Virtue & the Pursuit of Holiness
During a recent book study session, the topic of virtue came up. Everyone in the group seemed to have the same question, “Why don’t we ever hear about the virtues?” According to the book we were reading, pursuing virtue is necessary to grow in holiness. If this is true, then why doesn’t anyone ever talk about it?
So, let’s talk about it.
What is virtue? How do we get it? What is the connection between virtue and the spiritual life?
Let’s dive in.
What is Virtue?
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, virtue is a” 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” (CCC 1803).
Simply put, virtue is a holy habit. It means we choose what is good in our concrete actions. The more we choose the good, the more holy we become.
How Does Virtue Work?
The virtues are to the spiritual what the muscles are to the body.
Consider this analogy: suppose you are a runner, and you wish to run faster. One way your coach may try to help you in this endeavor is to send you to the weight room to lift weights with your legs. As your muscles grow, the faster you will run.
“When I am strengthened in one, I get stronger in all the others.”
Muscles must be worked out to grow.
Imagine you do the same number of reps with the same weights for six weeks. Now lifting those weights with your legs is much easier. Why? Your muscles have grown from the habit of lifting those reps at that weight. The lifting becomes easier. At the same time, if you stop the reps, your leg muscles will stop growing and may even go back to how they were before you started your reps.
Virtues work the exact same way!
When you first begin, the new good habit is difficult. But, over time, it becomes easier to practice. You may even do it without thinking about it much. To grow more, that good habit has to be practiced even when it becomes more difficult to choose it. The more the virtue is challenged and successfully practiced, the more it will grow.
Another important point in this analogy must be referenced here. A runner who builds up his leg muscles can run faster, but other changes that help him run faster also occur in the body. For instance, his breathing when running will become less labored. This is because when one muscle in the body is strengthened, the whole body is strengthened.
This is also true in regard to the virtues. When I am strengthened in one, I get stronger in all the others. In other words, the whole of the person is affected. This brings us to consider the relationship between the virtues and how God made the human person.
Understanding the Virtues in Relation to Human Anthropology
Now let’s look at how virtues work in the human person.
There are different kinds of virtues originating from different sources; however, all are a gift from God. All goodness finds its source in God, who is Goodness. It is important to keep this in mind as we delve into the types of virtues and how the human person participates in them.
First, we will consider the theological virtues.
These are faith, hope, and charity (love). These virtues are called theological because they are direct gifts from God that relate directly back to Him. No human effort can acquire them. They are given to the soul in the sacrament of baptism.
You may wonder, as I have, why these three?
The answer is rooted in the effects of the fall on the human person that directly affect our relationship with God.
When our first parents sinned some of the results included a loss of connection with God, which meant a loss of their perfect knowledge of God and His attributes as well as a loss of the grace of a participated indwelling of the spirit of God. In other words, it was a loss of relationship. They also lost access to eternal life. They and the generations of people after them lost access to Heaven.
Each of the three theological virtues are God’s gift to us to remedy as best as possible the effects of our fallen nature.
Man lost the perfect knowledge of God in the fall, so God gives the virtue of faith to counter this loss.
Man lost the hope of Heaven, so God gives the virtue of hope.
Man lost the relationship with God, so God gives the virtue of charity, which reestablishes the relationship between Himself and us.
Next, let us consider the cardinal virtues which, like the theological virtues, are infused in the soul at baptism and have God as their direct source. The cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They are called cardinal because all the other virtues (more on those later) “are grouped around them.” (CCC 1805).
Prudence is the ability to discern the good and to properly perceive the means to accomplish it. Justice is the virtue that gives us the ability to give to God and to others what they are justly owed. Fortitude is the virtue that helps us persevere in difficulties and remain constant in pursuing the good. Finally, temperance is the regulator of pleasures we take in through our senses.
At this point, it is important to mention that both the theological and cardinal virtues are supernatural, which means they are direct, infused gifts from God and cannot be acquired through any human effort. However, all these virtues also have a natural counterpart, which brings us to the next category of virtues.
