“A 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.” CCC 1803

1. Virtue
CCC 1803-1845

2. 2. Opening
Question Can
we be good
without God?

3. 3. Natural-Supernatural Distinction
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I
in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do
nothing.” Jn 15:5
“Indeed, someone might say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’
Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will
demonstrate my faith to you from my works.” James 2:18
“Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see
your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” Mt 5:16

4. 4. Virtue
• “A 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.” CCC 1803
• “an accessory quality which enables man to use any potency or
faculty belonging to him correctly, with ease, promptness and
pleasure.”
• Always a mean between two vices, excess and defect.
• Courage is between daring and cowardice

5. 5. Acquired Virtue
• “A good habit of the mind or will given to the soul by God, and not acquired by the action of a human being.
The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity are always infused; the moral virtues are both acquired and
infused.”Fr. Hardon’s Catholic Dictionary
• The divine life of grace develops in us under the form of the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy GhostThe
theological virtues have God as their object while the moral virtues have for their object supernatural means
proportioned to our last end
• For the man in sin there are often false virtues—think the temperance of the miser and there may also be true
acquired virtues as the temperate man who lives according to reason
• Either way the man in sin lacks virtue in the solid state and they lack the necessary connectedness of all the
virtuesIn the case of an acquired virtue the principle is right reason, in the case of an infused virtue it is faith
• The infused virtues are an intrinsic facility without always excluding the extrinsic obstacles—these extrinsic
obstacles are excluded by the repetition of acts that engender the acquired virtues
• The key to understanding the relationship between the acquired and infused virtues is that the infused virtues
are not grafted on top of the acquired but instead the acquired facilitate the removal of obstacles to the
infusedThe acquired are subordinated

6. 6. What is the Role of Acquired Virtue
Then?
• “Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said
and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself.
By faith ‘man freely commits his entire self to God.’ For this reason the believer seeks to
know and do God's will. ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ Living faith ‘work(s) through
charity.’”CCC 1814
• Speak of natural faith vs supernatural faithNatural would say that God exists (James 2:19—
”You believe in one God…good even the demons do that and they tremble in terror”)
• Faith unites us to God Who is Infinite Truth and causes us to enter into the divine mind
since it makes God known to us as He made Himself known through revelation—it is a
preparation for the Beatific Vision
• Faith is an assent of the mind to truth—it is an assent that is based upon truth
• Faith is the foundation of the spiritual life and thus the deeper the foundation the taller
the edifice that can be built upon it
• Mean between credulity and doubt

7. 7. Hope
• Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our
happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own
strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit…The virtue of hope
responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of
every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies
them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from
discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up
his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude.” CCCFaith in intellect, hope in
will as sustaining our charity and keeping our will directed to GodHope
makes us love God for His goodness to us and through it we firmly and
trustfully expect the happiness of heaven along with all the means to attain
itIt is in the will and thus empowers us to make an earnest effort to tend
towards God and make use of the means of salvation (as opposed to
presumption and despair)Presumption means expecting all the graces we
need but not taking the means necessary to secure them either by
presuming on God’s goodness thinking we do not have to follow the
commandments or our own power rushing into the near occasion of sinIt
begets holy desires and gives us the necessary yearnings to sustain our
efforts in the midst of difficultyIt increases our energy through the prospect of
a reward that far exceeds our effortsDetachment means seeing everything
as either helpful or not towards salvation and being ok with or without it

8. 8 Charity
• “Charity is the theological virtue by which we
love God above all things for his own sake,
and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of
God.”CCC 1822

9. 9 “The Greatest of These…”
• “‘If I have not charity,’ says the Apostle, ‘I am nothing.’ Whatever my
privilege, service, or even virtue, ‘if I have not charity, I gain nothing.’
Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues:
‘So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity.’”CCC 1826• Faith and hope are companions, in the intellect and
in the will respectively, are charity’s companions along the road to God—
charity is the embrace of the supernatural end• In the ordering of the
virtues charity because it unites us to God who is loved for Himself is the
highest—then hope which is a virtue tending toward God as desired for
our benefit (will) and faith (intellect) as the knowledge of God based on
His revealing ito To love God is better than to know Him, but in the
natural order it is better to know a thing than to love it (prudence is
highest)

10. 10 Charity and All
the Virtues
• “The practice of all the virtues is
animated and inspired by charity,
which ‘binds everything together in
perfect harmony’; it is the form of the
virtues; it articulates and orders them
among themselves; it is the source and
the goal of their Christian practice.
Charity upholds and purifies our
human ability to love, and raises it to
the supernatural perfection of divine
love.”CCC 1827

11. 11. Prudence
“Prudence is the virtue
that disposes practical
reason to discern our
true good in every
circumstance and to
choose the right means of
achieving it; "the
prudent man looks where
he is going.’…It is not
to be confused with
timidity or fear, nor
with duplicity or
dissimulation. It is
called auriga virtutum
(the charioteer of the
virtues); it guides the
other virtues by setting
rule and measure…With the
help of this virtue we
apply moral principles to
particular cases without
error and overcome doubts
about the good to achieve
and the evil to avoid.CCC
1806
Right reason as the rule
vs faith as the rule
Charioteer of the other
virtues knowing when to
act and how Always a mean
between two vices, excess
and defect and prudence
helps to direct that
Courage is between daring
and cowardice
We must strive for
Christian prudence, that
is seeing how to
practically use the
things of this world
according to our
supernatural end as
opposed to merely natural
prudence or prudence of
the flesh which is more
like manipulation and
rationalizing
Christian prudence may
not always be directly
concerned with this end
but always has this end
in viewPrudence is
necessary for our own
personal conduct to avoid
sin and practice virtueTo
avoid sin we must know
its causes and occasions
and seek the remedies
Means of growth—prayer
(like all of them),
reflection on the life of
Christ (His virtues
become ours, or more
accurately we take on His
virtues)—especially seek
ye first, Ignatius
Principle and Foundation,
that is referring all
things to our last end
Constituent elements of
this virtue that need to
be fostered—common sense,
a habit of reflection,
readiness to consult
others, determination,
foresight and caution

12. 12 Justice
• “Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their
due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion."
Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in
human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons
and to the common good.” CCC 1807
• The supernatural habit of rendering to each his due—distinct from charity in that
the latter treats the other as another self and renders service to them
• We speak now mainly of rights, whereas justice really speaks about duties (what
is owed)Two kinds of justice—(1)social by which we owe to society as a whole
because of the great benefits we receive from it—this would include contributing
to the common good (distributive justice) (2)individual—commutative justice
• Categories—(1)related to property, petty theft, paying debts on time, etc (2)
guarding the good name of others—rash judgments, calumny, gossiping,
slander,etc (3) to God—religion and obedience

13. 13 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.”CCC 1808
• Fortitude and temperance regulate our duties with ourselves” as opposed to justice which regulates our duties
towards others
• Habit that strengthens the soul in the pursuit of the arduous moral good—governs the irascible appetite and
meant to govern both fear and audacity
• Its action is to undertake and endure difficult things—we must learn to suffer for God’s sake—St. Thomas –
“To bear is more difficult than to attack”
• Fear of effort and fear of risks—fear of the unknown, fear of criticism

14. 14. 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…”CCC 1808
Moderates the attraction to sense
pleasure, especially those of the
palate and the flesh—geared
towards the preservation of the
individual (eating) and the
species (sexual powers)Refer to
class on mortification

15. 15 Humility
• “A virtue whereby man, through a true knowledge of
himself, becomes despicable in is own eyes.”
• Humility—the basis of humility is truth and justice; truth
about ourselves as we really are, and justice causes us to
act upon that knowledge“
• In man two things may be considered; what there is of
God, and what there is of man. Of man there is whatever
points to defect; but of all that makes for salvation and
perfection there is God.”
• We still see the good that is truly in us, but we admire it in
the sense that it comes from God both naturally and
supernaturally