question.


The Blessing of a True, Catholic Liberal Education

Part 5

What Would Be the Best Environment in which Women Could Pursue a True Catholic Liberal Education?

We saw above that men and women should strive to obtain a formal Catholic Liberal Education, if possible, which would be a strong beginning of their duty and high calling to perfect their intellects throughout their lives. Ideally, this true education should be obtained at the beginning of adulthood as the beginning of a lifelong adult pursuit of the truth (especially the truths of our Faith).

Although women should obtain the treasure of this education, too, (as we saw above), it is better for them to do so at an all-women’s college when this is possible, instead of a mixed “co-educational” institution.

Here is how Pope Pius XI taught this truth:

False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of “coeducation”.5

There are five reasons why it is better to separately educate the sexes. These five reasons (below) show that separate education (when possible) is advantageous for both sexes, although these advantages are even greater for women and girls, compared to men and boys. These reasons reflect Church teaching, the Natural Law, and Common Sense:

1. For a Man to Compete Against Ladies is Not Gentlemanly

God made men wiser, more aggressive, and clearer and more abstract in their thinking. A true gentleman would not want to compete with ladies in the classroom and it would not be a fair competition. This is similar to how it would not be fair or decent to have men and women compete against each other in a foot race.

Thus, it is only common sense and decency that women should have their own classrooms and schools. Women and girls should have their own feminine academic environment in which to develop their minds and pursue the truth.


2. Co-Education Sends the Wrong Message by Inherently Tending to Posture Women as Men’s Competitors

Further, it is better that women and men not be educated together because it sends the wrong message, i.e., it symbolizes the wrong thing for them to be class competitors. God did not make women to be man’s competitor but to be man’s helpmate and companion in the great work of raising a family.6


3. Co-Education is a Distraction from Academic Pursuits

God made men and women to be naturally attracted toward one another. This attraction is ordered toward marriage and raising a family. This is good and appropriate but must be limited to the correct occasions for this because this attraction is an obstacle to a focus on the intellectual life.

Just as women must cover their heads in church not only as a sign of submission,7 but also to assist in avoiding their becoming a distraction during prayer which can result from their beauty, because her hair is a woman’s glory8 and women are the more beautiful sex.

Similarly, in an academic environment – which should be devoted to the truth and the life of the intellect – mixing the sexes is a distraction which impedes that intellectual life.

Here is one way that Pope Pius XI taught this important truth of the Catholic Faith and the Natural Law:


Co-education … is founded upon [the heresy of] naturalism and the denial of original sin [as well as] upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality for the legitimate association of the sexes.9


4. Men and Women Learn Somewhat Differently and so the Teaching Methods Should Be Somewhat Different


Both men and women are rational but, to some extent, do not think the same way. God made men wiser, more aggressive, clearer in their reasoning and more abstract in their thinking. Women are more emotional – they are more inclined to bring personality and feeling into their reasoning. Thus, teaching methods for men and women should be adapted to their differences in the way they learn, through educating men and women separately.


Here is one way that Pope Pius XI describes how these differences show the benefit of using differences in teaching methods for the two sexes:


[T]here is not in nature itself, which fashions the two quite different in organism [viz., men and women], in temperament, in abilities, anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity [viz., inappropriate mingling], and much less equality, in the training of the two sexes.10



5. The Catholic Church Shows the Better Way of Providing College-Level Education for Women by Founding so many Women’s Colleges

The practice of the Holy Catholic Church shows that it is better for women (and men) to be educated in separate schools and universities, where possible.

There are countless examples of women’s colleges, showing not only the Catholic Church’s commitment to perfecting women’s minds, but also the commitment to do it the better way, in separate institutions of learning.

Here are two of countless examples:

  • The Catholic Church founded St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana. This Catholic women’s college was founded before 1920 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, with the help of Fr. Edward Sorin (the founder of Notre Dame) and the priests of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. This college is near Notre Dame University which was founded as an all-men’s college.


  • Alverno College, a Catholic college in Milwaukee, was founded in 1936 as an all-women’s college. It is near Marquette University which was founded as an all-men’s college.

Notice in these examples that the wisdom of the Church not only caused Her to found countless women’s colleges but also countless men’s colleges, since it is better for men and boys – as well as for women and girls – to be educated in single sex educational institutions.


Conclusion

We see as a matter of Church teaching, of the Natural Law, and of Common Sense that, where possible, women and girls should receive their education in separate classrooms and institutions of learning.


But an Objection Arises to the Idea of Anyone Receiving this Type of Education!

From the considerations we have made so far in this series (on the Value of a True Catholic Liberal Education), shouldn’t we be afraid that this great blessing might make us proud?

We are on earth to save our souls and we know that pride is one of the biggest obstacles to salvation. So, if we receive a True Catholic Liberal Education and this were to result in our damnation, then shouldn’t we avoid this education in order to save our souls?

We will consider this issue in a future article.


To be continued …

5 Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, 1929, §68.


6 Here is one way St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church, explains this truth that woman is not man’s competitor but should be his helpmate in the great work of her life (raising a family):

It was necessary that woman be made, as Scripture says, as a helpmate to the male; not indeed as a helpmate in some other work, as some have said, since in any other work a male can be more conveniently helped by another male than by woman; but as a helper in generation.

Summa, Ia, Q.92, a.1, respondeo.

God willed woman to be man’s helpmate. Sacred Scripture infallibly explains why God created woman, in these words:

[T]he Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let Us make him a help like unto himself.

Genesis, 2:18.

Sacred Scripture infallibly says the same thing in other ways too, e.g.: “[M]an was not created for the woman: but the woman for the man” (1 Corinthians, 11:9), namely, to help him raise a family.

The Summa touches upon these different roles as follows:


Although the father ranks above the mother, the mother has more to do with the offspring than the father has, or we may say that woman was made chiefly in order to be man’s helpmate in relation to the offspring, whereas the man was not made for this purpose.


