Spiritual Theology Series: Temperaments ~ Fr Ripperger

[Music] he'll bear for Grace lures with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus mother of divine grace near the father suddenly ghost sometimes giving that noise about when our church I'm not talking about the kids so but a temperament is basically it's a bodily disposition which we have and a bodily disposition is the arrangement that are The matter in our body has in this arrangement of the matter from one individual differs from one individual to another but they tend to be categorizable and they're different for different groups

but this disposition of the matter determines how well your soul is able to operate through the bodily Faculty so if you'll recall there are different kinds of faculties in the soul there's some of their purely spiritual like part of the intellect normally that Part of the intellect is operates completely independently of a body organ the will it operates completely independently of a bodily organ so there's no bodily organ exit well there's the will you note everything and then there's some that work within a composite between the spiritual component and a physical component select site and

things of this sort so if the disposition or the arrangement of the matter in my eye isn't good then I Can't see very well but some people have really good dispositions I can their brain and that type of thing that so their level of understanding is higher the temperament so it's the temperament is this bodily arrangement it's principally hereditary or natural down although environmental factors can also affect disposition or temperament now what that means is you know if you eat certain things you know you don't feel as good and so that it affects how The

matter is arranged or the disposition of the matter in your body and see it's hard to be good or you know to stay away from certain kinds of foods when you're not feeling well that type of thing each temperament therefore because it affects being planning on how we how we act how those soul acts through it will also incline or affect our inclinations towards different kinds of virtues and vices and we'll see this as we start Going along you know for instance people who are saying I'm going to have a greater problem with vices that

pertain to the sixth commandment whereas people who are a cleric have a problem with anger things of that sort your temperament is changeable you can actually change your disposition of your battery or temperament so for example somebody will work a great deal on overcoming the defects of the sanguine temperament and then is that good as They go along they start realizing they're starting to take on the disposition that's more choleric and so they have to work on those things but there is a general principle that the body adjusts itself to the operations to soul and

so that means that the body begins to arrange the matter to a certain degree obviously some of this gets all done within a certain set of limitations but the body begins to adjust itself so that it can more easily Accomplish the activities of the soul and this means then if you can actually change your tamper meant over time now if the four temperaments there's there's the four temperaments the goal is to reach a state in which one is capable of performing all the functions easily of that all the temperaments while not being inclined to any

of the defects of the temperaments that's what Christ had Christ properly speaking did not have a Temperament in the sense of the four that we're going to talk about today his was because his bodily movement body was so subjugated by virtue it actually and he didn't have any defects arising from original sin because he didn't have original sin then admit that the bottom of the matter in his body was arranged to operate to allow the soul to operate perfectly through it in fact one of the things that people can kind of see is if you

start fasting you start noticing That you know your your touch becomes more sense of different things like that and so Christ because his body was so perfectly subordinated by virtue the arrangement of the matter was such that he could feel pain more acutely he could feel pleasure more acutely as well but he could feel the pain more acutely which is why his suffering and carrying the cross and things of this sort during his passion are far more intense is something that we would normally go Through that is people advance and virtue and we've talked about

this when you reach the state of sanctified perfection and you have the souls at door with all of the virtues it means that the temper none of the four temperaments predominate and that a person actually doesn't have a temperament in the proper sense anymore whilst this will make more sense as we go along most people develop there are moral Lives and their spiritual lives based upon the temperament because it's easy as we'll see there's certain virtues that are easy for the same when individual or the melancholic individual to develop but there's other ones that are

much more difficult and very often people who are of 1/b to your temperament will develop those virtues but they won't don't develop vices in the areas that are the more inclined towards the things like that or they Won't develop those virtues as easily and then there is lastly before we actually get into the temperaments there's what we call a predominant and a recessive temperament there's one temperament that people tended to tends to now it's almost impossible for a person to be a pure sanguine although I did know a guy that was pretty close to a

pure sanguine usually people have a predominant one like they're saying but With a little bit of choleric or they might phlegmatic with a bit of melancholy or something of that sort so there's they have it usually there's a mix if you go as we're going through these it's a good practice to figure out which temperaments did you have the pajama the recessive one because that will tell you the things you need to work on in your spiritual life and it'll also be good for an examination you know am i working in these areas if I

work in These areas do I have problems in these areas so that if you know your disposition you'll also know where your weaknesses are very often and so it can be very useful in the spiritual life which is why the spiritual writers talk about them okay the first is the sanguine this musician and the sanguine disposition is it's the one in which people react quickly and strongly so their reaction is quick that react very quickly and it's very strong but it's Not permanent it doesn't last very long so it's also short and you see this

you know the same witty guy you know his wife might say something and so he blows this lid and then five seconds later he kind of calms down because he doesn't really like anger that much anyway and then five minutes later he's calmed down I used his peaceful he's completely forgot about it that type of thing he the reaction tends to last only for a short period he tends to be Light-hearted imaginative vivacious joyful optimistic and hopeful so it tends to be rather positive on that side of things now if you recall I talked about

there's two different kinds of an appetite in these sensitive appetites basically have all passions so sensitive appetite is the faculty which has the ability to undergo passion and passion is another name for emotion and of the emotions there's ones that are categorized based Upon the fact that their partner can cue possible a supplier and this appetite is the thing which inclines toward states like just on a sensitive level sensitive love so for example somebody who really likes steak that's a sensitive love you know if you find steak very pleasing to you if you'd like steak

