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What is an infused virtue? |
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What is an acquired virtue? |
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What is virtue, and what is vice? |
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Do I acquire virtue by knowing what is it off by heart? |
The Cardinal Values
VIRTUE
Acquired virtue - done by repeated acts
Infused virtue - given to us by God
Virtue = a habit of doing right
Vice = a habit of doing wrong
A habit is like having a certain skill, being good in soccer, being able to run faster than your friends.
But this needs something to power it, Batteries!!!, Well, sort of batteries, we needs legs to run, as well as play soccer well.
Just as you can’t ice skate well without being taught or sing, or paint, or whatever takes skill
This skill is called virtue.
WHO MAKES OUR CHARACTER?
We do. Huh! How can I make my character?
We all act for ourselves, we all have a free will, we all do as we please even if we are told otherwise, so WE form our character.
Therefore if we end up with a bad character we have only ourselves to blame.
Our parents and teachers can tell us time and time again to do this and not that but in the end it is us that make the final decision, and we pay the consequences.
NOW IS THE TIME TO FORM GOOD HABITS.
Habits are like muscles, to get big muscles you need to work out, to work out means you have to sweat and strain. But once you get these muscles you don’t just stop exercising, or else you go all flabby again.
Virtues are like muscles they take time, sweat and tears, but once you have them it doesn’t take much to keep them tuned up.
These are easy to get, you don’t need to try at all, just let yourself go, and you’ll have them for life!!
But remember a bad act = sin, the sin will pass when you go to confession but the bad habit remains and can draw us into sin again.
Remember this story. There was a monkey and a bear, the bear chased the monkey but the monkey climbed the tree. The bear could not get the monkey because he was too big and fat to climb the tree, so the bear lay down on the ground at the base of the tree and pretended to be dead. The monkey looks down and says, "Hey, the bear is dead, chasing me must have been too much for him, so he must have had a heart attack, now I am safe and I can climb down." Then just as the monkey reaches the ground up springs the bear, who he thought was dead, and the bear has him.Thus with bad habits, once they start to chase get near them and they chase you, don’t think they are gone, stay in the tree of virtue.
SO WE NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND WHAT VIRTUE IS, THEN ALL WILL BE GREAT, YES?
Yes, and No.
We said before that virtue is like skill, but skill is more than knowledge. If I we to learn off by heart all the rubrics for saying Mass, and had never practised, I would make huge blunders if I then when to say Mass. Or if you went to operate as a surgeon after only reading the books on it!!
So for virtue you must understand and keep in mind the motives for a virtuous life, and more important put your hand to the difficult work, try, and fail, blunder, and begin again. Do the virtuous thing in an imperfect way but keep overcoming yourself.
Yes, it is Hard. Yes, it is difficult, but in time it will grow easy, and the habit will be acquired. Even the best of men had there weak moments, many of the saints had their failings and sudden gusts of weakness, but they kept at it and did not give up.
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What is an infused virtue? |
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What is an acquired virtue? |
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What is virtue, and what is vice? |
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Do I acquire virtue by knowing what is it off by heart? |
CARDINAL VIRTUES
Cardo = hinge because they the principles of all the virtues
1) They are the main virtues to which all the others can be reduced.
2)The chief part of all the virtues contain these four.
VIRTUE - inclines man to do good steadily constantly and in face of difficulties.
CONSTANTLY - because by being not so easy we build up our strength and also fortitude.
Virtue stands in the middle between
OVERDOING IT and UNDERDOING IT
But finding the middle is not easy - thus we need to see the middle and here is where prudence comes in.
PRUDENCE IS THE EYE OF EVERY VIRTUE
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JUSTICE |
FORTITUDE |
TEMPERANCE |
PRUDENCE |
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REWARDS |
BRAVERY |
ABSTINENCE |
ONE'S |
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PUNISHMENTS |
AFFAIRS |
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CONTRACTS |
BEING SOBER |
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RELIGION |
PATIENCE |
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OBEDIENCE |
CHASTITY |
ANOTHER'S |
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TRUTHFULLNESS |
MODESTY |
AFFAIRS |
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GRATITUDE |
PERSEVERANCE |
MEEKNESS |
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GENEROSITY |
CLEMENCY |
To do anything you need the skill to do it, just like riding a horse, but before you can ride a horse you need to break the horse in!
A MAN WITHOUT VIRTUE IS LIKE AN UNBROKEN HORSE, BUT WHY?
ANSWER = ORIGINAL SIN - MAN BEFORE THE FALL HAD HIS PASSIONS UNDER HIS COMPLETE CONTROL NOW THEY DO GENERALLY AS THEY PLEASE UNLESS WE CONTROL THEM.
THIS IS BECAUSE OF THE 4 WOUNDS OF ORIGINAL SIN.
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Wounds of sin Cardinal Virtues |
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IGNORANCE |
PRUDENCE |
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MALICE |
JUSTICE |
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WEAKNESS |
FORTITUDE |
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INTEMPERANCE |
TEMPERANCE |
The cardinal virtues can be compared with looking after the body.
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Justice = Prevents the abuse of wealth and power |
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Prudence = Safeguards health of all of the body |
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Fortitude = Keeps up the strength of the body |
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Temperance = Keeps the body clean and thus beautiful and handsome. |
PRUDENCE
=THE RIGHT REASON OF THINGS TO BE DONE
In other words the way you should act in particular actions is guided by Prudence.
Prudence helps to guide us to the right end or destination of our actions, therefore an imprudent man will never get to his end because he always go the wrong way, so it is like a road atlas for our actions.
But what would be the most imprudent thing to do? Answer, it must be of course to lose our soul, or do anything which would lead us to lose it.
TO BE PRUDENT YOU NEED TO BE SMART = TO BE SMART YOU NEED TO THINK SO IT HELPS TO THINK BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT.
BUT THIS DOING IS ABOUT EVERYDAY ACTIONS REAL PRACTICAL THINGS, NOT JUST THEORY!!
So if you see the right way of doing something and then don't do it, you are not being prudent but stupid. Prudence is not a bunch of principles to be learnt and that's it, but like all virtue it must be put into practice.
Prudence enlightens all the other virtues in their actions, it points out the measure of temperance, the bounds of Fortitude, the path of Justice, and always the golden mean (middle).
NECESSARY PARTS OF PRUDENCE
Memory
To be prudent we need to judge rightly what to do in certain situations, but to be a good judge we need experience, which will help to guide us from what we have learnt. This is found in our memory.
BUT MY MEMORY IS TERRIBLE, HOW CAN I RELY ON THAT?
