Catholic Wisdom

"A man ought to mortify his understanding in little things if he wishes easily to mortify it in great ones, and so to advance in the way of virtue."

—Saint Philip Neri, Maxims and Counsels.

Here, Saint Philip is warning about the vice of curiosity, not genuine study of the Faith or of some necessary branch of knowledge. How commonly we jump to our phones to "learn" some fact under discussion, and how quickly that "crucial" information is forgotten! This is mere curiosity, and if we feed that monster in little things, warns the Saint, we shall be weak and defenseless when we need to resist in things destructive to the soul, which he calls "great ones." They are not great because they are Earth-shattering, but they are great because they are soul-shattering (i.e., mortal sin).