and that type of thing well that's a sign that you have a certain sensible love the thing which is different from intellect of love which is to real love the people that support But this computable appetite engaged in things like love desire so things like lust are activities of the computable appetite delight that type of thing and then and so the same person is the one who tends to have predominant the activities of the beautiful appetizer that are positive now there's also some negatives because you can cubicle appetite also has hatred and a version and

also sorrow that it can suffer but this the same room disposition is one Who has the positive who's the person who's tends to be rather desirous he likes he really likes eating good food he often suffers from problems have lost and things of this sort the positive traits are he's friendly or affable actually let me back up patek only irascible loud and this is the one comes from the latin word era which means anger and it's the one in which the the person becomes angry but it's also the one which aggression and Things like that

operate through it there's five of them that actually operate me in here but in the irascible Apple type and we'll see this when we get to the melancholic they predominate in operations the irascible appetite so experiment is the one it's ease the positive trains of the confusable appetite okay so he tends to be someone who's emotionally very positive you know he tends not to be the depressed individually tends to be upbeat and that Type of thing so his positive traits are friendly or affable he tends to be Pleasant people really liked being around saying when

people because they tend to be create a pleasant company and you want to enjoy being around them they are agreeable and they tend to be more unloving generally speaking they're compassionate towards those who suffer they tend to have a heart of gold they are very soft they have a soft spot for people who are who suffer or go through Difficulties they tend to be docile in other words you can you're easy to lead because they're willing to you know follow you because they can might see that it's good or whatever they're candid so they tend

not to beat around the bush or they tend not to be fraudulent and deceitful but they rather tend to be just out in front it's what you see is what you get is it sanguine individual there's sincere and spontaneous They're cheerful and at times have a contagious enthusiasm so in other words they can get around people they're laughing and carrying on everyone kind of gets sucked into it type of thing they react strongly to injuries but they quickly forget them and they recover from offenses and they tend not to hold any rancor or they're not

operating evil in other words they don't they tend not to be vindictive they tend not to be you know Trying to see how they can get after somebody and cause trouble for them that's just not because for them it's to where's some too tiresome to go through all that effort to achieve those things they would rather just blow their stack and then just move on with life they tend to be extroverts so they're kind of out there all the time they tend to be the people that you know go from individual to individual and tend

to you know talk a lot and things like that There are no negative traits in the same in disposition they tend to be superficial the part that's because they're kind of wrapped up this is the same when people tend to be kind of wrapped up in in the pleasurable things in life and that tends to make them a bit superficial whereas they're not the time the same disposition it's hard for them to acquire a virtue of mortification it's really difficult for them and so they tend to be rather Superficial because as Fulton sheen says maturity

tends to come through suffering and responsibility but they tend to be neither and that's something you have to generally often have to fight so they tend to be superficial unstable why because their emotional life is always changing they tend to follow their appetites and so wherever they're wherever their appetite tends to be fog going that's where they tend to go so you know the there's a good shot to this You know if a wife has a husband who's very sad when if he gets emotional or irritated with something just prevent him presenting with good food

and then even just kind of calmed down and beat your oriole of up on him a little bit then he's happy as a camper so this is this is their happy camper so this is the thing that you this is the which if you know how people dispose you can understand a little bit about how they function So instability and inconstancy and I think comedy constancy is is where these things you know this is the right thing do you know I've got to stay away from chocolate because every time I you know eat shock that

I have this you know I end up eating too much of it type of thing well then he gets around that so he says okay I'm gonna stay away from chocolate then he gets around the chocolate he's like okay you know he backs up to the next thing you know I Was looking down on the chocolate so he knows you're supposed to stay away from it but he still does it anyway so he's in constant he tends to be hasty and judgment so he tends to be somewhat imprudent because he won't take the time to

deliberate what's the best thing to do in this particular case he dislikes the reflection and the contemplative life this is part of the whole superficial promise so the people who are saying would have a harder time Developing a prayer life generally speaking and so they find a very arduous it tends to not bring them in you Petitte of satisfaction very often especially in the beginning stages and so they tend not to want to engage in it they're loquacious they tend to talk a lot and they dislike being alone it's like loneliness so and that part

of that game goes back and the beautiful appetite they they take delight in being around other people and so they'll go Around seeking people's company they're also the type of people that once they kind of attach to and start talking they're kind of hard to get your distance from them because they just they keep talking so and it's sometimes that's good especially if you're tired you want to be entertained it has its place but a lot of times you don't want to they tend to suffer from the vanity they also are very easily succumb to

flattery because it brings them a Certain delight an emotional delight and so they so tends to come to it and they sometimes suffer from envy because they see somebody else enjoying some good that they would like to have and that type of thing their predominant Falls so that put on falls that they tend to have or sensuality so they are prone to things like lust and gluttony they tend to eat a lot they tend to excessively they tend to have difficulties remaining chaste that type Of thing they're ready to undertake things to undertake anything but

they quickly are discouraged so they'll try things but they don't you know they're not really good at they're not the type of individual you want to put in charge of our project it's gonna be long and arduous because of the fact that they'll in the end the repugnance is giving up or try and find an easy route rather than doing it right and that type of thing they rely on their feelings in Matters of religion and that can be a big problem those we're gonna talk more about this when we get to the stage of