Here are 4 things to help perfect your memory.
Understanding
This is not the gift of the Holy Ghost which gives us a quick insight into the things of God.
BUT = A right estimation or summing up of the principles for acting well.
Prudence = Reason used rightly and applied to certain actions, but to do this you need to understand WHAT IT IS THAT YOU ARE DOING, or to put it simple you need to be able to thing straight. So understanding could be called thinking straight.
Docility
To be docile = to be easily lead, like an animal is said to be docile, or easily lead or taught.
Prudence is about particular matters and actions, and as the amount of ways we can act are almost infinite, we can not consider all of them at once and work out which one to do.
So we stand in great need to be taught by others especially by those older than us who have already the understanding of how to go about particular actions.
Thus Holy Scripture says, "Learn not on thy own Prudence."
It is a mark of docility to be taught, thus it is necessary for Prudence if we willing to be taught by other, especially to learn by the experience of those older and wiser.
Shrewdness
To be shrewd is to find out the truth by the best way.
Prudence is the right estimation or way of doing particular actions here now.
and now. So if we have to find out things for ourselves and take what we know to be the right steps to do this action then this is called SHREWDNESS.
Foresight
Another name could be Providence, that is, to provide or see ahead and be ready for unexpected happenings. These things don’t have to necessarily happen so they are in our power of controlling. Things like having the means of saving our souls, that is, grace, is something necessary for us, and not is our direct control. This is what we call Divine Providence. Things which are not necessary, but are every day events can be directed by us, and are a matter which Prudence directs.
Things like enough food for the family, enough clothes on a cold day, eating healthy food, saving money in my piggy bank for my new bike or roller blades, or whatever.
Circumspection
O WHAT A BIG WORD !!!
Well not so big all it means is to be careful to look before you leap, or as they say, "Fools rush in where angel fear to tread".
What is the basic principle of all the actions we do?
Answer = "Do good and avoid evil"
Prudence directs us to the RIGHT AND GOOD end or else it is not Prudence, for in all VICE (Bad habits) and sin is IMPRUDENCE. Thus the end and the means we take to that end must be good.
But can’t we do evil that good might come from it. No way!!
But Robin Hood robbed from the rich to give to the poor, this was good, Wasn’t it?
For an action to be good we don’t have to look only at the end result but sometimes at the CIRCUMSTANCES too. O NO! another big word. All it means is those things surrounding the actions that all.
For example to throw a baseball is good, but to do it inside the chapel isn’t is it? To eat a hamburger is good, but not on Friday. They things surrounding these actions (CIRCUMSTANCES) change them from good to bad. Thus we need to look around at the surroundings of our actions before we do them
Imprudence
Is It a sin?
,
It would seem that it is not because no one wants to be imprudent, and only a wilful act is a sin, so it seems that imprudence is not a sin.m
True, we don’t want to be imprudent, but we still want to do the act, and we want to do the act without thinking, that is rashly, so in this way it is a sin.,
Original sin only comes to us when we are born, but so does imprudence, for when we are young we are imprudent, so we can’t help it and it is not a sin.m
When man fell from original justice into the state of original sin he did not lose all of his perfections, but had his nature wounded. Imprudence is the lack of virtue and can not be blamed on original sin completely.Imprudence has two meanings
But when it is Prudence which a person according to his age should have or at least be trying to obtain, then it becomes imprudence, because it is against what his reason tells him to be right.
Also imprudence can be also something wilful, by an act or movement against prudence itself. For example, a prudent man will take counsel (advice from someone), but on the other hand the imprudent man will despise (hate) counsel. Thus to despise the commandments and teaching (counsel) of the Church is a grave sin.
For every virtue there is a share or part of Prudence helping out and directing virtue, so with Imprudence there is always a defect or something missing in our thinking and reasoning.
Precipitation
(Being in too much rush and thus not thinking as we should)
Usually when we as keen about doing something we look at the thing only and at very little else. We don’t think whether this is right or wrong, all we want is to do this and forget about anything else. Here is where we make the big mistake. This is a defect of Counsel in ourselves.
Thoughtlessness
Is this a sin?
,
Well, the law of God does not make us sin, yet it inclines us to be thoughtless, for Our lord said in the Gospel of St. Matthew, "Take no thought how of what to speak.." So it would seem to not be a sin.m
Our Lord does not forbid us to think when we have the chance, but when we are called upon suddenly or do not have the knowledge, we can then turn our eyes to god. On the other hand if a man instead of doing what he can were to be content to wait for God's assistance, then he would be tempting God and not be assured of His help.What is thought?
Think about a Hamburger, a hot dog, a donut, we think on the object in our mind and say, " Yes this is a hamburger, this is a hot dog."
In other words we make a judgement and say this thing is truly what it is supposed to be.
So when our actions lack the right judgement because we wilfully refuse to accept our true judgement, then we are thoughtless. Or we hold in contempt and complete disregard those things upon which our judgement depends, namely, memory, advice of those who know, circumstances etc. this is a defect of Judgement.
Inconstancy
That is, being irregular by saying you would some good work and not going through with it to the end. You know the story, your parents want you to do something, which is good, you know it is good, but you don't really feel like doing it, "O, I can't be bothered, I'd rather do this instead."
You have good purpose, that is, you know it is good, but you can't get motivated, Why? It is due to the passions having too much say in our decisions, and causing us to become very weak willed.
When we go against what we know to be good, even though difficult, we go against Prudence, which helps us to do right, here it is a defect in our COMMAND.
Negligence
As we have said before being inconsistent is due to a lack of command, of ordering our actions the way they should be. negligence is more concerned with our will, because the negligent man falls by the hindrance or restraining of his will to do what he knows to be good. We are all negligent at one time of another, but we should always strive to return to our previous fervour and not be content to just be so-so, or else the words of our lord shall be applied to us, "Because thou art lukewarm I will vomit thee out of my mouth..".
Serious contempt for those things necessary for our salvation are serious matter and are mortally sinful.
Craftiness
Craftiness is to adopt ways that are not true but counterfeit and apparently true to obtain an end either good or bad. Craftiness is in the thinking out of these ways, and thus can be confused with prudence. So when a man uses means to an end either good or bad which are not true means but false and counterfeit, then he is crafty and committing a sin.
Having looked at Prudence as the guide to all the virtues we now look at those Cardinal virtues which have amore specific object.
Firstly
JUSTICE
Justice in general
All just order in the world is based on this, "That man give to another man what is his due". For everything unjust implies that what belongs to man is kept from him or taken from him, and not by misfortune, like crop failure, fire, earthquake, tidal wave or any natural cause, but by man.
