From the Rector/Catechesis, Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 9/18/2022

Introduction to Virtue
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

1803 “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things.”
A 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. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. (Saint Gregory of Nyssa)

1804 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. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in
leading a morally good life. the virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.
The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally
good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine
love.

1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man’s
faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the theological virtues relate directly to
God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have
the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.

1813 The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate
it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They
are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his
children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of
the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues:
faith, hope, and charity.