the devil and demons which I'm gonna actually start I'm gonna do that in the next class when they're gonna do two classes on demonic influence because then it's very important for you to understand how they affect our spiritual life but the first part will be just on how humans influence us the second part will be on How you overcome and avoid that influence but what hat with the moral the story is the demons can move anything that pertains to our body and now because the computers alone around that irascible appetites to operate through folly organ

they can inflame these appetites so if people tend to base their judgment or think like the same way people do based upon how they feel it's very easy to lead them along the demons to leave them lungs you just Have to present them with the right things and their imagination to get certain passions flowing and so it's very easy to manipulate them and so this is something that they really have to fight against and in the matters of religion that becomes a particularly difficult issue because we've talked about already that you know sometimes in the

spiritual life one of the first things that God does is he strips you of the sensible consolations or these Sensible consolations are some things to consider I'm experienced sometimes even keep us a palapa type so what happens is is that if a person starts basing their spiritual life on how they feel they won't engage in things that are difficult they won't do Maura fication they won't do prayer because this is going to be too difficult and they'll also be they'll easily succumb to demonic influence and this is one of the reasons why they have to

Work on subduing their appetites and their fat their emotions so no the morale the story is if you're emotional you're just gonna be easily easy prey for the demons they should be encouraged so there's certainly so those are the predominant defects so we have to encourage them to develop obedience since they are docile by nature in other words it's easier for people who are saying what to be obedient and that is a real something that's really good Because they can actually develop a level of self denial at least on the level of the will based

upon that they should develop their chil their cheerfulness and their candor and they should be encouraged develop certain virtues but they should be encouraged to develop certain virtues contrary to their disposition we're gonna do that with each of the temperaments so there's certain things they should be encouraged to do sort of things that they should be Taught I told you know you got to go this other way here so one of the things they need to work on is temperance know temperance is a virtue that is in the confusable appetite that keeps it refrained in

other words it keeps it from you know inclining towards the food and climbing towards things that were tuned to the sixth and ninth Commandments and things of that sort so they need to develop temperance and that comes through fasting and abstinence That's the principle way that it does they have to develop a modesty and chastity and because that will tend to refrain them from being too because people who are same and very often tend to not have they tend to kind of blurt things out without reflecting on what they're saying and that type of thing

and so the modesty will refrain that they should work on detachment now detachment we're back to this computable appetite useful appetite when it has a Love for a thing now how do you many have a love for a thing well it's something that you like so for example if you like steak or if you like certain kinds of cheese or if you like some things you actually have an attachment to these things now not all attachments are necessarily evil some of them are according to our nature they're actually but they're not necessary attachment either to

anything other than God isn't Imperfection it's not necessarily bad in the sense of it being sinful or that it's intrinsically unnatural but it's something that has to be perfected now what this means is is that st. Thomas is that all the other emotions flow from love and what he means by that is is that if you have like if you have a child that you're really fond of what happens is so some of you know and then he's playing soccer right then some kid comes over and bodychecks a boom and Knocks him down right well

from the love you predict person perceives some injury to the thing that you love and that perception of injury causes sorrow and then in addition then the person thinks oh well get packed up and go over and run him over it's the next thing so then from that arises a desire for vindication the combination of song of indication is what we call angular and so anger arises out of this love that the person has and That's why John of the Cross and then in the spiritual writers say that you have to actually work on becoming

perfectly neat ash which means that you can keep it simple appetite doesn't incline unless reason says this is what you want to do so that a point in fact it actually has no attachments to one thing or another and that's very difficult for people to achieve it takes a high level of virtue base you start gaining chastity and abstinence and virtue and Things and and fast the virtue of fasting and things of that sort they can keep civil appetite begins to become detached from things and it's becomes much easier so they have to work on

detachment and then that way they want to be so they won't base their religion on their emotions they won't be superficial and things of that sort they have to be encouraged to develop the virtue of silence because they tend to talk too much prayer and reflection Which will help them to overcome their tendency to hasty judgment and a lack of circumspection of circumspection is the virtue as you keep track of your surroundings and your circumstances st. Thomas says that circumstances is immediately corrupted by him Oh you see this as soon as the person gets angry

they lose track of the fact that they're standing in the checkout at Walmart and they blow their lid you know in front of their wife right at their Children or something of that sort and so this is they they tend to lose track of their surroundings and so the same with people who tend to be tend to follow their emotions tend to really suffer from in circumspection you know they're they tend to say things without seeing the proper context and things of that sort and so they if they start developing silence prayer and reflection this

will help them to be more circumspect and will also moderate their Extroversion an actual version can be a good thing but it can also be to excess and so it has to be reframed they must practice daily mortification of the senses or they have to get in the habit of always doing self-denial and things that are physically difficult you have to practice custody eyes ears tongue and sense of touch in other words they have to guard against they have to basically develop the virtue of custody of the senses or custody the eyes is sometimes What

it's called that can't let anything come into their senses which will have a mortifying effect they have to do that in order so that they're not so easily moves because the things that come into our senses Tim to inflame our emotions as well they have to guard against over indulging in exquisite foods and drinks they should follow a regiment of life they should get up in the morning and be disciplined okay at this time I'm going to do this I'm going to get up in the Morning I'm going to say my prayers until 6:00 at

such a time then I'll have some to eat then I'll go to work that type of thing that structure will help them to be less prone to inconstancy in their life or their you know not doing what they should or they didn't do it at the right time or that type of thing they should engage consistently in self-denial and they should persevere at their work and observance of order in their life so sometimes saying when People you go into their house and you know it looks like a bomb went off because everything is everywhere there's