Summa Suppl., Q.44, a.2 ad 1 (emphasis added).

7 St. Paul teaches infallibly:


But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. … But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered, disgraceth her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn. But if it be a shame to a woman to be shorn or made bald, let her cover her head. The man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Therefore, ought the woman to have a power over her head ….


1 Corinthians, 11:3-10 (emphasis added).


8 “But if a woman nourish her hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.” 1 Corinthians, 11:15.

9 Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68.


Here is the full quote:


False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of “co-education”. This, too, by many of its supporters, is founded upon [the heresy of] naturalism and the denial of original sin; but by all, upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality, for the legitimate association of the sexes. The Creator has ordained and disposed perfect union of the sexes only in matrimony, and, with varying degrees of contact, in the family and in society. Besides there is not in nature itself, which fashions the two quite different in organism, in temperament, in abilities, anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity, and much less equality, in the training of the two sexes. These, in keeping with the wonderful designs of the Creator, are destined to complement each other in the family and in society, precisely because of their differences, which therefore ought to be maintained and encouraged during their years of formation, with the necessary distinction and corresponding separation, according to age and circumstances. These principles, with due regard to time and place, must, in accordance with Christian prudence, be applied to all schools, particularly in the most delicate and decisive period of formation, that, namely, of adolescence; and in gymnastic exercises and deportment, special care must be had of Christian modesty in young women and girls, which is so gravely impaired by any kind of exhibition in public.”


Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68 (emphasis added; bracketed words added for clarity).


10 Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68 (bracketed comment added for clarity).


Lesson #50: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XV

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Philosophy Notes

Catholic Candle note: The article immediately below is part thirteen of the study of the Choleric temperament. The first twelve parts can be found here:

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36: About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Part I: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

  2. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament– Part II: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

  3. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38 — About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part III:: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

  4. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

  5. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #40: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part V: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/12/30/lesson-40-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-v/

  6. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #41 – About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat — Part VI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/01/27/lesson-41-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vi/

  7. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #42: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part VII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/02/21/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vii/

  8. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #43 About the Temperaments –Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament — Their Spiritual Combat Part VIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-viii/

  9. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #44 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat, Part IX: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/04/23/lesson-44-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-ix/

  10. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #45 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part X: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/05/20/lesson-45-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-x/

  11. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #46 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat – Part XI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/06/28/lesson-46-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xi/

  12. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #47 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/07/24/lesson-47-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xii/

  13. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #48 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/08/29/lesson-48-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiii/


  14. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #49 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIV: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/09/24/lesson-49-temperaments-choleric-temperament-the-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiv/

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #50 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XV

Note: In this article, when referring to a person with a choleric temperament we simply will call him a “choleric”.

In our last lesson, we considered how we are all affected by the wounds of Original Sin and, in addition to this, we have our own personal inclinations and disinclinations which arise from our genetic (material, bodily) dispositions. We saw that one could have a natural disinclination to think deeply and how, ultimately, this disinclination stems back to the passion of fear.

The Passions Influence Us

We know that the passions are part of our human nature. We know that we all have them. In general, the passions work in our souls in the same way. However, what is unique to each of us is the strength of those passions and the particular ones which influence us most. We might not notice how each person, with his own particular temperament, has his own propensities and, therefore, his own unique battle to fight in order to train and discipline his passions to conform to his reason.

As we consider the four temperaments, one crucial aspect of our investigation is to understand how the passions are involved in the way people behave. Because we want to better understand how the passion of fear, in particular, affects each temperament, we first consider, more generally, what a passion is. Then, with this foundation, we will be better able to understand the role of the passion of fear in our lives. Thus, in this lesson we will discuss what, in general, a passion is and then look at the two types of passions, namely the concupiscible and the irascible.

What a Passion Is

St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest doctor of the Church, treats the passions thoroughly. He begins by explaining the meaning of the word “passion” itself. St. Thomas explains that a passion is a type of receiving or “suffering”. One way that the word “passion” is used is to receive something that is a perfection of the receiver and this perfection (which is received) does not replace anything that had previously been present in the receiver; the second way passion is used it to receive something better, which is an improvement – replacing something worse than what is received; and the third and most proper way “passion” is used is to receive something worse which is a “downgrade” compared to that better thing which is replaced. Here are St. Thomas’ words:

The word passion is used in three ways:

First, in a general way, according as whatever receives anything is passive, even though nothing is taken from the receiver. Thus, we may say that the air is passive when it [viz., the air] is lit up. But this is to be perfected rather than to be passive.

Secondly, the word passive is employed in its proper sense, when something is received, while something else is taken away: and this happens in two ways.

  1. For sometimes that which is lost is unsuitable to the thing: thus, when an animal’s body is healed, the body is said to be passive because it receives health, and loses sickness.

  2. At other times the contrary occurs: thus, “to ail” is to be passive; because the ailment is received and health is lost. And here we have passion most properly. For a thing is said to be passive from its being drawn to the agent: and when a thing recedes from what is suitable to the receiver, then especially does it appear to be drawn to something else. Moreover, in De Generatione, Bk 1, ch.3 318b2, it is stated when a more excellent thing is generated from a less excellent thing, we have generation simply, and corruption in a particular respect: whereas the reverse is the case, when from a more excellent thing, a less excellent thing is generated. [That is, when a less excellent thing is generated, then this is corruption simply speaking and is generation in a particular respect.]

In these three ways it happens that passions are in the soul. For in the sense of mere reception [viz., the first meaning St. Thomas gives above], we speak of “feeling and understanding as being a kind of passion” (De Anima Bk1, ch.5 410a25). But passion, accompanied by the loss of something, is only in respect of a bodily transmutation [viz., a physical change occurring in the body]; wherefore passion properly so called cannot be in the soul, save accidentally, in so far as the composite1 is passive. But here again we find a difference; because when this transmutation is for the worse, it [the transmutation] has more of the nature of a passion, than when it [the transmutation] is for the better: hence sorrow is more properly a passion than joy.2

Next, St. Thomas gives us St. John Damascene’s definition of passion.