The Human Virtues
Also known as the natural virtues, human virtues “are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith” (CCC 1804).
“The more I choose virtue, the easier it will be to choose it in future opportunities.”
Unlike the theological virtues, the human virtues are acquired through our efforts.
These virtues are gained by our free, deliberate, repeated acts.
To use our earlier analogy about the muscles, for them to grow I must do reps of a weight that is not outside my reach but is a challenge, and I must do this deliberately and repeatedly for the muscle I am targeting to grow. The human virtues are the ones that work this way.
Through my deliberate, repeated, freely chosen acts, I will develop either virtues or vices. Virtue is when I choose the good, and doing so repeatedly helps me grow in the virtue I am lacking.
Has anyone ever told you not to pray for patience because you will get many frustrating opportunities to practice it?
Yep, patience is a human virtue that falls under the Cardinal virtue of fortitude. The way to get it is to repeatedly, freely, and deliberately choose it over impatience. The more I choose virtue, the easier it will be to choose it in future opportunities.
This is true for all human virtues.
Where Do I Start?
So, you want to grow in virtue, but don’t know where to start? I will share my suggestions below.
Identify a vice you struggle with; consider: what do I always have to say in confession?
Research/look up the virtue that opposes that vice.
Decide on one virtue you will work on in a committed way for at least 30 days.
Pray for the virtue and opportunities to practice it and to practice it successfully.
Keep a daily record of your successes and failures in the practice of this virtue.
Ask for forgiveness for your failures – take your failures to the sacrament of confession.
After 30 days, reflect on any changes you notice in your behavior as a result of putting this virtue into practice.
Give thanks to God for the grace of these changes.
May God bless you on your journey of developing holy habits that will lead to a deeper union with Him.
A Prayer to Obtain All Virtues
By: St. Thomas Aquinas
O merciful God, grant that I may eagerly desire, carefully search out, truthfully acknowledge, and ever perfectly fulfill the things which are pleasing unto Thee. Order all my state for the glory and honor of Thy Name alone; and grant me to know what Thou dost require me to do, and give me to do it as is fitting, and profitable to my salvation.
Grant that I may not fail or swerve either in prosperity or in adversity; that I be not lifted up by the one, nor cast down by the other. Let me joy in nothing but what leads to Thee, nor grieve for any thing but what leads away from Thee; let me neither seek to please, nor fear to displease, any but Thee alone. May all transitory things grow vile in my eyes, O Lord, and may all that is Thine be dear to me for Thy sake, and Thou, O my God, dear above them all. May all joy be irksome to me that is without Thee, nor may I desire anything that is apart from Thee. May all labour and toil delight me which is for Thee, and all rest be weariness which is not in Thee.
Grant me, O Lord, continually to lift up my heart towards Thee, and to bring sorrowfully to my mind my many shortcomings, with full purpose of amendment. Make me, O Lord, obedient without demur, poor without repining, chaste without stain, patient without murmur, humble without pretense, joyous without frivolity, fearful-without abjectness, truthful without disguise, given to good works without presumption, faithful to rebuke my neighbor without arrogance, and ever careful to edify him both by word and example without pretension.
Give me, O Lord God, an ever-watchful heart, which no subtle speculation may lure from thee; a noble heart, which no unworthy affection can draw downwards to the earth; an upright heart, which no insincere intention can warp aside; an unconquerable heart, which no tribulation can crush or quell; a free heart, which no perverted or impetuous affection can claim for its own.
Bestow on me, O Lord, my God, understanding to know Thee, diligence to seek Thee, wisdom to find Thee, a life and conversation which may please Thee, persevere in waiting patiently for Thee, and in hope which may embrace Thee at the last. Grant me to be pierced with compunction by Thy sorrows through true repentance, to improve all Thy gifts and benefits during this my pilgrimage through Thy grace, and so at length to enter into Thy full and consummate joy in Thy glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth.
Amen.
Prayer found at Catholic Harbor of Faith & Morals
