When one may play or dance.
To play and dance lawfully, it must be for recreation, and not from passion; for a short time, and not until one is giddy and tired; and it must be seldom; for whoever makes a habit of it will soon turn recreation into occupation.
But on what occasions may one play and dance? The lawful occasions for dancing and for an indifferent game are more frequent; those for forbidden games are rarer, just as some such games are more blameworthy and more dangerous than others. But, to say it in a word, dance and play under the conditions I have laid down for you, when prudence and discretion counsel you to show this honest condescension toward the persons in whose company you find yourself; for condescension, which is the daughter of charity, makes indifferent things good, and dangerous things permissible. It even removes the malice from things that are evil to a certain extent: thus games of chance, which would otherwise be blameworthy, are not so when a just condescension leads us to them. I have read with great consolation in the life of Saint Charles Borromeo that he showed this condescension toward the Swiss in certain things, for which he was otherwise very strict; and that Blessed Ignatius of Loyola, being one day invited to play, readily accepted the game. As for Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, she sometimes played and danced when she found herself at gatherings where people took this pleasure; this did not in the least hinder her devotion; for she had it so deeply rooted in her soul that, as the rocks of Lake Riette rise amid the waves and billows, so too her devotion grew amid the pomp and vanities to which her station exposed her. Great fires are kindled by the wind, but small ones go out unless they are carried under cover.
To play and dance lawfully, it must be for recreation, and not from passion; for a short time, and not until one is giddy and tired; and it must be seldom; for whoever makes a habit of it will soon turn recreation into occupation.
But on what occasions may one play and dance? The lawful occasions for dancing and for an indifferent game are more frequent; those for forbidden games are rarer, just as some such games are more blameworthy and more dangerous than others. But, to say it in a word, dance and play under the conditions I have laid down for you, when prudence and discretion counsel you to show this honest condescension toward the persons in whose company you find yourself; for condescension, which is the daughter of charity, makes indifferent things good, and dangerous things permissible. It even removes the malice from things that are evil to a certain extent: thus games of chance, which would otherwise be blameworthy, are not so when a just condescension leads us to them. I have read with great consolation in the life of Saint Charles Borromeo that he showed this condescension toward the Swiss in certain things, for which he was otherwise very strict; and that Blessed Ignatius of Loyola, being one day invited to play, readily accepted the game. As for Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, she sometimes played and danced when she found herself at gatherings where people took this pleasure; this did not in the least hinder her devotion; for she had it so deeply rooted in her soul that, as the rocks of Lake Riette rise amid the waves and billows, so too her devotion grew amid the pomp and vanities to which her station exposed her. Great fires are kindled by the wind, but small ones go out unless they are carried under cover.