Passion is a movement of the sensitive appetite when we imagine good or evil; in other words, passion is a movement of the irrational [part of the] soul, when we think of good or evil.”3

Where Do We Find the Passions? Are They in Our Bodies (In Our Sensible Part)? Or in Our Souls (the Will)?

St. Thomas answers these questions in the following words:

[P]assion is properly to be found where there is corporeal transmutation [viz., physical change]. This corporeal transmutation is found in the act of the sensitive appetite [desire], and is not only spiritual, as in the sensitive apprehension [understanding through our senses], but also natural.

Now there is no need for corporeal transmutation in the act of the intellectual appetite [i.e., the will – N.B. “appetite” is another word for “desire”]: because this appetite is not exercised by means of a corporeal organ. It is therefore evident that passion is more properly in the act of the sensitive appetite, than in that of the intellectual appetite; and this is again evident from the definitions of Damascene quoted in the sed contra [above].4

Looking at the Two Classes of Passions that We Possess

St. Thomas explains that there are two groups of passions – the concupiscible and the irascible. Here are his words:

The acts of different powers differ in species [that is in kind]; for instance, to see, and to hear. But the irascible and the concupiscible are two powers, into which the sensitive appetite is divided, as was said [earlier in the Summa, in Ia, Q.81, a.2]. Therefore, since the passions are movements of the sensitive appetite, as stated in Q.22, a.3, the passions of the irascible faculty are specifically distinct from those of the concupiscible part.5 …

[T]he passions of the irascible part differ in species from those of the concupiscible faculty. For since the different powers have different objects, the passions of different powers must, of necessity, be referred to different objects.

In order, therefore, to discern which passions are in the irascible, and which are in the concupiscible, we must take the object of each of these powers. As was stated above [in Ia, Q.81, a.2], the object of the concupiscible power is sensible good or evil [simply apprehended as such], which causes pleasure or pain. But, since the soul must, of necessity, experience difficulty or struggle at times, in acquiring some such good, or in avoiding some such evil, in so far as such good or evil is more than our animal nature can easily acquire or avoid; therefore, this good or evil itself, inasmuch as it is of an arduous or difficult nature, is the object of the irascible faculty. Therefore, whatever passions consider good or evil absolutely, belong to the concupiscible power; for instance, joy, sorrow, love, hatred, and such like: whereas those passions which consider good or bad, as arduous, through being difficult to obtain or avoid, belong to the irascible faculty; such as daring, fear, hope and the like.6

A Short Summary Concerning the Passions and Their Respective Movements

What is good (or perceived as good) causes the soul to incline toward it and this inclination is the passion of love. Similarly, what is evil (or perceived as evil) causes the soul to incline away from it and this disinclination is the passion of hatred.

If the good be not yet possessed, then this good object causes the soul to seek to possess this good. This inclination of the soul is the passion of desire or concupiscence. If the evil can be avoided (or can be avoided in the future, even if it is possessed now) then the soul seeks to avoid it and this is the passion of dislike or aversion.

When the good is obtained, it causes the appetite to rest in that good which has been obtained. This rest in the good which has been obtained is the passion of delight or joy. Similarly, when an evil is present in the soul which is (at least for now) unavoidable, then that possession of the evil is the passion of sorrow or sadness.

Concerning the irascible passions, they pertain to obtaining a good which is difficult to obtain or to avoiding an evil which is difficult to avoid. For the good which is difficult to obtain, the soul’s seeking of this good is hope and the soul’s not seeking it because the difficulty is too great, is despair. With respect to an evil which is difficult to avoid, the soul’s seeking to avoid this evil which is difficult to avoid is daring and the soul’s anticipation of suffering the evil which is difficult to avoid, is fear. There is no irascible passion with respect to the good obtained because it is not a subject of difficulty. But concerning an evil already possessed, the soul’s reaction is anger.

Therefore, we see that there are three pairs of passions in the concupiscible appetites: namely, love and hatred; desire and aversion; joy and sorrow. Likewise, there are three “pairs” in the irascible: namely, hope and despair; fear and daring; and anger, which passion has no opposite. Therefore, there are in all 11 different passions: six which are concupiscible, and five which are irascible; in which all the animal passions are contained.7

A Preview… Having now considered the passions more generally, in our next lesson we will begin looking at the passion of fear in particular. In this way, we will be able to see how fear influences all the temperaments and especially how the passion of fear can hinder the intellectual life of a soul.

1 Here St. Thomas is referring to the composition of body and soul because the soul is the form of the body. In other words, the soul is what makes the body able to live and to be the type of living creature that it is.

2 Taken from the Summa, Ia IIae, Q.22, a.1, Whether Any Passion is in the Soul? Respondeo. The works St. Thomas is citing are Aristotle’s work about the generation and corruption/dying of animals (De Generatione et Corruptione), and his work on the soul (De Anima) (bracketed words added for clarity).

3 This is taken from the Summa, Ia IIae, Q.22, a.3, Sed Contra, where St. Thomas quotes St. John Damascene’s work De Fide Orthodox, that is Concerning the Orthodox Faith, Book 2, chapter 22 (bracketed words added to show the context).

4 This is taken from the Summa Ia IIae, Q.22, a.3, Whether Passion Is in the Sensitive Appetite Rather Than in the Intellectual Appetite, Which Is Called the Will?, Respondeo, (bracketed words added to show context).

5 Summa, Ia IIae, Q.23, a.1, Whether the Passions of the Concupiscible Part are Different from Those of the Irascible Part?, Sed Contra. When St. Thomas mentions “specifically distinct,” he means that they differ in kind.

