Thought for the Day – 24 September – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
Prudence and Simplicity
“Apart from the Christian virtue of prudence, there is also the prudence of the world and of the flesh.
This, however, as St Francis de Sales explains, is really duplicity and craft – it does not avoid dissimulation and falsehood; it seeks its own profit only and is prepared to obtain its end by any means.
“I know nothing at all about the art of falsehood, dissimulation and pretence,” St Francis wrote to the Bishop of Belle, “which is the centre of political activity and the mainspring of human prudence.
That which I have on my lips, I have in my heart.
I hate duplicity like death” (Letters of St Francis de Sales [Spirito] Bk II C24, Letter 178).
Our prudence should, likewise, be inspired by rectitude, sincerity and simplicity.
We must speak the truth with charity and never lie or deceive.
“For we can do nothing against the truth,” says St Paul “but, only for the truth” (2 Cor 13:8).
He advises the Ephesians – “practice the truth in love” (Eph 4:15).
To the Romans he writes: “I would have you wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil” (Rom 16:19).
The virtue of Christian prudence then, consists in complete exactitude in all that is good, combined with a holy simplicity, free from any taint of duplicity or evil!”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci
PART ONE:
https://anastpaul.com/2022/09/28/thought-for-the-day-28-september-prudence-and-simplicity/
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