I will add a little more on the question of sober-mindedness, as well as its importance, not only for young men, but young women. Temper gives a tint to conduct, and so to character, and so acquires for a young man or woman favour or disfavour. If the natural temper is quick, sharp, rugged, sober-mindedness softens it down. If naturally good and gentle, it habituates it, and checks tendency to easiness and pliancy. It forms the mind that was in Christ. Discretion attends sober-mindedness, which brings it to bear on small as well as great matters of daily life, such as employment of time, conversation, recreations, dress. Observe a giddy, flippant, talkative, idle, dressy, young man or woman, and you may at once see the want of discretion and judgment, which a sober mind would give and retain. More particularly as to the conduct of life, the being sober-minded is an excellency. A man acts with great advantage who is so, not precipitate and hasty, who knows how to regulate himself in a storm as well as in a calm, or very favourable winds. What advantage such an one has over the fierce or timid, the man who blunders, runs headlong, or stops when he should move on, having no self-rule, not sober-minded. Without this gracious quality a man may soon be a torment to himself, and to others, a trouble to society, to the church, and to his country. So as to recreation and pleasure, without sober-mindedness there is great probability that our pleasures if not evil and hurtful, will be muddy streams, tumultuous torrents, that swell and rush, and are past, with no good result. Lay to heart, therefore, young men and young women, the Apostle's exhortation, and if you really desire to excel in a Christian life, be sober.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp