Transcript Virtues - Halton Catholic District School Board

Virtues
Continuing the discussion
What is a virtue?
A habit
Perfects the powers of the soul
Disposes one to “do good”
God gives us grace which allows us to
do the right thing
Catholics believe that virtues prepare
us to recognize, accept and cooperate
with God’s grace
Four Cardinal Virtues
The basis for moral life
The “hinges” (cardo
Latin for hinge) that
support human life
Prudence
How to reason well in moral decisionmaking
Wise judgment
Knowing the appropriate time, place &
manner to conduct oneself. To know and
judge when to speak & when to stay quiet.
The opposite of being impulsive
Stopping to think before acting
Justice: promoting fairness &
equality; giving others their due
1. COMMUTATIVE: fairness in relationships
between individuals (e.g., contracts,
restitution)
2. DISTRIBUTIVE: fairness between individuals
& a group (e.g. government’s responsibility to
all its people, sharing of food and resources)
3. SOCIAL: fairness between individuals/groups
and one another (e.g. Common Good, public
welfare)
Justice is about loving your
neighbour
Temperance
Being moderate in the exercise of
emotions
Using balance in life between
pleasure and self-control
Knowing your limits and keeping
them
Establishing, respecting and
enforcing boundaries
Fortitude
How to be courageous in the
face of life’s difficulties
Persevering in times of
trouble
Courage to do the right thing,
no matter the outcome
Helps overcome temptation
Theological Virtues
A source of energy for
perfecting our relationship
with God
Draw us into a deeper
understanding and
relationship with God
Faith:
belief in God as gift & response
Faith invites us to believe in God and
to accept or reject Him
We believe in God and believe all that
God has revealed to us
We freely commit our entire selves to
God
We seek to know and do God’s will.
Hope:
enables us to live for the Kingdom
& eternal life
Helps us to overcome discouragement
Works with faith and love to give us
confidence to live a better life
We desire eternal life and the graces to
merit it
We trust in Christ’s promises & rely on the
help of the Holy Spirit
God placed the desire for happiness in the
heart of every person: hope responds to
this desire
Love/Charity
The greatest theological virtue
Gives the commandment to love all things,
including one’s neighbour
God is Love, and Love is God
Love makes all things possible
We love God above all things, and our neighbour
as ourselves
By loving others, we imitate the love of Jesus
which we receive
Inspires the practice of all the virtues
Upholds and purifies our human ability to love
The Seven Deadly Sins (1st 3)
Pride:
overly high opinion of self, conceit,
arrogance, vanity, self-satisfaction
Greed:
excessive desire for acquiring or
having, desire for more than one
needs/deserves
Lust:
intense sexual desire, to long after or
for
7 Deadly Sins (The last 4)
 Anger:
 strong feeling excited by real or supposed injury,
often with desire for vengeance; resentment
 Gluttony:
 eating too much
 Envy:
 to resent another for excellence or superiority, to
be desirous of what others have
 Sloth:
 laziness, idleness, slowness, delay, disinclined to
action
Let’s compare
Seven Deadly Sins &
the Seven Contrary Virtues
Seeing ourselves as we are and
not comparing ourselves to others
is humility. Pride and vanity are
competitive. If someone else's
pride really bothers you, you have
a lot of pride.
Sin:
Pride
Virtue:
Humility
"Love is patient, love is kind…"
Love actively seeks the good of
others for their sake. Envy resents
the good others receive or even
might receive. Envy is almost
indistinguishable from pride at
times.
Sin
Envy
Virtue
Love /
Charity
Temperance accepts the natural
limits of pleasures and preserves
this natural balance. This does not
pertain only to food, but to
entertainment and other legitimate
goods, and even the company
of others.
Sin:
Gluttony
Virtue:
Temperance
Self control and self mastery prevent
pleasure from killing the soul by suffocation.
Legitimate pleasures are controlled in the
same way an athlete's muscles are: for
maximum efficiency without damage.
Lust is the self-destructive drive for pleasure
out of proportion to its worth. Sex, power, or
image can be used well, but they tend to go
out of control.
Sin:
Lust
Virtue:
Self-control
Kindness means taking the tender
approach, with patience and
compassion. Anger is often our
first reaction to the problems of
others. Impatience with the faults
of others is related to this.
Sin:
Anger
Virtue:
Kindness
This is about more than money.
Generosity means letting others
get the credit or praise. It is giving
without having expectations of
the other person. Greed wants to
get its "fair share" or a bit more.
Sin:
Greed
Virtue:
Generosity
Zeal is the energetic response of
the heart to God's commands.
The other sins work together to
deaden the spiritual senses so we
first become slow to respond to
God and then drift completely into
the sleep of complacency.
Sin:
Sloth
Virtue
Zeal