6 Summa, Ia IIae Q.23, a.1, Whether the Passions of the Concupiscible Part are Different from Those of the Irascible Part?, Respondeo.

7 This summary is based on Summa, Ia IIae, Q.23, a.4, Whether in the Same Power, There Are Any Passions, Specifically Different, but Not Contrary to One Another?

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Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

We Must Have Self-knowledge!

He who knows himself well is mean in his own eyes and is not delighted with being praised by men.

My Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, (c)1982, Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 5300 Fort Hamilton Parkway, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11219, Bk.1 ch.2.

The Blessing of a True, Catholic Liberal Education — Part IV

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Catholic Candle note: Below is part 4 of the article concerning the best type of education, which is a Catholic Liberal Education. Do not confuse this education with many university programs called “liberal arts” but which are full of fluff, falsehood, and aimless so-called “cultural enrichment” courses and “humanities”.

A liberal education also does not refer to liberalism, nor is a true liberal education an indoctrination into that error of liberalism or political correctness. In fact, a true Catholic Liberal Education is the best antidote to the errors of liberalism.

Previously, in part 1 of this article,1 we examined the problems we see in modern education:

  • Modern colleges do not improve the quality of their students’ minds and their thinking ability much or at all.


  • Most “education” is merely job training, fluff courses, and/or leftist indoctrination.


  • The students are taught to sound like someone in their field but they do little thinking and more memorizing.


  • Grade “inflation” and degree “inflation” is rampant. Grades and academic degrees do not mean much anymore.

In part 2 of this article,2 we examined, in general, what education is. We considered the human soul and the perfection of its highest faculty (power) – the intellect – which is immaterial. We saw that our intellects are perfected through knowing eternal, unchangeable truths and their causes.

In part 3 of this article,3 after having seen what education is, we examined the question who should perfect his intellect?

But since modern universities do not provide a true education, is there ever any reason for men or women to attend them? Below, in part 4 of this article, we will consider that question.

The Blessing of a True, Catholic Liberal Education

Part 4

Is There Ever Any Reason for Anyone to Attend a Modern University?

Because a true education is a Catholic Liberal Education, and because modern universities do not provide this, is there ever any reason for anyone to attend a modern university? We will first look at that issue in the case of men; then, we will consider this question regarding women.

Of course, every person’s priority should be to perfect his mind with a true education. This is what God made us to do (viz., perfect our highest faculty) and we should all do this to the best of our ability and circumstances throughout our life.

For some persons, this beginning of a lifelong pursuit of truth and of further perfecting of our intellects would involve attending a college or university to obtain a true Catholic Liberal Education (if/when such an education is available there).

Even if/when there were a Catholic Liberal Education available at the university/college level, some persons could not attend such institution of higher learning because their abilities or opportunities do not allow this. For these persons, the best they can do would be to proceed on their lifelong journey of perfecting their intellects in other settings, according to their abilities.

Although we all have a duty to continue to prefect our minds throughout life, especially studying our Catholic Faith,4 the ability of different persons will not be the same. Some persons will advance much further and faster than others and, over the course of their lives will perfect their minds much more. But everyone should do it according to the ability that God has given him.

Even those who have the blessing of a formal, genuine, college-level, Catholic Liberal Education – which is the best way for adults to begin their lifelong journey pursuing truth – they still must at some point transition from this blessed full-time activity to then obtaining the practical preparation they need in order to answer God’s call to their vocation.

For men called to marry and to start a family, this means preparing to provide for the material needs of their future family. To do this, some men might need college-level or even post-graduate level job training, (in engineering, medicine, law, etc.)

This job training has little or nothing of true perfection of the mind but involves matters such as building codes, construction standards, surgical techniques, applicability of commercial laws, pharmacological contraindications, etc.

Universities and colleges can have a role in training those persons who have a practical need for this advanced job training, although that training is a much lower pursuit than a genuine Catholic Liberal Education.

Of course, other men, who do not need such advanced job training, can prepare to provide for the material needs of their future families in other ways, such as through apprenticeships, on-the-job-training, etc.

So, in the case of men, a modern university could play a role in their life’s material vocational preparations. Of course, those men must be appropriately vigilant against all of the contamination present there, because this moral and intellectual contamination seeks to derail them from leading the life that God intends for them to live on earth and from the happiness that God intends for them in heaven.


Is There Ever Any Reason for a Woman to Attend a Modern University?

Having considered whether there could be a reason for men to attend a modern university – hopefully after a strong beginning in their lifelong pursuit of high truth – now let us consider the question of whether there is ever any reason for a woman to attend a modern university – i.e., an institution that does not offer a true education (viz., a Catholic Liberal Education).

We already saw that women (and men) should get a true and genuine college-level Catholic Liberal Education if they are able to do so. We saw that this true education is not merely for a few elite men who would benefit the very most. Rather, this education is for women as well, and for everyone who is capable of benefiting from it in some amount.

Of course, as we saw, everyone should continue to prefect his mind throughout his entire life – especially studying the Catholic Faith more deeply. However, just as men who obtain a college-level Catholic Liberal Education, must leave off from the full-time pursuit of high truth at some point to take time to prepare for the practical aspects of the vocation to which God is calling them, this is true of women too.

After obtaining a college-level Catholic Liberal Education, she could pursue a reasonable amount of job training to help her to support herself while (patiently) waiting for God to send to her the husband that He wills for her.

If it happens that a woman finds that she needs to provide for her own support for a more extended time before God sends her the man that He intends her to marry, then she might possibly need college-level job training such as to become a nurse or otherwise get a job in one of the “helping professions”. However, in all but unusual circumstances, this job training would not mean that she needs to earn an additional degree (viz., in addition to her Catholic Liberal Education).