A just man gives to his fellow man what his fellow man should have, and he does this wilfully.
But what should he have so that I can know what to render or give to him?
W
A man's own is that which is owing to this man and to him alone, it could be a thing like a book,
&or an action, like writing,
@, marrying, or going to church, W, or even by compromising a person's good name and preventing them from doing these actions. I There are three kinds of justicePERSON TO PERSON JUSTICE
This kind of Justice consists in giving to the other person, the unrelated person, the stranger, what is owing to him and due to him, nothing more and nothing less.This is strict justice, anything given over and above this is called a gift, for it is not strictly due. Like for example I owed you $14.95, and I paid you $15, and said keep the rest, this extra 5 cents is a gift and not Justice.
A man needs no justice in dealing with himself; he is careful enough of his own. But a friend is a sort of second self. "Yes," you will say, "but I like my first self best." Not in all things, if you are a true friend. A man will give his very life for his friend. This stems from friendliness and from love or charity, which is necessary in dealings with all men.
What then is true love?
Z Z Z To love is to wish good to someone. Thus love has a two fold movementThus we have two loves
In the first, the man loves the good which he wishes to another.
Here a man does not wish his friend some good,, but his friendship is based only on pleasure or usefulness. Thus he make the end his own pleasure and this is not true friendship, nor true
love.In the second he loves the person to whom he wishes the good.
True love then is a going out of oneself to the thing loved, it consists in giving oneself to the another for their sake and not our own.
Reviling
Reviling is the dishonouring of a person which can happen in two ways:
This can be done not only with words but also by actions, which signify words and take their place.
Words by themselves are just sounds and injure no man except if they be so loud as to be painful on the ears, like when a person speaks too loud, or if you have a room full of 5 year olds playing games. But words are signs of some knowledge which we wish to express to another and may do some harm.
Likewise when you bully another or because you know he is a thief and you wish to hurt him be telling him so in front of others. Likewise if a man reproach another because of his state in life, because he is poor, or because of his parents condition in life.
These all destroy some excellence which a man has and cause damage to him thus are contrary to Justice.
How about if we are the ones who suffer the reviling?
Replies
Holy Scriptures tells us what to do, Psalm 37 v.14 "But I as a deaf man, heard not; and as a dumb man not opening my mouth".
Just as we need patience in those things done against us, so too we need patience in those said against us. We need to follow our Lord’s Words of turning the other cheek, at least we should be prepared to do so in things done against us physically. Now with things spoken against us we should be prepared to suffer it if it fitting to do so. But sometime it is necessary to resist the reviler for two reasons:
This second lot is especially concerned with those who are in a position of authority, or who are set up as an example for others, lest by the detractor not being silenced people may think what he says is true. This must be always done with the intention of helping the reviler and out of charity not in order to build up one’s own honour.
Backbiting or Detraction
Just as a man can take from another a thing in two ways:
So too a man can injure another by words in two ways:
Backbiting differs from reviling in two ways:
The greater the good you take away from a person the greater evil is inflicted on him.
A
man has three goods:Those of his soul These you can not take away directly, but can only be an occasion for him to lose these good.
Those of his Body These goods excel those of external thing, thus murder is more grievous than theft
Those of external things Among these comes those goods of wealth, being closer to the spiritual things, and a man greatest wealth is that of his good name.
We must remember that backbiting is wrong and even listening to it and not doing anything to contradict the backbiter, you in a way consent to what is being said, and can become a participator in his sin. This is especially true for those whose duty it is to correct the backbiter. What happens if what he says is the truth? Then we should tell him that what he is doing is sinful in backbiting his brother, or at least show by our outward appearances that we are not pleased with what is said.
Tale-bearing
Tale-bearing is similar to backbiting for it speaks evil of our neighbour. But the ends are different hence they are called by different names. The backbiter wants to blacken his neighbour’s good name, so he brings out those things which are likely to defame him or at least reduce his good reputation.
Whereas the tale-bearer wants to cut off a friendship, so he talks ill about him so that his hearers mind may be stirred up against the one under attack. The tale-bearer wishes to sever the friendship on both sides, so he can be called double tongued, or two faced, for he speaks ill of one and not to the other.
This kind of damage against justice is very grave, the book of Ecclesiasticus writes, " An evil mark of disgrace is upon the double-tongued; but to the tale-bearer hatred, enmity and reproach". Sins against our neighbour are more grievous, according as they inflict a greater injury on him, the greater the good, the greater the injury. A man can not live without friends, for Scripture tells us that, " Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend." To be loved by a faithful friend is greater than honour, tale-bearing takes away directly ones friends.
We must therefore avoid causing division among friends by saying nasty things about someone’s friends just in order to make them think badly of their friend and good of us.
Mockery
The mock a person is to bring shame upon him and to disturb a person’s conscience by confusing him with evil deeds that mocked person has supposed to have done. When one makes fun of anothers evil or defect it can be a slight evil or a great evil that is made fun of. If it be the defect be one of little children or someone handicapped and we make a game of it so that we no longer are worried about his misfortune but despise him altogether then this is a serious sin. Likewise if we mock God and the things or persons dedicated to God, then comes our parents, as proverbs tells us, The eye that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labour of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the brooks pick it out, and the young eagles eat it. Prov. 30 17.
Even to mock good people is grievous, for honour is the reward of virtue. The kind of mockery does great harm, for it turns men away from good deeds. For if a man does good and is mocked every time, then is so much harder for him to do good the next time. Then the one seeing that good actions are so mocked with think twice about doing good, for he naturally fears to be mocked by others.
Religion
Religion is to give due honour to God , honour is due to a certain excellence that a person has, God being the most excellent being has a special honour due to Him which is called Religion. It is a part of the virtue of Justice in so far as it is a rendering of something due to someone, and a virtue, for it both makes the possessor good and his actions good, by rendering a good to God the ultimate Good.
Does religion have an external act?
è God is a spirit, so we should worship Him in spirit only!
è God is our superior, so we should not use inferior actions of our body to worship Him
è We pay God honour and reverence not for His sake ( because He is Himself full of glory to which no creature can add anything), but for our own sakes, because when we honour God we subject our minds to Him , and in this does our perfection consist.
For our minds to be united with God we need the sensible world, for we are not and never will be Angels. The divine worship then needs to make use of material things, to stir up man’s mind, as by signs, to spiritual acts, which are the means of uniting us to God. But these external acts are secondary to the internal ones, which belong essentially to the virtue of Religion.