no or okay the next one is the color eka the claret disposition is someone who reacts quickly but his reaction remains a long time and it tends to be strong to ten steps rather strong passions and he its hallmarks by a promise to anger so his tends to be a negative passion in relationship to the irascible avatar That is he's prone to there are people that just very easily become angered by things he's prone to despair because things just don't seem to go the way he wants he tends to react favorably to reason and high

ideals in other words they tend to be more somewhat more intelligent people st. thomas's not always I mean you can have some news if you keep this would be a genius I mean I've seen that too but very often the people who are Asked will tend to have to be a bit smarter and generally speaking and part of that st. Thomas says is because it takes in order for to engage in the irascible I would tell you have to assess things a bit more and what he means by that is to become angrier you have

to make a judgment about paying something bad is going on here and then there has to be a consideration of Education so there's a more intellect it's more akin to reason he says the the Emotion is more like reason than just you know the brute animal wanting you know wanting food and that type of thing so but the point being is is that they tend to be pretend to be inspired or tend to be easily encouraged to follow the high ideals and reasons so the type of individual will sit down and they'll they're not interested

in following you know they're not interested in the food they're more interested in okay how do we solve this problem and they do they Like to think things through they tend to be practical however rather than theoretical whereas is that the same one and the villager temperaments the melancholy and the the phlegmatic tend to be more theoretical rather than practical and so but whereas the choleric individual tends to be much more practical he and I have a friend of mine that's very cleric and he is exactly that he's very practical he's he's capable of intellectual

reflection But he in the end he's not really that interested in it he just really wants to know you know how do i how do we get this done type of thing he but he is also more inclined to work than to think he's really more interested in getting things done than just sitting around thinking of how you're gonna do it inactivity is repugnant to them so they tend to be hard workers as a general rule so the positive traits are they have a keen intellect with great powers Of concentration and endurance so they can

go if something requires a lot of effort to think through they'll they're in for the long haul so they have high ideals and a strong will there are constant so they remain fixed on something that willing to do they can go the distance and they also tend to be generous and they're also capable leaders they're very good at leading people although they have to be careful because sometimes they can be a bit Harsh on the people underneath them but if they don't achieve what they're hoping that they achieve whereas the same when people and they

get into positions of authority they can be capable leaders on an intellectual level and they could be good at trying to persuade people to do certain things but they're not very good at you know disciplining people when it's necessary or you know cutting people off when it's necessary that can tend to suffer a bit From human respect more whereas the people who are cleric they rarely have problems with human respect or if they do it's not it's not as a strong the negative traits are there's a certain stubbornness or obstinacy and impatience the tuners so

tend to suffer from pride seem to be rather proud people and so they're very sensitive to humiliations whereas the sanguine person there doesn't matter what you say you can't really insulting that much I mean They're just they're just not interested in taking offense usually so doesn't matter what you say they'll just not like you it's up of him you know and then that's it Clara people tend to be domineering they're characterized by a certain hardness and they tend to look down on their fellow man to a certain degree to his mind others are ignorant weak

and unskilled they're slow at least compared to himself he shows he shows his contempt of his neighbor by Despising mocking or belittling remarks about others and by his proud behavior towards those around him especially towards those who are subject to him he often falls into the lower vices such as deceit and hypocrisy he tends to lack compassion and sympathy for his fellow man he should be encouraged to develop the virtues of fortitude because he's capable developing fortitude much more easily than say the sanguine individual magnanimity in other words because he's Inspired by noble ideas and

things that tend to be rational he's very easy to strive for a greatness of soul because these are according to his disposition contrary to his disposition he should be encouraged to develop humility and that's gonna be hard in the common form and it's something that's gonna be each time he's humiliated he's gonna be very sensitive but humility humility is one of those things as you begin to develop it the humiliations tend to bother you Last and you get to a certain point where the humiliations actually bring you a certain joie because you realize ok ok

convert you through the process and that type of thing but in the beginning it's gonna be hard for the person who is choleric he should develop meekness - meekness is the virtue opposite of anger and so she needs to work on not weaknesses the virtue in which you don't go to extreme in your reactions and it tends to reframe the Anger but what this means is is that the person becomes meet the irascible appetite begin to kind of calm down as time goes he should develop kindness and charity he should try to moderate and direct

his goals according to the order of charity in other words he should seek what's best for other people rather than just the satisfaction of achieving some goal and this was this is also important because when he gets into a position of Authority he has to govern according to charity rather than his inclination to want to just you know you know be the guy on top of the the characters you know hidden or snapping the whip at everybody so he has to kind of come down and consider people's limitations and things of that sort so that

he himself doesn't get angry she has to encourage to depend on God and humbly beg him for his assistance rather than himself because his tendencies to depend on Himself rather than on God he is likely to make the lives of those around him bitter and difficult and he should be encouraged to meditate on the sufferings of others particularly those he that the sufferings that he's causing in other words sometimes there unreflecting to the fact because their focus is on achieving some goal or achieving something or getting something or venting their hang or that they're not

really thinking about you know you're Hurting the person that's closest to you or something of that sort you should have meditate on the sufferings of Christ and how he bore them patiently and without acrimony being angry with someone who is choleric only exacerbates the anger of the choleric so you don't when you're around cleric people it's better to be meek and to keep rational irrational around them because then they'll respond to that on a rational level rather than themselves Reacting with anger okay the next is the melancholic and the melancholic is someone who has a