Hopefully, such academic job training would occur – if at all – only after her Catholic Liberal Education because, commonly, the young woman who is capable of obtaining a college nursing degree would also be capable of using that same opportunity (viz., time and money) to perfect her mind with a true Catholic Liberal Education. Such genuine education would benefit her and her future family far more than her job training. Further, by the time she has had that blessed education, she would often find herself at the age and stage where God is calling her to marry now and to start a family with her husband.

This is because, if God is calling her to be a wife and mother (instead of a professed religious), then He would usually send the right man to her without her spending an extended period of time getting specialized job training and then using it in the workforce – assuming that she does her part to make herself available so her future husband can find her.5

In any event, in addition to all of this, the woman must spend the time while she is waiting for her future spouse, continuing to cultivate the womanly arts. For it is an important preparation for marriage for women to master the arts which they will practice as wives, mothers, homemakers, and the homeschool teachers of their children (as is usually necessary nowadays). In other words, women must prepare themselves to respond to the call of their vocations to be the future hearts of their respective homes and families.

But there are many jobs which she should neither train for nor engage in. She should not be a doctor, a lawyer6, or practice a similar profession, for four reasons:

  1. The years of this training and the cost would rarely “pay off” because she would usually meet her husband and get married before she finished her studies or at least before paying off her additional school debts.


  2. The increased debt she incurred, as well as her time and effort obtaining this job training, might easily create (or increase) the temptation to work outside of the home after marriage.7


  3. These types of professional employment are suited to only the most clear-thinking men, since such professions principally require the greatest prudence and the most careful thinking.8


  4. Such professions are detrimental to her God-given role as man’s helpmate and assistant, rather than man’s boss and an authority over him.9 Such employment is both against the natural role God gave her as a woman and also will make it harder for her to be an obedient and submissive wife when she gets married.

Likewise, a woman should not obtain academic job training in order to seek political office, or to become a police officer, a soldier, or have a similar job for two reasons:

  1. The above types of jobs oppose the way God made her because she would be wielding authority over men10; and

  1. Such work opposes her God-given nature as a nurturer, compassionate, a comforter, etc. Being a policeman, soldier, etc., would require a woman to be aggressive, to harden herself, twisting and distorting the way God made women, to her detriment and the detriment of the crucial work11 of her life, viz., being her husband’s helpmate and raising children well.12


Let us contrast these two scenarios:

  1. A woman marrying shortly after finishing a university job training degree; and

  2. That woman marrying shortly after finishing a college-level, true Catholic Liberal Education.

Generally, it makes no sense to undertake very expensive, years-long training for a job which she will hold for only a short time before the time comes when God sends to her the husband she should marry.

In contrast to the imprudence (generally) of obtaining such expensive and lengthy practical job training, a Catholic Liberal Education is directed toward perfecting the mind that God gave to her, not primarily for outside employment and so such true education is not a “waste of money” even if she never “uses” it for outside employment, since that is not the point of a true education. The true perfection of her mind is a lifelong asset for her to use in every aspect of her life and vocation.

So, we see that, although Bishop Williamson is wrong in other respects, his words (quoted here13) have a correct element: that “true universities are for ideas”.14 But such “true universities” are nearly non-existent now. Modern universities are not devoted to ideas which perfect the mind with high truth. Rather, these universities are dens of iniquity, leftist indoctrination, leftist social conformity, and job training. Availing themselves of the opportunity to obtain very expensive, years-long job training would usually be a mistake for “true girls” (to use his words), since these women need to remain available to answer God’s call to their vocation. So, Bishop Williamson would have been more correct to have said “expensive university job training is not for true girls”.

But to the extent that “true universities” do exist, at which a person could obtain a true Catholic Liberal Education, Bishop Williamson’s words are false that “universities are not for true girls”.15 Women should obtain as much good as they are able to obtain from such a true education, striving for higher-level perfection for their intellects.


A Question Arises

Having seen that women and girls, as well as men and boys have a duty to perfect their minds in the best way that they can do so, what is the best environment in which women and girls could pursue a true Catholic Liberal Education?


To be continued …

4
After St. Thomas states that a person (the Latin word is “homo”) “desires to the highest extent to have knowledge of the truth”, he then adds “the truth is especially considered as regards God.” Quoted from a sermon by St. Thomas Aquinas, Ecce Rex Tuus, Collatio in Sero, preached in the evening of the 1st Sunday of Advent, November 29, 1271, to the faculty and students of the University of Paris, §3.1.


5 In our corrupt times, it is a real challenge to find the spouse God wishes to send. But this challenge should not be discouraging! God can do all things and He wants each person to respond to His vocational call with great courage, prudence, generosity, patience, and complete trust in Him.


Of course, not only in our corrupt times, but in every time, both the young lady and the young man must do “his (or her) part” to find the right (future) spouse. For the young man, he must actively seek out all gentlemanly opportunities to find his future wife, including his availing himself of opportunities which are “out of his comfort zone”. He should act like a man and not like a coward or a lady, waiting for others to do his “work” for him – that is, seeking and meeting her.


The young lady does not have the same role. She should not approach the young man and introduce herself, ask for his phone number, call him, etc. But without being “forward”, she should arrange to be available in many ways so that the young man has a way of meeting her, etc.

6 Here is one way that St. Thomas teaches this common-sense truth of both nature and religion:


If therefore they [viz., women] ask and dispute in public, it would be a sign of shamelessness, and this is shameful to them. Hence it also follows that in law the office of advocate is forbidden to women [viz., in the better civilization in which St. Thomas lived, which more closely followed the Natural Law and Catholic teaching].


St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectures on 1 Corinthians, 14, lect. 7, n. 881, (bracketed words added for context).

7 Luring mothers to leave their homes and children to join the workforce of businesses is one of the chief tools of communism and is one of the main ways Russia has spread its errors. Here is how Pope Pius XI explained this truth:


Communism is particularly characterized by the rejection of any link that binds woman to the family and the home, and her emancipation is proclaimed as a basic principle. She is withdrawn from the family and the care of her children, to be thrust instead into public life and collective production under the same conditions as man. The care of home and children then devolves upon the collectivity.


