Paperback: Monseigneur Landriot, formerly Archbishop of Rheims, is the author of an earlier Loreto title, The Valiant Woman. That book was so well received that we have decided to republish another of the good Archbishop's powerful spiritual works.
This book consists of fifteen discourses four on Sins of the Tongue, three on Envy and Jealousy, two on Rash Judgments, two on Christian Patience, and four on Grace) that were originally talks given to laywomen of his diocese in the late 19th century.
At the beginning, the good Archbishop says, "I propose, my children, to give you some instructions on the tongue, and the faults which it causes us to commit. I shall commence today by speaking of the power and beauty of that organ, of the noble use which ought to be made of it, and of the many advantages we may derive from it." Only then does he begin to enumerate the sins and give prescriptions for their remedy.
During these discourses, Monseigneur Landriot shows that he is no stranger to the world and its ways. His wisdom has penetrated the deepest secrets of the human psyche and its entanglements with the world and he lays bare the inner workings of souls strongly under the influence of grace and also of those habituated to vice.
Precise descriptions of certain sins and their consequences enable the reader to clarify in their own mind the dangers and the necessary precautions that must be taken to avoid them.
Quoting extensively from holy Scripture and many of the great doctors and moral theologians of the Church, the Archbishop never fails to delight us with his penetrating analysis of human nature, at once showing us the depravity it is capable of and the great power it has to overcome our evil tendencies through the effects of divine grace. To seek diligently to possess a "well formed conscience" is the duty of every Christian. There is precious little teaching on the topics covered in these instructions which is accessible to the average man and woman of today. The power of the tongue for good or evil is out of all proportion to its size. Ignorance of this power and failure to properly identify and discipline that enormous potential is one of the great scourges of our world today.
A doctor of souls such as Monseigneur Landriot once guided many women (and men) to greater knowledge, wisdom, and sanctity through the dissemination of his conferences in France. May it please God that this new English edition enjoy a wide circulation and produce similar results today and for many years to come.
Sins of the Tongue or Jealousy in Woman's Life is translated from the French by Helena Lyons with a preface by David, the Bishop of Kerry in Killarney on 28 November 1872.
About the author: Landriot, Mgr (Jean François Anne Thomas), 1816-1874.
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