disposition towards sorrow we have love desire and love desire delight desires you actually want something you don't have it no life is a little bit different like it's just do you like chocolate yeah I like chocolate so if you bring somebody who's just gorged himself on a Thanksgiving meal and you say do you like chocolate yeah I Like chocolate do you want chocolate not right now okay so there's that's the difference between the love the desire to just like it but that doesn't miss sort of mean you wanna care now whereas desire is I want

to think here now delight is when you actually have a thing present to you so when you actually get the thing you know you start eating it and you get not just a physical pleasure but you get kind of an emotional to lie it out of just you know Looking down on the turkey etc the opposite of love is hatred and this is just a dislike you know do you like broccoli if you ask George book do you like broccoli no I just like broccoli means the person turns away from it he doesn't want it

he doesn't want it he wants to get away from it and then the opposite of July is SAR now melancholic person is the one who has negative it has a negative information regarding a confusable appetite towards a sorrow Sorrow is the presence of some evil to the individual delight of the presence of some good to them desire is the plot of a the future good where its delight isn't the good is actually present to you the sorrow whereas a version is you see something coming down the street like oh I gotta get away from that

individual the way you go your so you turn away from that whereas sorrow is the guy actually all the sudden pops out hey how you doing You like so the sorrows when the evil is actually presents to you and so the melancholic is a person who's easily disposed towards sorrow so they tend to be the people who tend to be very pessimistic they're always looking at the negative side of things you know the glass is always half-empty you know what are we gonna do it's MD you know that type of thing if they tend to

die desire delights in order to expel their sorrow Mellon Hawks Reacted slowly so they slowed reaction but for a very long time and it tends to be rather strong or deep we found and they so their reaction tends to be permanent to what they experienced they tend not to forget easily so if you do something that causes them any pain they remember it later and then type of thing they have a tenderness and a generosity for their friends but they do not feel home in a crowd and usually what that means is they tend to

have a few close Friends whereas a semi individual to have a lot of friends but tend to be somewhat superficial the clerk the individual tends to have a moderate number of friends but they tend to tends to have a few really close ones but a moderate number of other ones the melancholic individual tends to have only just a few close friends and everyone else he really doesn't want to deal with that much he's passive and not vivacious quick or progressive in other Words he tends to not react he tends to react quickly to the injuries

that occurred in but he tends not to do too much in form of going out there and trying to get things done and that type of thing his positive traits however are is that he tends to be contemplative these very pensive he tends to think things over a lot he tends to mold things over and he's inclined towards reflection so we'll see this later it's easy for him to develop The virtue of Prayer yeah I tends towards reflection piety in the interior life he's sympathetic and compassionate he's also a lot of suffering in other words

he can he can endure things for a long period of time even though he has a fear of suffering and a dread of interior desertion and self-denial even though he couldn't as an aversion towards these things nevertheless when he's in the middle of the suffering he can go the distance regarding it the Negative traits is he tends to surrender easily though and our to that in dealing with things in achieving goals he has to surrender easily and he tends to be overseer serious so you don't see them laughing too much it is not to laugh

res the sacred individual tends to laugh and just about everything because laughing gives us a certain pleasure he's interested in bodily delights and things are pleasurable so he'll he'll laugh at Anything if you just laugh and laugh and laugh the choleric person laughs the stuff that tends to be intellectual and they tend not to laugh too much of things that are you know a pet idea for emotional but melancholic though tends not to laugh much at all so but if he does it tends to be more along the lines of some of the things that

are more intellectual he's reserved except with close friends since he finds it difficult to reveal himself He's irresolute and dreamy and he tends to concentrate excessively on himself and that is the nature of sorrow and one of the things about depression and this is the thing I tell people look the reason you're depressed is because you're self-absorbed now what happens is is people will say things like all I'm depressed I have a low self-esteem no it's the exact opposite you overestimate yourself and how wonderful you are and the fact that not everybody else sees That

and that's why you're depressed so if you quit thinking about yourself and get your mind off yourself you won't be depressed as easily okay so in fact depression and sorrow tend to have they're not all sorrow but disorder sorrow it is to have its root and pride that sounds counterintuitive to everything the modern psychologists are telling you but a point in fact that's exactly what it is so usually if you can't if you you know if you have the Guy the litany of humility he starts saying the litany of humility was usually cause dismissive this

significant amount of pain within a few days he's already feeling better and anyone there's why well that's part of it okay he tends to be suspicious and he tends towards the scrupulous 'ti despondency and Phu solemnity he's very much afraid of disgrace and humiliation and the personalities arrives from melancholy tend to be complex in other Words he's this when individual is very simple food or sex he got his attention whereas didn't have to do more glad to give his attention he tense and he also tends to be you know it's because he analyzes things and

relationships how he feels and there's everything he tends to be much more complicated in these relationships and things of that sort the choleric individual is not complicated at all you know do what I Tell you so his predominant faults are sorrow excessive sorrow fear of version despondency and despair so he's very easily despairs so you have to encourage him to develop certain virtues in court of his disposition that is you can help them to have Intel to develop a spirit of prayer and detachment because they can develop a certainly it's easy for them to develop