Divini Redemptoris – On atheistic communism, Pope Pius XI, §11.


Pope Pius XI condemns married women working outside the home, in the following words:


Neither this emancipation of the woman is real, nor is it the reasonable and worthy [Footnote continued on the next page.]

[Footnote continued from the prior page.]


liberty convenient to the Christian and noble mission of the woman and wife. It is the corruption of the feminine nature and maternal dignity, as well as the perversion of all the family, since the husband lacks his wife, the children their mother, and the entire family her vigilant guard.


On the contrary, this false liberty and unnatural equality with man is harmful for the woman herself, because at the moment that she steps down from the royal domestic throne to which she was raised by the Gospel, quickly she will fall into the ancient slavery of Paganism, becoming a mere instrument of man.


Pope Pius XI, Casti connubii, #75 (emphasis added).


Anyone who thinks a mother’s work outside the home is more important than her family and homemaking duties, fails to understand the Great Work of her life, for which God created her. Considering anyone else as an acceptable substitute for the mother being at home with her children, is a failure not only to understand Catholic teaching, but is also a failure to understand the family on even a natural level (although this natural truth was accepted and was obvious even to non-Catholics, until a few decades ago).

8 Here is one way St. Thomas Aquinas states this truth:


[M]en are wiser and more discerning and not so readily deceived as women are. … Man is the head and counselor of the woman.


St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectures on St. Matthew’s Gospel, Ch.23, #1859.


9 The reason is that it is not woman’s role to lead (exercise leadership) in society. This is why St. Paul explained that “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence.” 1 Timothy, 2:12.


10 Isaiah mentions the rule of women as a way to measure how corrupt a society (viz., Israel) is. Here are Isaiah’s words: “As for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women have ruled over them”. Isaias, 3:12.


Summarizing the Divine Law (from St. Paul) and Natural Law (from Aristotle) concerning the perversity of a woman being in charge of a government, the Summa teaches:


According to the Apostle (1 Tim., 2:11; Titus, 2:5), woman is in a state of subjection: wherefore she can have no spiritual jurisdiction, since the Philosopher [Aristotle] also says (Ethic. viii) that it is a corruption of public life when the government comes into the hands of a woman.


Supp. Q.19, a.3, ad 4 (emphasis added; bracketed word added for clarity).


This corruption of having a woman rule is obvious from the fact that she must not even rule her own family. Rather, she must obey her husband. St. Paul commands: “Wives, be subject to your husbands”. Colossians, 3:18. Therefore, how much more perverse it is for a woman to have authority over, and be the head of, all of the families of a country by being the head of the country!


Here is how Pope St. Pius X taught this same truth:


Women in war or parliament are outside their proper sphere, and their position there would be the desperation and ruin of society … .”


Quoted from Pope St. Pius X’s 1909 Address to Delegation of the Union of Italian Catholic Ladies.


11 Read this article: The Role and Work that God Gave to Woman, found here: https://catholiccandle.org/2019/12/02/the-role-and-work-that-god-gave-to-woman/


12 A man’s role is to protect his family in both spiritual and temporal matters. A woman’s role is to nurture her children and be a helpmate for her husband.


Raising her children well, not other works, is the Great Work for which God intended [Footnote continued on the next page.]


[Footnote continued from the prior page.]

women. In other works, in works such as being a partner in business, men help other men better than women do. Here is one way St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church, explains this truth:


It was necessary that woman be made, as Scripture says, as a helpmate to the male; not indeed as a helpmate in some other work, as some have said, since in any other work a male can be more conveniently helped by another male than by woman; but as a helper in generation.


Summa Ia, Q.92, a.1, respondeo.


Sacred Scripture infallibly says the same thing in many ways. For example, here is one way St. Paul states this truth:


[S]he [viz., woman] shall be saved through childbearing; if she continues in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety.”


1 Timothy 2:15.

14 Quoted from Girls at the University, Bishop Richard Williamson’s Letter to Friends and Benefactors of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, September 1, 2001.

15 Quoted from Girls at the University, Bishop Richard Williamson’s Letter to Friends and Benefactors of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, September 1, 2001.

Lesson #49: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XIV

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Philosophy Notes

Catholic Candle note: The article immediately below is part thirteen of the study of the Choleric temperament. The first twelve parts can be found here:

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36: About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Part I: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

  2. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament– Part II: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

  3. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38 — About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part III:: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

  4. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

  5. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #40: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part V: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/12/30/lesson-40-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-v/

  6. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #41 – About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat — Part VI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/01/27/lesson-41-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vi/

  7. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #42: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part VII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/02/21/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vii/

  8. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #43 About the Temperaments –Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament — Their Spiritual Combat Part VIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-viii/

  9. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #44 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat, Part IX: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/04/23/lesson-44-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-ix/

  10. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #45 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part X: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/05/20/lesson-45-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-x/

  11. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #46 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat – Part XI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/06/28/lesson-46-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xi/

  12. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #47 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/07/24/lesson-47-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xii/

  13. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #48 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/08/29/lesson-48-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xiii/

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #49 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XIV

Note: When referring to a person with a choleric temperament in this article we simply will label him as a choleric.

In our last lesson we discussed how Satan hates the fact that humans are created with intellects and are capable of knowing universal truth. This archenemy of mankind has launched his major attack on man’s highest faculty, namely, his intellect.

We saw how Satan tempts us humans to believe that making efforts to think carefully puts a damper on our enjoyment. We saw how this is a lie and that man’s highest delights come when he engages his mind in the pursuit of truth.

Now we will consider another snare that Satan uses – he inclines people to believe that they do not have the ability necessary for careful thinking. However, in order to understand how it is false to believe that we do not have the ability to think carefully, we must first reflect more about human nature itself.

