Bicentenary

Sunday, 18 January 1852                                  




Vice, the denial of virtue

The ascetic conferences will continue in the parish church of St. Augustine under the direction of Fr. Francisco Palau.
A person, being free, is susceptible to good and to bad, and considered in this way is a garden in which our Lord has planted virtue, and the enemy, vice. The devil supported, fed and fomented with sinful acts, grows with time, and vicious habits are rooted deeply into the heart; his branches extend outside in scandalous works, and become a perfect tree of death, a person continues obstinately in sin and, gradually with time, reaching its completion, is an abominable plant in the field of the Church and of society which produces abundant fruit of the works of iniquity, poisoned and bitter. How can this vice be destroyed? How can this tree be uprooted? It can be done with time, with order, and by observing the rules of one of the seven arts whic the ascetics call, spiritual maturation.