To worship God perfectly we must try to be holy and pure. Purity is necessary that we apply our mind to God, for then the mind is not soiled with inferior and baser things, like when silver is mixed with lead. Thus without purity the mind can not be applied to God, this is why a priest must be, and remain pure and free from contact with inferior things.
Interior acts of Religion
Devotion
Devotion comes from the word devote, thus people are said to be devout who, in a way, devote themselves to God, so as to be subject completely to Him. Hence in the old days among the pagans a devotee was one who vowed to his idols to suffer death for the safety of the army. Devotion then is nothing else than to will to give oneself readily to things concerning the service of God. Therefore it is essentially an act of the will not one of the emotions or feelings.
How does devotion come about?
Devotion like we said is an act of the will, but to make an act of the will we must have some end or object to aim at. The object of the will is the Good, if you think something is good then you want it, ice-cream = good = I want. To have devotion to God we must meditate upon God’s goodness, and upon our shortcomings on account of which we need to lean on God. Therefore we don’t presume on our own strength (presumption) but submit ourselves to God completely = devotion. Things concerning God himself are the strongest incentive to devotion, but due to our weak human nature we need a guiding hand and help by means of the sensible objects that we know.
The main object then of our devotion should be the humanity of Christ, that knowing God visibly we should come the love of things invisible. But girls and women are more devote than boys and men, why is this? The answers lies in the fact the men are more thinkers than women, by the very nature God gave them and this can be a cause for too much self-confidence. We say, "I don’t need all these devotions like the Rosary and the Mass, that’s for girls or little old ladies!" This attitude causes a hindrance to devotion because of a lack of humility. So if a man submits his knowledge and mind to God, then this will help his devotion to increase.
The effects of devotion
The direct effect of devotion is a spiritual joy of the mind, and yet there is also a sorrow.
How can we have joy and sorrow at the same time?
This happens in two ways:
An example of this is when we think about the Passion of Christ, there is something that causes sorrow, namely the defect of original sin which needed Christ to suffer, and there is something that causes joy, God’s loving-kindness in giving us such a deliverance from eternal misery.
Prayer
Prayer is a lifting of the mind and heart to God. It is an act of religion by showing due honour to God, by subjecting ourselves to Him , because when we pray we confess that we need Him as the source of all our goods.
But God knows everything, and all the things that I need, so I don’t need to pray. Also it is more generous to give to one who does not ask than to someone who does, but God is infinitely generous so I should not pray to Him.
è Man when he prays does not change anything in God, as if God were lacking something, but when he prays he fulfils God’s plan of providence for us. So we pray that we may obtain that which God has disposed to be fulfilled by our prayers from all eternity.
When we pray we don’t make known to God our needs and desire as if He did not already know them, but in order that we may be reminded of the necessity of having recourse to God’s help with these requests.
God bestows on us many things from His generosity, even without us asking for them, but He wishes to bestow certain other things at our asking, so that we may obtain a good, that is, that we may acquire confidence in having recourse to God, and recognise Him as our author.
Should we only pray to God, or to the Saints as well ?
All our prayers should be directed to the acquisition of grace and glory, this only come from God, but this can be fulfilled by Him through the intercession of the saints, the angels and men. It is not that God through them may know what we want, but that our prayers may be effective through their prayers and merits before God. Thus when we say the litanies we ask the Holy Trinity to have mercy on us, and the saints to pray for us.
We can ask God for temporal things and spiritual things that is, to be saved and make it to heaven. Temporal things, that is, things of this world, we can ask God for in so far as they shall help us save our souls. We should not desire these things so much that our minds become so immersed in them, then when we have them we are satisfied and want nothing else.
Should we pray for other people?
We should desire good things not only for ourselves but also for others, thus charity requires that we pray for others. But it is also a condition of prayer that one pray for oneself, not because it is necessary to do this so that it is meritorious for the one praying, but as being necessary in order that the prayer not fail in its effect of begging God’s grace. For it sometimes happens that we pray for another with piety and perseverance, and ask for thing relating to his salvation, and it is not granted because of some obstacle on their part. Yet the prayer will be meritorious for the one who prays out of charity.
We ought to pray even for sinners, that they may be converted, and for the just that they may persevere and advance in holiness. Yet the prayers for sinners are heard not for all but for some, those whom are predestined, but as we don’t know who is predestined and who not, we need to pray for all, so that no man be denied the help of prayer.
We ought to prayer for the just for three reasons:
How should we pray?
With the voice
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By praying in this way our inner devotion is more easily stirred, because we are men not Angels, so we need to use our senses to reach that which is beyond our physical capabilities, namely God. So by external signs like words or actions, the mind is moved to apprehend far easier, and our affections are then moved, these being in the will and the prime objective or result of prayer. By moving the affections we make acts of the love of God and submit our wills to Him, thus we render God the act of religion. |
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By praying with our bodies, that is with the voice, we repay the debt to God. By serving Him with all we have, not only with our minds, but also with our bodies. |
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The effect of prayer now must be considered, this is firstly merit, for those who pray with charity. In order to realise this it is not necessary that prayer be attentive the whole way through because the original intention is sufficient the whole way through. | |||
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The other effect is impetration, that is, the begging from God His
help and assistance, this is covered by the original intention, to
which God looks chiefly.
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The length of prayer
Praying with song
FORTITUDE
Virtue as we said at the very beginning of this catechism course is that which makes not only us good but also our action good as well. All good is compared with how it conforms to reason, and to our ultimate end.
To make our work and actions in accord and conformed to reason happens in 3 ways:
Now, our human will can be prevented from following reason in two ways:
In order to remove this difficulty fortitude of the mind is needed, just as to remove a heavy rock, that is in your way, requires strength of body.
To avoid something difficult involves some fear, because we fear something that is opposed to us and can cause us some lose or pain. Fortitude is principally about fear of difficult things, which can stop us from following our reason and cause us to do something we do not want to do. So in order to stand up to these obstacles we need also to be daring, that is to have courage, so as to free ourselves from these dangers now and if and when they may come back in the future.
The greatest natural good of our soul is the good of reason, when we go against this then we suffer a great lose and fall into sin. That which helps and guards us from the lose of this good is fortitude, which helps us in the face of these evils. The greatest evil to our souls is death, not only on a physical level, but also death of the soul to God and to His grace.