Satan Preys on Fallen Human Nature

As we stated above, one of the devil’s tricks is to tempt humans into supposing that they do not have the necessary ability to think carefully and deeply. Someone could claim that thinking deeply was easy for Adam but ever since the fall of man, man does not have the ability to think. This is an old deception of Satan.

St. Thomas Aquinas explains the effects of original sin as follows:

Original justice was forfeited through the sin of our first parent [Adam], as already stated above (I-II Q. 81 a. 2); so that all the powers of the soul are left, as it were, destitute of their proper order, whereby they are naturally directed to virtue; which destitution is called a wounding of nature.

Again, there are four of the powers that can be the subject of virtue, as stated above (I-II Q. 61 a. 2), viz. the reason, where prudence resides, the will, where justice is, the irascible [passions], the subject of fortitude, and the concupiscible [passions], the subject of temperance. Therefore, in so far as the reason is deprived of its order to the true, there is the wound of ignorance, in so far as the will is deprived of its order to the good, there is the wound of malice; in so far as the irascible is deprived of its order to the arduous, there is the wound of weakness; and in so far as the concupiscible is deprived of its order to the delectation moderated by reason, there is the wound of concupiscence.

Accordingly, these are the four wounds inflicted on the whole of the human nature as a result of our first parent’s sin. But since the inclination to the good of virtues is diminished in each individual on account of actual sin, as was explained above (in I-II Q. 85 a.1& 2), these four wounds are also the result of other sins, in so far as, through sin, the reason is obscured especially in practical matters, the will hardened to evil, good actions become more difficult, and concupiscence more impetuous.1

Personal Sins Increase the Effects of These Wounds

In the above text from St. Thomas, he explains that not only the wounds of original sin are evident in man, but also that one’s personal, actual sins increase the effect of these wounds of original sin for him. We can readily guess that Satan and all of his fellow demons know the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, so of course, they know exactly what temptations to use on each individual soul.

Natural Inclinations Affect All Humans

Although the wounds of original sin influence all humans, each person is unique in his material dispositions, and from this it is easy to see how each person can be uniquely affected by the wounds of original sin. In other words, each person has his own individual degree of the wounds of original sin. In the vast number of humans that have ever lived, there is a wide spectrum of strengths and weaknesses. For example, some races of people seem to be naturally strong in their mental acuity whereas other races seem to be stronger in their physical prowess.2 We can observe that God certainly has created a variety of humans and we must take many things into consideration in our relations with our neighbor. We will discuss this aspect of relationships in more detail at a future time.

Personal Dispositions and the Seven Capital Sins

The demons make ready use of tempting humans to the seven capital sins. Here is what the Concise Catholic Dictionary tells us about these sins:

The so-called “deadly sins” seven in number, called “capital” because they are the source of most other sins: called “deadly” because they easily lead to mortal sins. They need not be separate acts but can exist as habits or vices. The seven capital sins are: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.3

Just as humans have natural tendencies connected to their material make-up, they have natural weaknesses and strengths. There is not a perfect balance between the strengths and weaknesses. Some may have far more weaknesses than they have strengths. Some may have only weaknesses and, seemingly, no strengths. Furthermore, there are souls who may have more strengths and fewer weaknesses.

The demons know that humans share the wounds of original sin. The demons also know that one capital sin often leads a soul to the other capital sins, and because the demons know the inclinations of souls, including their strengths and weaknesses, they strive to drag the soul into the capital sin to which that soul is most prone.

In addition to this common condition of the wounds of original sin and the particular genetic (i.e., material, bodily) disposition4, human nature also includes the passions. In Lesson #39 we reflected how the passions work in order to get a better understanding of the passion of anger. We studied anger and how the choleric is prone to this passion. We also saw how anger is one of the capital sins which the choleric is prone to commit.

A Genetic (Material, Bodily) Disinclination toward the Effort to Think Carefully

Thus, there can be a genetic (material, bodily) disinclination to make the effort to think carefully. A person can be ill-disposed to do the mental work involved in deeper thinking. St. Thomas goes so far as to call the fear of mental work, stupor. He adds, “just as laziness shrinks from the toil of external work, so amazement and stupor shrink from the difficulty of considering a great and unwonted thing, whether good or evil; so that amazement and stupor stand in relation to the act of the intellect, as laziness does to external work.”5

So when a person has not previously made habitual efforts to think deeply or carefully, he is not accustomed to the task. In this way, the work involved is unusual to him and viewed by him as “unwonted”.6 Such a person “shrink[s] from the difficulty of considering” a “great and unwonted thing”, as St. Thomas explains.

The Attitude that “I don’t have the ability”, Stems from Fear.

Ultimately this kind of attitude is caused by fear. In order to give this topic a thorough treatment and to gain a clearer understanding of how this problem is not exclusively a choleric one, we will need to consider further the passion of fear.

A Preview…

In our next lesson we will begin our study of the passion of fear because this passion affects all the temperaments. We will then be able to see how deep-thinking is really perceived by the choleric.

1 Summa Ia IIae Q. 85 a.3 Respondeo (bold and italic and bracketed words added for emphasis or clarity).

2 Read this article: God Wills the Natural Inequalities between Different Persons and between Different Peoples. This article can be found here: https://catholiccandle.org/2019/09/22/god-wills-the-natural-inequalities-between-different-peoples/


3 Concise Catholic Dictionary compiled by Robert C. Broderick, M.A. ©1944, the Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee.


4 A soul is created by God at the instant of the particular person’s conception. That soul, as such, is identical to every other rational (human) soul created by God. The differences between persons are on the part of the person’s matter. Thus, e.g., a baby girl differs from a baby boy not in the type of soul she has, but in her material part. Likewise, one person’s strengths and weaknesses, as compared to another person, are not because God created them with differences in their souls, but because of differences in their bodily, material parts.

