Practicing the Virtues

PRACTICING THE VIRTUES

"Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven. "

-St. Ephraem

Lumen Ecclessiae Virtue Study Program

THE HUMAN VIRTUES AND THE CARDINAL VIRTUES

The Catechism describes virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.

St. Augustine defines true virtue as "ordered love," oriented toward God. The human virtues are stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order our passions, and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. They can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

PRUDENCE
Prudence disposes the practical reason to discern, in every circumstance, our true good and to choose the right means for achieving it.

JUSTICE
Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbor their due.
Fortitude ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.
Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides
balance in the use of created goods.

FORTITUDE
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause.

TEMPERANCE
Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion.
These moral virtues grow the most through increasing our love for God; and through prayer, education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them.

THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES
The theological virtues dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object - God known by faith, God hoped in and loved for his own sake.

The three theological virtues are: faith, hope, and charity. They inform all the moral virtues and give life to them:

Faith is the theological virtue of believing in God and all that he has revealed. By faith "we freely commit our entire self to God."

Hope is the theological virtue of trusting in God’s plan, and choosing joy, even during difficult moments. Through hope, we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it.

Charity, the form of all the virtues, "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14). Through charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God.

The Catechism on the Virtues

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are also bestowed upon the soul at Baptism, and work together with the Theological and Cardinal Virtues. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit belong in their fullness to Jesus Christ, and the moral life is sustained by them. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They are permanent dispositions make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, in readily obeying divine inspirations. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These gifts are strengthened and sealed at the sacrament of Confirmation.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Virtues

THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."

[Catechism of the Catholic church, 1832]

THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES:
Faith, Hope, Charity

CARDINAL VIRTUES:
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance

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THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES:​Faith, Hope, Charity

CARDINAL VIRTUES:​Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance

Contact Us​

THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES:
Faith, Hope, Charity

CARDINAL VIRTUES:
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance

Contact Us