LXXII. Impassable Barricades
1.From time immemorial barricade? have played an important part whenever street fighting has been carried on in large cities. They consist of impediments artificially constructed, and made of various materials, such as, for instance, beams joined together, heaps of earth and stones, which render it very difficult for an enemy to pass along the streets.
In the spiritual conflict, in the war against the enemy of chastity, various kinds of mortification and the good employment of one's time may be compared to these barricades. They prevent the entrance of the sin of impurity into the citadel of our heart, or at least render it more difficult. Let us see how this comes to pass.
2. Why are many young people so weak in regard to the preservation of their chastity? There is no doubt that this is principally caused by want of mortification, by effeminate bringing up. Such a system of bringing up awakens and fosters animal propensities in the human being at an early age, and lays him open to the most terrible temptations later in life. He falls an easy prey to these temptations, because he has but little strength; he is wanting in moral stamina. In this way habits of impurity originate.