If Fortitude is a virtue and it is essential for virtue to tend to something good. It must be for some good then that man flees from the face of death. But dangers of death like sickness, storms at sea, attacks from robbers, as such similar things do not seem to come to a man from looking to obtain some good. But dangers of death which occur in battle come to a man directly on account of some good. He wishes to fight well and defend what is his own, be it his country, family household, or whatever, Thus he is defending the common good by a just fight. Fortitude then is concerned about the fear of dangers of death.
There are two kinds of combat, General when a man fights in battle and Private as when a man does not fear to say the truth or give the just judgement even though he faces the fear of the sword. Fortitude then, strengthens the mind against danger of death, not only in those general battles, but even those dangers that occur in single combat, which are also given the name of Battle. As St. Paul warns us of our battle, being not one necessarily a physical one, " Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood: but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." Ephesians 6, 11-12.
A brave man behaves well when faced with the danger of any other kind of death, especially since he may be in danger of any kind of death on account of virtue. For example, a man may attend a sick friend even though he fear the deadly infection or he may travel vast distances for some holy cause with the fear of plane crashing, or a car accident, or a cruel death at the hands of barbarians, like the Crusaders did of old. Just as the martyrs faced all kinds of sufferings, which was a fight directed against their own person, but directed to the sovereign good which is God. This is why in the office that the Church prays for Martyrs they are said to be valiant in battle.
Martyrdom
Is it a virtue?
There is a problem because:
But on the Contrary
The reward of beatitude is not due except for acts of virtue, "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Therefore martyrdom is an act of virtue.
It belongs to virtue to safeguard the good of reason. Now the good of reason consists in truth as its object and justice as it effect. And martyrdom consists essentially in standing firmly to truth and justice against the threatening danger of death. Therefore it is obvious that Martyrdom is a virtue.
Solutions to the problems:
Well is Martyrdom an act of Fortitude?
There is a problem again:
It belongs to fortitude to strengthen man in the good of virtue, especially against dangers, and chiefly the danger of death in battle. Now in Martyrdom man is firmly strengthened in the good of virtue, since he holds firm to Faith and justice, even though he be threatened with the danger of death. Therefore it is an act of Fortitude.
On the matter of fortitude the Church declares: readiness to shed ones blood for Christ is imposed by the strictly binding law of God. "Man must be ready to let himself be killed rather than to deny Christ or to sin grievously". But as regards enthusiasm for martyrdom let us see what the Church of the martyrs thought about it. In the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp a brief passage is explicit: " But one, called Quintus became afraid when he saw the wild animals. It was this very man who had presented himself voluntarily to the court and persuaded others to do the same. By repeated urging the Proconsul brought him to sacrifice and deny Christ. Therefore, brethren, we have no praise for those who offer themselves voluntarily; this is not the counsel of the Gospel". This appears in the teaching of the Fathers of the ancient Church, who said that those who actually assumed that God would most readily withdraw the strength of endurance from those Who, arrogantly trusting their own resolve, thrust themselves into martyrdom.
St. Thomas says that the pain of martyrdom obscures even the spiritual joy in an act pleasing to God, "unless the overflowing grace of God lift the soul with exceeding strength to things divine". The brave man suffers injury not for its owe sake, but rather as a means to preserve or to acquire a deeper, more essential wholeness or perfection.
In the early Church martyrdom appeared as a victory, even though a fatal one. In Tertullian we read: "We are victorious when we are stricken down; we escape when we are led before the judge. For the Christian as for the "natural" man, "suffering for its own sake" is nonsense. The Christian loves his life, says St. Thomas, not only with a natural , life-asserting forces of the body, but with the moral forces of the spiritual soul as well. Joy, health, success, happiness, all these things are genuine goods, which the Christian does not toss aside and esteem but lightly- unless, indeed to preserve the higher goods, the loss of which would injure more deeply the inmost core of human existence
FORTITUDE MUST NOT TRUST ITSELF
The brave man must first know what the good is, and he must be brave for the sake of the good. " It is for the sake of good that the brave man exposes himself to the danger of death" Fortitude is not independent, it does not stand by itself. It receives its proper significance only in relation to something other than itself. "Fortitude must not trust itself", says St. Ambrose.
Every child knows that in the list of cardinal virtues fortitude comes third. This enumeration is not by accident, it has a real meaning and purpose. Fortitude become fortitude through being informed by prudence. For the virtue of fortitude has nothing to do with a purely blind, daredevil spirit. The man who recklessly and indiscriminately courts danger is not for that reason brave; all he proves is that, without preliminary examination or distinction, he considers all manner of things more valuable than keeping his life intact. Prudence as we have seen give inner form to all the other cardinal virtues. With fortitude and temperance they serve to guard and conserve the good of man; it is their function to preserve man from declining from this good.
Fortitude therefore, by itself, is not the primary realisation of the good. But fortitude protects this realisation or clears the road for it. But we also need justice, for without a just cause there is no fortitude. "Not the injury, but the cause makes martyrs," says St. Augustine. "Man does not expose his life to mortal danger, except to maintain justice. Therefore the praise of fortitude depends upon justice," says St. Thomas.
ENDURANCE AND ATTACK
To be brave is not the same as to have no fear, yet fortitude does rule out a certain kind of fearlessness, which is based on a false assessment of the danger.
It can be either because we are blind and deaf to the real danger or due to a perversion of love. For fear and love depend on one another. Someone who does not love does not fear either, and he who fears falsely loves falsely. Just as on who has lost the love for his life, and the will to live, is not concerned with the fear of death. He is one who does not love and does not fear.
Fortitude assumes that man has a fear, but that fear does not force the man so much that he chooses to do the evil and not the good. But even the man who exposes himself to a danger - even for the sake of a good-, either from overconfidence, "nothing can possible happen to me", or from firm confidence in his own strength, do not therefore possess fortitude.
It is only possible to be brave when all possible assurances, either real or those that seem to be real, fail. Thus he can not help being afraid and with good reason, not because he is being an unreasonable wimp. So in the supreme test when every heroic action is useless a man walks straight up to the cause of his fear, not being put off doing what is good, and for the sake of good - that is God- nor for the sake of ambition, or fear of being called a coward, this man alone is truly brave.
The truly brave man is he who cannot be forced to give up the greater good for the lesser and passing goods of this life. He is one who faces what is truly dreadful, by facing injury for the sake of the good, and this facing has two basic act of fortitude: endurance and attack.
Endurance is more of the essence of fortitude than attack. But this does not mean that in every case it is better to endure than attack. Just as we said the true position of fortitude is one where everything is stacked against you and the only option is to suffer and endure. In this situation fortitude is primarily and ultimately shown in it true colours, so to speak.
This enduring is not all just laying back and taking it, for if that was all then it would not be a virtue, for virtue can not be forced on anyone, just as sin can not be forced on us, we sin and are virtuous freely from our will. Therefore this enduring is a firm grasping and grabbing hold of the good, and by this firm act we have the strength to the physical and spiritual suffering of injury or death.
Another necessary part of fortitude is Patience, but not the sad, self-immolating and spineless submission to whatever evil we happen to meet with, or even worse sort out, but it is to preserve cheerfulness and peace of soul and mind in spite of the injuries that come about because we wish to hold onto the true GOOD.
So the man who is brave is patient as well, yet he will not hesitate to "pounce upon" evil and to block its path if he sees that this can be reasonable done. But kind of attitude requires readiness to attack, courage, self-confidence and hope of success, but this hope is naturally in subordination to God. This pouncing upon evil, we may call a just wrath. Thus St. Thomas says, "The brave man uses wrath to pounce upon evil."
Yet with all this said, when it comes down to it endurance and patience are the essence of fortitude. For it is only in the supreme test, which leaves no possibility of resistance than endurance, that the inmost and deepest strength of man reveals itself. Fortitude then essentially is nothing else than to love and to realise that which is good, in the face of injury and death.
Holy Scripture tells us clearly how true strength is shown when we are left with only resistance as a weapon. St. Paul who was given the sting of Satan to buffet and beat him asked the Lord for strength " And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful."
Christ himself, whose agony is the source of the strength of the martyrs and whose life was one of complete readiness to go "like a lamb to the slaughter", still did not hesitate to pounce on the evil, when he drove the money changers out of the temple. The readiness to meet the supreme test by dying in patient endurance so as to obtain the ultimate good, does not exclude willingness to fight and to attack. For in the end from this readiness springs the true detachment and freedom which this world can never bring.
Fortitude as a gift of the Holy Ghost
When fortitude is practised to a degree where it is called "Heroic virtue", that is, fortitude exalted by grace, then the Holy Ghost works "in us without us", as a gift. The heroic fortitude is the first thing that we require according to St. Teresa of Avila, if we wish to reach perfection. She says, "I assert that an imperfect human being needs more fortitude to pursue the way of perfection than suddenly to become a martyr."
To obtain this higher degree of fortitude which is obtained by the martyrs, in one powerful leap, the natural forces of endurance cannot reach. They are replaced by the Holy Ghost, with the gift of Fortitude, giving to man the unshakeable though still veiled supernatural certainty of the happy final victory, it pours into the soul a confidence that overcomes all fear, namely, that God will lead man to eternal life, the ultimate end of all good actions, and the final deliverance from every kind of danger.
This supernatural fortitude crowns all "natural’ modes of Christian fortitude, for to be brave and suffer death and injury means you hope to win, without this hope fortitude is impossible. The higher the victory, the more certain the hope, and the more we are willing to risk to obtain it.
To die without hope is harder and more fearful than dying in the hope of eternal life. What matters is not the ease of difficulty of a thing, but "the truth of things". What matters is the reality of eternal life. And the rectitude of hope lies in the fact that it corresponds to this reality.
What hope really is, no one can know more deeply than he who must prove himself in the supreme test of ultimate fortitude, for to him it is revealed clearly that the hope for eternal life is truly a gift, and without this gift there cannot be any such thing as truly Christian fortitude.
Temperance
We must take a good look at the word temperance and its true meaning in order to fully grasp the subject concerning temperance as a cardinal virtue
Temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues upon which swings the gates of life. To be temperate in common language which usually means to be moderate to be reserved, but this is only a part of the picture. Just as with fortitude which was the overcoming or avoiding of the evil so as to obtain the good, with temperance the same applies.
But temperance is more than merely doing of good acts, it involves the ordering of the inner self. It implies that we look to ourselves and our state or condition and focus on self.
Beware! For this turning to look on ourselves can have two kinds, one is selfish the other selfless.
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To be selfless makes for man’s self-preservation |
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To be selfish makes for man’s destruction |
Genuine self-preservation is the turning of man towards himself, but with the condition that he does not fix all his attention upon himself. So we can say that Temperance is selfless self-preservation
Intemperance, on the hand is self destruction through the selfish degrading of the powers we have, which should be aimed at self-preservation.
When this order becomes upset we say that the passions have got the better of us, but in fact it is not our passions which are bad, for they are merely the material which can be used for either good or bad, but it is we ourselves that either hold up or destroy this order. As St. Paul says, " For I do not the good that I wish, but the evil that I do not wish that I do." Romans Ch. 7, v. 19.
Take the example of a gun, it is an instrument for propelling at high speed a metal projectile. In itself it is neither good nor bad, yet it can be used to save life or destroy it, to kill or to protect from being killed. The evil comes not from the gun but from the use of the gun, that is from man.
The powers to which temperance refers are the most essential for preserving our life and for the preserving of the human race. They are also the ones which are first to work in the opposite direction, they can most easily bring unrest to the soul because they belong to the very essence and core of man.
This turning to self with a selfless self-preservation, is a loving of our true self, it is an ordering so that man does not miss the target. We must not seek ourselves blindly but correspond with open eyes to the true reality, God, ourselves and the world. Therefore to desire the inner order for its own sake become ridiculous. True love is selfless, it is the desire to see good done to the object of our love, all the good we see in ourselves is a refection of the goodness of God. So in loving the true self and wish true good to ourselves, is loving and wishing good to God.
Our Lord was asked what was the greatest of the commandments and he answered, " to love the Lord God with all our heart, strength and soul, and to love our neighbour as ourselves." Now if we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves then we are commanded to love ourselves with a true love. To retain the order in our souls shows that we truly love ourselves.
Temperance then is the preservation of the inner order of man. Temperance not only preserves the order but defends it, and by defending the order from attack, the order is maintained. The enemy is the selfish disorder, selfish love which disregards the good, and wants only to satisfy and use nature for perverted ends.
Chastity and Unchastity
Unchastity destroys the structure of the person, but how?
Unchastity falsifies and corrupts the virtue of prudence. Everything that attacks and is in conflict with the virtue of prudence, originates in most cases from unchastity. Unchastity brings with it a bindness of spirit which pretty well excludes all understanding of the goods of the spiritual part of man. It splits and makes difficult the power of decision, as well as making the ability for contemplation and concentration very difficult. This is why chastity is a necessary requirement for contemplation, and prayer, so only after demanding chastity from Subdeacons does she impose upon them the prayer of the Church the Breviary.