detachments and a spirit of mercy so they tend to be very compassionate people and that type of Thing they're the type of guy you put in charge of Catholic social services type of thing alright although you have to make sure he doesn't go to access in that regard although contrary to disposition he has to develop a joyous attitude and that's going to cause pain and that brings up a very interesting point when the faculty is disposed the disposition determines how well they relate to a specific object so for example if the person is Very saying

what is very same disposition and the object is food you can keep a small appetite just very easily moved or wanting food but if the disposition is not very well disposed it doesn't relate well to the food and the faculty isn't that inclined towards the food so that if a person isn't you know he doesn't really if he doesn't feel well or if he doesn't want if he's just not the individual that likes food that much then wouldn't eat the food it Doesn't bring rather than bring in pain and you actually see this in relationship

to the through the melancholic individual if you try and be joyful around them he just gets very negative because it's causing him pain but this is true of any disposition when the relationship to the sanguine because he's really disposed towards eating a lot of food if he doesn't eat the food accomplices in pain or if you deny him the food or things of That sort it causes him a certain amount of pain at the cleric individual if he's arousal that is he's inclined towards anger if you're meek and you tend to be kind and do

that type of thing around if it drives him nuts causes in pain now what this means is is that this can give us kind of an indicator you know if you find that certain things like if people say things that are stupid it really annoys you its power means you got rid of cleric or if You if you find that certain things you know like if people tend to be vivacious and enthusiastic and you don't like being around it was probably a sign that you're melancholic and so or they have a touch of it at

least so these are the things you can see you can find out what your dispositions are but if you recall the virtue when you have perform an act of virtue as you gain a certain amount of virtue to the virtue the virtue is in the spiritual side or the immaterial Side of our faculties whereas the disposition is the material side but our she became developing amount of virtue the body give adjusts itself on material side to the operations of the soul so you can find out what your virtues and vices are based upon how you

react to bodily to certain things and this is something that could be quite useful by important but as you become more virtuous of course then it's a big disposition Arranged itself so that the faculty can easily move by therefore against the food you know can either inclined towards they're not inclined towards it and that's what virtue is for it gives you a certain power so you need to do it or not do it whereas vice you'd have a hard time not doing it and that's one of the signs of it but this is something that's

quite important so if you find that I just did on a dispositional side something just Grates with you you know whenever you see if it's a sign that you probably have a bit of choleric or something of that sort so he has to show yes to develop a joyous attitude it's gonna be painful but that's what he has to do he has to develop fortitude because of the fact that he doesn't want to do things that are gonna cause him suffering and doing those things that are arduous was about fortitude it deals with the causes

a certain level of Suffering she has to develop charity and hope because the charity would and hope the hope will help overcome the depression you know the despair but the charity would drag him out of himself his charity his love of God him no love of neighbor for the sake of God so it's all about God and not himself and so as he works on charity he'll stop being so now melancholic and so sorrowful and depressed he should be encouraged to be busy about beneficial activities such as Work and hobbies in order to keep his

mind off his sorrow okay the next one is the phlegmatic that's the last one this disposition is hallmarked by certain placidity or tranquility or quiet so this is the guy who slowly not strongly so there's a weak reaction reacts slowly and not permanently to their experiences and they are devoid of strong passions you start getting a reaction out of them so It's not strong so it's about me but it's doesn't last long so it's short the reaction is short they work slowly as this guy did but assiduously in other words they're very constant they just

keep working at it they're not easily irritated by insults or misfortunes or sickness they tend to remain tranquil and discreet and sober they have a great deal of common sense and mental balance because they don't know they're not affected by their emotions very much so They tend to be capable of you know judging things rather clearly on a practical level they do not possess the infallible passions of the same contentment nor the deep passions of the melancholic temperament or the art of passions of the choleric temperament their speech in their speech they are orderly clear

positive and measures so they're very theirs they're good at speaking because they can you know they don't tend to go to extremes and react And say certain things that don't belong and that type of thing rather than they're not very florid or flowery or picturesque and they're in their descriptions they have good hearts but at times they can seem kind of cold because they just don't react you know they would sacrifice to the point of heroism if it's necessary but they lack enthusiasm and spontaneity they tend to be prudent and sensible reflective and work with

a measured pace they attain Their goals without fanfare or violence because they're usually avoid difficulties rather than attacking them physically flag maddox are usually of robust build so they're usually you know pretty good size that's the way this guy was this they are slow in movements and the possessing in an amiable face I don't know why that is just going to fix you somebody anymore I guess it considered passive and they can be inconstant principally Because they don't have a strong passion inclining them towards remaining constant but usually when it comes to work there is

still a sued us they still keep with it they tend to demand little and they get along with others due to a lack of convictions they're inclined towards each ease and comfort and they tend to be unambitious procrastinators and disinterested my experience also is that there was a author who made the observation that phlegmatic people Really like food and I know that guy that's very flag Matic he it's I mean all of these characteristics he's gotten most of them and but I'll tell you what he'll sit and just you know the food is the whole

thing if it just doesn't quite reach his standards he's you know there's a comment made oh this is like this isn't quite that you know that type of thing so that's one of the signs of a phlegmatic they're really interested in food the dominant falta phlegmatic SAR Dullness and sloth so in other words they tend to be a bit inert you just sit there I'm doing much they should develop the virtues of patience and affability and perseverance which are in accord with of dispositions and contrary to these positions they should develop zeal and temperance because

