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Lust is a vice that can easily consume a persons soul. The consequences are dire. Our Lady
of Fatima proclaimed, more souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other
reason. Understand the vice of lust and her daughters so that the Catholic soul may stand
guard against them.
Listers, if a person invites lust into his heart, the daughters of lust will soon
follow and nest deep within it. A vice is not a single act. Both vice and virtue are habits.
Habits are described by both Aristotle and Aquinas as a species of the category of quality,
and qualities are difficult to change. When a person habituates themselves to the evil that is
lust, that repetitive action changes the quality of their soul. Lust is a vice that can easily
consume a person. The consequences are dire. Our Lady of Fatima proclaimed, more souls
go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.1 Understand the vice of lust
and her daughters so that the Catholic soul may stand guard against them.
Blindness of mind
Thoughtlessness [Inconsiderateness]
Inconstancy
Rashness [Precipitation]
Self-love
Hatred of God
Love of this World [Affection for this present world]
Abhorrence or Despair of a Future World [Dread or despair of that which is to come]
The capital vice of lust and her corresponding daughters convince the conquered heart to
continue to engorge itself on pleasurable goods, especially sexual pleasures.
characterized by sexual pleasure. The soul apprehends the good through the senses and is
inclined toward the sexual pleasure, but reason and will must order the inclination according
to virtue. The capital vice of lust exists when there is a perversion of the relationship between
the higher and lower powers of the soul toward a sexual pleasure.
(3) The third act is judgment about the things to be done, and this again is hindered by lust.
For it is said of the lustful old men (Daniel 13:9): They perverted their own mind . . . that
they might not . . . remember just judgments. On this respect there is thoughtlessness.
(4) The fourth act is the reasons command about the thing to be done, and this also is
impeded by lust, in so far as through being carried away by concupiscence, a man is hindered
from doing what his reason ordered to be done. [To this inconstancy must be referred.]
[The sentence in brackets is omitted in the Leonine edition.] Hence Terence says (Eunuch.,
act 1, sc. 1) of a man who declared that he would leave his mistress: One little false tear will
undo those words.
In short, (1) understanding is perverted by blindness of mind (2) asking for counsel is
perverted by rashness (3) judgment is perverted by thoughtlessness and (4) the command to
act is perverted by inconstancy.4
Fatima Quote: Read the cited quote and more about Our Lady of Fatima at 4 Things You Must Know about Our
2.
Lady of Fatima. [
]
Further Reading on the Powers of the Soul: For those interested, please consult a Thomistic explanation of
the sense appetite, the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Concupiscence, and St. Thomas Aquinas explanation of
3.
love (good as such) and hatred (evil as such), desire (good is absent) and aversion (evil is absent), joy (good is
present) and sadness (evil is present). Under the irascible appetite, he lists hope (an absent but attainable good) and
despair (an absent an unattainable good), courage (a conquerable evil), fear (an unconquerable evil), and anger
4.
(present evil). For more see Concupiscence and the Sense Appetite. [
]
Are All Sexual Acts Lustful? The obvious answer is no, but Aquinas answer is worth reading especially
when attempting to explain the movement of the soul toward pleasurable goods which are in fact good and virtuous.
He states, A sin, in human acts, is that which is against the order of reason. Now the order of reason consists in its
ordering everything to its end in a fitting manner. Wherefore it is no sin if one, by the dictate of reason, makes use of
certain things in a fitting manner and order for the end to which they are adapted, provided this end be something
truly good. For more on lust in general, visitLust & the Common Good.