The process of blinding a man’s mind by unchastity is not like a plant which wilts because you forget to water it, but this blindness is the very essence of unchastity, which is by its very nature destructive. It is not its outward effect and something that follows as a consequence, but this blindness is its essential property.
Unchastity destroys in a special way the self-possession which comes from acting in accord to reason. This unchaste abandon and the self-surrender of the soul to the world of sensuality paralyses the very depths of a man’s person: the ability to perceive and understand, in silence, the call of reality, and as well to make in this silence, the decision here and now for the concrete action which needs to be done.
The essence of prudence is to face squarely all the things that surround our concrete actions. Unchastity constricts man and makes him incapable of seeing objective reality. An unchaste man wants above all something for himself; he in distracted by an unobjective "interest"; his constantly strained will-to-pleasure prevents him from confronting reality with that selfless detachment which alone makes genuine knowledge possible.
An example is that of the lion who, at the sight of a stag, is unable to perceive anything but the anticipated meal. In an unchaste heart, attention is not merely fixed upon a certain track, but the "window’ of the soul has lost its "transparency", that is, its capacity for perceiving reality, as if a film of dust had covered it.
The inner nature of unchastity lies in selfishness. St. Augustine says that, "Chaste is the heart that loves God without looking for reward." We say that prudence is most of all poisoned and perverted by unchastity, but how does this happen?
Prudence implies a transformation of the knowledge of truth into decisions which correspond to the real world. This is done in three steps: thinking about what has to be done, judging what should be done, then making the decision to act upon all this.
Here is a table to show the difference between someone who is temperate, and one who is intemperate, when it comes to being prudent,
Prudence
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The Temperate man |
The Intemperate man |
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Looks at the truths of things |
Acts recklessly and without consideration |
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Weighs things up, for and against |
Makes his judgement in great hast |
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Makes his decision with full control |
Abandons himself to the pull of the senses |
Chastity renders one able to see reality, not only everyday things as they really are, but also the ultimate reality, enabling a man to the most selfless dedication of love, that is contemplation, where a man turns towards the Divine being and is enabled to become aware of this truth, which is also the highest good.
Humility
The one good which man seeks is the fulfilment of his being, or as they say nowadays, to be fulfilled. Things are either "fulfilling" or not, if not then they are not worth doing. At least that is what your average man on the street thinks. In a way there is some truth in this, We all desire our own excellence, or superiority, or to be considered better than the average "Joe six-pack."
The virtue of temperance, as far as it refers to this natural urge to the order of reason, is called humility. So the ground of humility is man’s estimation of himself according to truth. In other words to take a good look at oneself as we really are. Take away all the show and exterior, and see ourselves in reference to the Truth. And that is almost all there is to it.
The best way to see what true humility is firstly, is to see that humility and high-mindedness are not opposed to one another, but in fact are neighbours and are equally opposed to pride and what we might call "wimpishness."
Firstly what is high-mindedness? It is the striving of the mind towards great things. The high-minded man is the one who feels, and sees the opportunity for greatness, and prepares his mind for it. In a certain way he is selective, he will keep himself for the greatness to which he feels he is inclined. But above all he aims for that which is demanding of the highest honour. So if a man would not take care to do what is deserving of honour, he would be deserving of reproach. We would call him a "wimp." The high-minded man despises everything small-minded, he is not overly worried above the small things, he despises everything small-minded.
Fearless frankness, that is, to tell the truth no matter what the consequences might be, is a mark of the high-minded man. The high-minded man does not complain; for his heart is impervious, that is, rock solid, when it comes to external evil. High-mindedness means an unshakeable firmness of hope, and the perfect peace of a fearless heart. The high-minded man bows neither to confusion of the soul, nor to any man, nor to fate, but to God alone. The high-minded man is truly a "Braveheart."
Therefore, a humility too weak, and too narrow to able to bear the inner tension of living with high-mindedness, is not true humility.
But people are quick to call the high-minded man proud, or haughty, over confident in his own strength of ability. Pride refers to man’s relationship to God. Pride is a false conception or idea of the relationship between the creature and the creator, it denies the creaturely nature of man. Every sin contains a two-fold element, first the turning away from God, and second the turning to a created thing. The decisive element is the first, that is, the turning away from God, and this is more profound in pride than in any other sin.
Humility looks first to God. That which pride denies and destroys, humility affirms and preserves, namely that man is a creature. This is the inner most nature of man, so humility is the "subjection of man to God." Secondly, humility is not a mere outward behaviour but comes from inside, flowing from our will. It is the plain acceptance that man and humanity are not God, nor "like God" as the old serpent tried to tell Eve.
Pride
Opposed to the virtue of humility is pride. Pride is the inordinate desire of one’s own excellence. There are four principal manifestations of Pride:
Anger
At the mention of the word anger we see usually only the uncontrolled, anti-spiritual and negative aspect. In the power of wrath the energies of human nature are clearly expressed. But wrath is not always an evil.
St. Matthew
And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple
and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the chairs of them that sold doves.
And he saith to them: It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but You have
made it a den of thieves.
St. John
And he found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money
sitting. And when he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple,
the sheep also and the oxen: and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he
overthrew. And to them that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my
Father a house of traffic. And his disciples remembered, that it was written: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.
Wrath is the strength to attack the repugnant; the power of anger is actual the power of resistance in the soul.
Thus whoever says that this power is in itself unspiritual, and something to be mortified commits the same error as one who condemns "passion" or "desire" as something absolutely evil. God created these forces of our being, so by condemning them outright you condemn He who made them, who as the liturgy says, has " marvellously established the dignity of human nature."
Wrath taken in its true sense is the passionate desire for just retribution, "because the nature of man is constructed of soul and body, of spirit and sense, it belongs to the good of man to devote himself utterly to virtue, namely with spirit, senses, and body alike. And therefore man’s virtue requires that the will for just retribution reside not only in the spiritual part of the soul, but also in the senses and in the body itself." St. Thomas.
Anger is "good" if, in accordance with the order of reason, it is brought into service for the true goals of man; one who does good with "passion", is more praiseworthy than one who is "not entirely" afire for the good. So it is plainly evident that anger which reaches all bounds and disrupts order of reason is evil and a sin. Blind wrath, a bitter spirit, and revengeful resentment, these are the three basic forms of intemperate anger, are therefore evil and contrary to order.