they tend to really like foods they have to temper their irascible appetite that can overcome the negative tendencies of the disposition by deep convictions now to Become a saint the easiest disposition to become a saint is the sanguine but they are also the least likely to achieve it and this is why the same when people have a hard time overcoming the initial difficulties in achieving sanctity so they tend to not golf around much because they're too wrapped up in the those types of things where's melancholy will very often be pensive so they have kind of

a certain start they don't get Very far and the cleric person will apply himself and if you can overcome as anger you can go very rapidly but the phlegmatic disposition because there's not much to motivate him very often these people have the hardest time becoming a sect the phlegmatic people wears the same people it's much easier for them to become a saint again it's a matter of predominant recessive so you know a lot of people will have a bit of sanguine choleric they might be Phlegmatic maybe with a bit of melancholic or something of that

sort sometimes you see people who say most a bit of melancholic because even though they're kind of a gracious they can also be easily depressed if something doesn't quite work out and that type of thing again all these are very important because they tend to affect our development of 4qu and they tend to either impede or helpless in the advance in spiritual life again the with the Sanguine which deals with the wrath that the useful appetite and then the melancholic here at the bottom and then you have the choleric than the phlegmatic which doesn't react

to much of anything the goal is here to go and the point about this is is that the body you should get to the point where the disposition of virtue is such that it's easy it's very easy to be constant in assiduous it's easy to be the next reverberant time requires that but it Has to be moderated it's easy to do all those things that pertain to optimism and hopefulness of joy and charity and things like that but at the same time it's not the negative side where tends to being to acceso the goal is

and this is what people applying because they're advancing in the spiritual life like this is take the same when it's an example what they tend to find is is that is they start sangman people start to become in and Start overcoming the segment disposition they'll start becoming a big choleric in other words they'll get the bad traits of the sanguine disposition controlled but in the prop a so they get the improvement that can keep us alive alive under control if that all the sudden realize we'll be rocks a lot of times in control that's just

a sign to haven't developed the virtue here because most say would people aren't irascible so it's a case of virtue of the absence of Vice and Byford that means they really don't have to virtue so nobody they don't get very irascible so they tend to think well I've got meetings down but they don't really it's just if they don't react on that level they didn't react on their cue miscible level so as they overcome they you know those overcome things appertaining sixth commandment know the numbers against certain level of chastity and a certain level of

temperance and then the next Thing you know they're very cleric and angry so then they have to kind of work through that process and then as a person starts overcoming the cleric side they go through the melancholic in the process of developing virtue and a large degree of detachment one of the things that can happen is people can start suffering from a bit of like Matic disposition where you know that gets the point where and they just don't react at all anything and that's not for that and That's not where perfection lies either so the

perfection lies in having the characteristics of all of them as to the positive traits and the none of the characteristics that are negative okay any questions this Conor is here is that type of person up extra burger in the interpreter he's usually a bit extroverted a bit melancholy introverted yeah so that's one of the ways that you can kind of size it up and like I said if you can Kind of figure out where you're at on this this whole thing it can tell you a lot about where you're at spiritually you know because again

most people develop their spiritual life based upon their dispositions so the sanguine individual will work on charity things like that because they're very pleasant it comes easy to them but they won't work on things like chastity things of that sort you know and so yes or the cleric personal you know champion the Fact that he's very fortitude it is but he hasn't mastered you know his anger and things of that sort so yeah how much the temperaments is genetic well I mentioned in the beginning it's is largely hereditary it's the initial temperament that you do

is from your parents but then you can do environmental factors like the kinds of food you eat and things like that so for example they're finding that if you feed a kid the average kid or a kid who's a Bit has a certain disposition towards it if you feed him a lot of refined flour and sugars the kid is going to end up a DD pretty quick so what you do is you cut him off with certain environmental things in the food or some other things and it'll tend to calm down but the environmental things

can affect can agitate our emotions and then they can inflame the confusable and rascal outsides cause changes in our dispositions of environmental factors But it's also the choices you make because this means ultimately you can change your disposition or your temperament on the choices you make based upon the development of virtue or vice and so like for instance the term personality is a composite thing it's based upon the fact that we have a rational nature I mean we say that animals have a personality but it's not quite the same so we're rational so the fact

that we Can actually and to be a person you actually have to have rationality or agates intelligence but it's also it's based on the fact that were rational but it's also based upon that disposition so by personality we usually mean you know the general tendency towards people's behavior and how they tend to react it's based on their disposition but then it's also based on virtually device and that personality based on virtue advice this is what you develop volitionally and Then that will of course affect your disposition that type of thing so but it's largely it's

initially it's what's its hereditary this is why you can see kids you know he's when you're old he doesn't have any rational control over anything but he just has to act based upon his disposition and so you can see you know one of them like the sanguine kid he'll smile a lot that type of thing you know whereas the cleric kid he's always walking around you know that's Have a thing I've seen somebody met a kid that's phlegmatic ok to disagree half day he doesn't ball wasn't do nothing of course on that like I suppose

it's kind of pleasant but he doesn't there's no reaction of any kind so if they tend to react along this level that animals can also have these dispositions as well you can kind of see that in different breeds of dogs at different dispositions and that type of thing but they don't have the capacity to change Their dispositions we can change the dispositions you can take a dog it tends to be rather Placid sanguine and then just basically treat it off we know like very cool Eric but it doesn't develop virtue in fives but the point