5 Summa, Ia IIae, Q.41, a.4, ad. 4.


6 The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines wont as a noun meaning custom; habit; usage or as a verb meaning- to be accustomed; to be used. Merriam-Webster Dictionary ©1949.

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

Let Us Be Manly Men!

The crisis in society and in the human element of the Church is principally caused by men much more than women or children. Men are the evil “fathers” of feminism and each of the principal evils of civil society and of the human element of the Catholic Church.

God made men to lead society, much more by their greater strength of mind than by their greater strength of body. Here is one way Catholic Candle stated this fact in the past:

A manly man must not be selfish, nor carried away by his emotions or passions. He must control himself and always live according to his reason. That is why a man can be a manly man and can show the truth of manliness even when he is 106 years old and is wheelchair-bound.1

Here is how St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, teaches this same truth:

Because we have strength of body, we are not therefore manly men. For he alone hath this virtue [viz., manliness] –yes, though he be confined to his bed — whose strength is from within; since without this, though a man should tear-up a mountain by his strength of body, I would call him nothing stronger than a girl.2

1 Quoted from: The Crisis in Society is Caused by Unmanly Men, which can be found here: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/07/22/the-crisis-in-society-is-caused-by-unmanly-men/


2 St. John Chrysostom, on the Epistle for the Feast of St. Lawrence, part of sermon 19 on 2nd Cor. 9:6-9 (bracketed words added to show context).


Lesson #48: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XIII

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Philosophy Notes

Catholic Candle note: The article immediately below is part thirteen of the study of the Choleric temperament. The first twelve parts can be found here:

  1. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36: About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Part I: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

  2. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament– Part II: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

  3. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38 — About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part III:: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

  4. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

  5. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #40: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part V: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/12/30/lesson-40-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-v/

  6. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #41 – About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat — Part VI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/01/27/lesson-41-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vi/

  7. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #42: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part VII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/02/21/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-vii/

  8. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #43 About the Temperaments –Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament — Their Spiritual Combat Part VIII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/lesson-42-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-viii/

  9. Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #44 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat, Part IX: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/04/23/lesson-44-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-ix/

  10. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #45 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part X: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/05/20/lesson-45-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-x/

  11. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #46 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Cholerics’ Spiritual Combat – Part XI: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/06/28/lesson-46-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xi/

  12. Mary’s School of Sanctity — Lesson #47 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat – Part XII: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/07/24/lesson-47-temperaments-choleric-temperament-a-cholerics-spiritual-combat-part-xii/


Lesson #48 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – The Choleric’s Spiritual Combat Part XIII

Note: When referring to a person with a choleric temperament in this article we simply will label him as a choleric.

In our last lesson we discussed how the choleric is easily fooled by the devil and ensnared in various forms of pride including wanting to be considered by others as very knowledgeable and as a great achiever. Hence, he has a tendency to fall into the trap of vainglory. However, these traps of pride are often embraced because the choleric is really trying to cover up the fact that he is a coward when it comes to deep thinking. He is lazy in using his intellectual abilities and therefore is not comfortable using them readily. Because he senses his lack of intellectual acuteness, he gives into the temptation to simply tell himself that it is too difficult to think carefully. This fear of mental work, which St. Thomas calls stupor,1 paralyzes the choleric into not even wanting to try to reason carefully.

Vicious Circle of Self-Feeding Fear of the Intellectual Life

Naturally, the devil fosters this irrational fear of careful thinking because the devil hates the fact that humans were created to be rational and learn the highest truths.

All through the centuries of human existence the devil has attacked mankind and tried to convince men that they should not think, especially deeply. Not only this, but the devil also wants men to believe that they do not have to think carefully. Furthermore, he tells men that thinking deeply interferes with one’s ability to have “fun” and “pleasure”. Ultimately, the devil wants us humans to believe that we were created to enjoy ourselves and that there is nothing more to do. Certainly the devil doesn’t want us to know the truth that our intellect is our highest faculty and when we use it well, we come to have the greatest delight and pleasure.

And so it is when the choleric has given into the temptation to be intellectually lazy, he thereby has allowed himself to become a shallow thinker and has harmed his own natural (i.e., human) desire to know. When he continues in this vein, he builds his fear of intellectual effort and likewise he weakens his willpower to actually make efforts to ponder and consider truth.

He will soon lose any savor to consider God and the higher truths. This manner of acting brings the choleric into more and more pride, a capital sin and into another dangerous capital sin named sloth, which is displeasure in the things of God.

We can see how the devil uses these masterstrokes against souls when he inspires irrational fears to dissuade a man from the proper use of reason.

How Can a Choleric Fight Against Such Demonic Tactics?

  • The choleric must learn to have God as his highest priority in life. The choleric must learn to appreciate having a divine friendship with Almighty God. With these things in his mind, he will not want to offend God.

  • The choleric must foster Fear of the Lord. When the choleric learns to appreciate the fact that sin offends the all good God, especially the sin of abusing our highest faculty, he would not want to shirk his duty to think and think well.

  • The choleric should pray for God’s assistance – the choleric should do everything in his power to foster a healthy prayer life.

  • The choleric should read the lives of the saints, especially a saint with the choleric temperament. This will not only help him get to know himself, but will also encourage him that he can indeed overcome his faults and amend his life. Plus, by applying his mind to the study of the virtues of the saints, he will foster a better development of his mind and a love of study.

  • The choleric should practice penances. Fasting is a powerful tool to strengthen one’s reasoning power and one’s will power.2

A Preview…

In our next lesson we will address the choleric’s false belief that he doesn’t have the ability to think deeply and how this belief has bad influences on the soul. In addition, we will discuss remedies to counteract this lie of the enemy of our souls.

1 St. Thomas explains this fear in Summa Ia IIae, Q.41, a.4, ad 4 & ad 5.

2 St. Thomas explains this truth about fasting in several places in the Summa, e.g., IIa IIae Q.147, a.1-3.