In the upsurge of his self-will, the intemperate angry man feels as if he were drawing his whole being together like a club ready to strike. But this is the very thing he fails to achieve. Only gentleness and mildness can accomplish it. Gentleness above all makes man master of himself. Holy Scripture speaks of its virtue in much the same terms as of patience. Through patience man is said to posses his soul; and of gentleness it is said: "Possess thy soul through gentleness".
But this does not mean that the original power of wrath is weakened or mortified, just as chastity does not mean a weakening of the power to beget children. On the contrary: gentleness as a virtue presupposes the power of wrath; gentleness implies mastery of this power, not its weakening. We should not mistake the pale-faced harmlessness which pretends to be gentleness, for the true Christian virtue.
It is particularly in reference to overcoming the intemperateness of sensual desire that the power of wrath acquires a special importance.
An acute temptation to unchastity it is true, is most easily conquered by flight. But the addiction to degenerate pleasure-seeking can by no means be cured by a merely negative approach, by "shutting one’s eyes to it". The deterioration of one power of the soul should be healed and supplemented by the still undamaged core of some other power. Thus it should be possible to subdue the limp intemperance by attacking the difficult task with the joy generated by the full power of wrath. Only the combination of intemperance with lazy inertia (wimpishness) which is incapable of generating anger, is a sign of virtual hopeless and complete degeneration.
Disciplining the eyes
Here we are concerned with temperance as it regulates knowledge. The essential intemperateness of the urge for knowledge is "concupiscence of the eyes". What does this mean.
There is a gratification or satisfaction in seeing that reverses the original meaning of vision and works disorder in man himself. The true meaning of seeing is the perception of reality, not "virtual reality" but real reality! But concupiscence of the eyes does not aim to perceive reality, but merely to enjoy "seeing." So it is what we commonly call curiosity, the roaming unrest of the soul, seeking always something new and different. It lead to the sadness of heart unwilling to accept the greatness to which God call us, to the nobility of being sons of God. It leads to the desire to burst forth from our "real self" and out into the diversity of make believe. It reaches the extremes of its destructive power when it builds itself a world according to its likeness: it surrounds itself with the perpetual moving picture of meaningless shows (video arcades, computer games, nintendo etc.) with the literally deafening noise of impressions and sensations breathlessly rushing past the windows of the senses. But behind the flimsy pomp of its façade dwells absolute nothingness; it is a world of make believe creations, which often within less than a quarter of an hour become stale and discarded. A world which, to the piercing eye of a healthy mind untouched by its contagion and corruption, it appears bare and ghostly.
The destructiveness of this disorder which originates from, and grows upon, obsessive addiction, lies in the fact that it clouds man’s power of seeing reality and truth. If such a world threatens to overgrow and smother the world of real things, as it does today, then to restrain the natural wish "to see" takes on the character of a measure of self-protection and self-defence. So that by closing the door to the world of empty shows and sounds, we can have a true knowledge and perception of God and his creation, and shape himself and the world to this truth, which reveals itself only in silence.
The Fruits of temperance
Temperance, as we have said, is the preserving and defending of man’s inner order, but attached to this is the gift of beauty. Not only is temperance beautiful in itself, but it also makes men beautiful. But when we talk of beauty here we mean it in its proper sense, as the glow of the true and the good coming from the ordered state of a man, and not merely from that which we see with our senses. The beauty of temperance has a more spiritual and also "manly" aspect. The essence of this beauty does not conflict with true manliness, but it rather has a true closeness to it. Temperance as the starting point and source, so to speak of Fortitude, is the virtue of mature manliness.
The childish disorder of intemperance, in so far as we act as though we had no use of reason like a child, not only destroys beauty, it makes men cowardly; intemperance more than any other thing makes a man unable and unwilling to "take heart" against the destroying power of evil in the world. Thus men become effeminate and wimpish.
It is not easy to see in a man’s face whether he be just or unjust. Temperance or intemperance, however, loudly proclaim themselves in everything that shows forth a man’s personality: in the order or disorder of the features, in the attitude, the laugh, the handwriting. Temperance, as the inner order of man, can as little remain "purely interior" as the soul itself, for the soul is the form of the body, if the soul be in disorder by intemperance, then it must somehow be expressed externally in the body.
But also it needs to be remembered, that temperance and intemperance of outward behaviour can have its influence on the inner order of man, either to strengthen it or weaken it. From this, the importance and necessity of all the outer disciplines find there true purpose, with regards to the pleasures attached to the preservation of the human race, to the preservation of each man, with eating and drinking, with anger, and the satisfaction of curiosity and gratifying the eyes.
It is important to note that almost all pathological obsessions (sickness of the mind), which show forth a disturbed inner order, belong to the realm of temperance. All these selfish turnings to oneself are accompanied by the despair of missing the goal striven for, which is the true fulfilling of self. For it is a natural fact that man loves God more than himself, and consequently it follows that he must miss his very goal, God himself, if he follows the ungodly, the "anti-godly," path of selfishness.
Intemperance and despair are connected by a hidden channel. Whoever is stubborn and reckless enough to follow and pursue satisfaction in prestige and pleasure has set his foot on the road to despair. Another thing, also, is true: that one who rejects fulfilment in its true and final meaning, and, despairing of God and himself, is heading for non fulfilment. He may then well regard the artificial plastic paradise of unrestrained pleasure-seeking as the sole place not only of happiness, then of forgetfulness, and self-oblivion: "In their despair, they gave themselves up to incontinence" (Ephesians 4, 19). The bondage of sin is nowhere more apparent and obvious, than in intemperance, in that obsession of selfish self-preservation, which seeks itself in vain.
Temperance on the other hand, is liberating and purifying. Above all temperance effects purification, purification of the heart is the essential purpose of temperance get quote about coming from the heart.
Purity stands for that crystal clear, morning fresh freedom from self-consciousness, which accepts selflessly the shock of profound sorrow carrying him to the brink of his very self, or when he himself is touched by the shadow of death. It is said in Scripture: "Grave illness sobers the soul" (Eccles. 31, 2); this sober attitude belongs to the essence of purity. By the gift of the Holy Ghost called "Fear" the soul is purified and feels, by grace, the inner peril of man. Its fruit is that purity which abandons all selfish searching for fulfilment. Purity is the perfect unfolding of the whole of our nature, from which alone could have come the words: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!" (Luke 1, 38).
Here we now see a hidden depth: purity is not only the fruit of purification; it implies also at the same time a readiness to accept God’ purifying intervention, terrible and fatal though it may be; to accept it with a bold straightforwardness of a trustful heart, with a "Brave Heart", and thus to feel its fruitful and transforming power.
This then is the ultimate meaning of the virtue of Temperance.