is is that it's Laura it's initially hereditary and then the dispositions most people that when they inherit is usually the one they die with because they don't develop virtue and but if you develop the virtue you will change your disposition so then So then as you get older you'll either confirm your disposition or you'll overcome it or change it change you just I mean what would you do is any of the virtues can cause a change in your disposition so what you do is well the virtues that are in accord with your disposition will confirm

the positive aspects of that but you have to work on the virtues that are contrary to your disposition and that will begin to help you don't work on your disposition but Most people don't do that because it's like I said it causes pain it's difficult to do that sort of thing and most people aren't willing to put in the mental effort to do it it's in the body the will is believed in a completely immaterial faculty the temperament the program is in the disposition this position is again is just how the matter is arranged in

our body so and that arrangement of the matter determines how well things move And that's the fingers to their finding on when they first came out with genetics they thought all this stuff was an ironclad but they're starting to find out that you can actually change your DNA structure by your behavior so one of the things they've discovered is that you can change your DNA by exercise so the point being is is that you can some of it some of them range mint of the matter is predetermined you can there's not any You're not gonna

be able to change some of it but some of it can be changed and so it's principally in the body and then the faculties and operating through it will either operate well or easily in relationship to various things based upon that mother that's a salmon and father that's colorful kid probably both possibly yeah although sometimes you know genetics are strange you know you can you can have so you can I mean I've seen parents who Were both very cool Eric and they have this totally phlegmatic kid so it sometimes you just yeah it's you never

know usually the inheritance we get like usually we inherit a certain degree of it from our parents so you find you know you see that you see the father of the mother you know they're very sanguine so they tend to be very the corpulent they love food they enjoy the convivial life and then the kid next to them that you know the next kid won't he's got a Carpenter - because he loves food and Isis so some of that can be they're operating on but some of it is just the fact that they maybe they

inherited the disposition especially the stuff that's really predominant they'll usually receive at least some of it you mentioned yeah - the temperaments are disposition you're gonna have one that's dominant so like in my own particular case when I was younger I have yet to figure out what it is at This stage but I actually I kind of do it's changing again but the the I used to be very selling almost to the judge attention choleric a friend of mine was Clara with a bit of melancholy so if he's not angry he's depressed it's one of

those kinds of things and I think as he gets older he's probably taking on because he's growing in virtue he is working hard overcomes and or people who Clara tend to complain a lot saying that people tend to complain a Lot because if they suffer if they don't separate open blame but he's becoming a bit more melancholic I think as we get older as he gets older but that's again once you overcome the predominant one then you've got to start working on the stuff that pertains to the recessed no DNA in genetics yeah yeah it

done is it it explains the larger the hereditary side of it explains a lot of it in the beginning but what you ultimately become later is largely due to your own choices So you know people say their parents my parents is fallible well sorry you're responsible for your own mess at this age you know we used to see that especially when the hippies were growing up you know they would say you know a lot of all messed up because my parents know you're messed up because you're smoking marijuana this you know there's it's just anything

to blame anybody else yes you can or you can also become very cool Eric usually people who Are saying one will shift more towards the Clark unless the type if if it's the type of difficulties that they they struggle against they think they can overcome that so everything will become more Clark was it's the type of thing they just get beat around and they just can't do anything that'll become more melancholic but again a lot of that depends too on how you how you because you can choose to determine how you're going to react just

things to a certain Degree and so you can fight against that the negative sides of the develop developing the negative aspects of the other temperaments which is important and you know you see this too you know people will you can you can get a if you know these really well you can usually pick peace you can usually tell you know especially when stuff is rather pronounced you know that you know this guy who suffers from since against the six command which is assignees Paulo Very sanguine so and so you can kind of you can base

of the advice based upon that but for your own benefit knowing this will help - no okay this is what you got work honor this is the thing you have to avoid yeah that's true the sanguine disposition appears at least to me to be the one that's the most easily changed the phlegmatic the most difficult and choleric probably yeah it's probably this progression Starting easiest the most difficult to change principally because here there's no motivation here the faculties remain depressed as hard to lift the print person harness Artemis himself like my the bootstraps and the

cleric is a little bit more difficult because of the fact that you know because the anger anger tends to make us think that well you know what I'm doing is righteous you know this person has to committed this injustice against me so it's okay where Is the statement in the same individual if he can this is the same with individual can conquer impurity and intemperance with regard to food he'll master pretty much everything very quickly but usually they don't you know do that that's the problem and so you know one of the ways that you

said tend to see a change in disposition partly due to environmental factors is you know like and it's guys can go through the same Thing so I'm not trying to single out women here but you'll see a woman gets married we should be very same one and that means she's looking for certain delights and that type of thing within the context of the marriage which makes her very pleasant to her husband and they first married but then as he doesn't fulfill every desire and delight of hers she can very easily degenerate into a pillar of

disposition so you'll find women who then this is something I've kind of noticed you'll find women who are in there they later in life and they're very angry and then you find out when they ask you know why did you marry her she wasn't like this when they got married so that's something that can be you know kind of a sign and usually what you do is you know in a case like that is the person who's become very cool Eric hasn't overcome certain aspects of the Sanguinetti that is their attachment to delights and things

of that sort so Once they break those then very often they'll find they're much more placid so okay any other questions all right if you kneel I'll give you a blessing benedict showdown a portent ease pathways affiliates prescriptions super a flawless its money at seven bear increase force being treated three stories force [Music]