Lecture Series: A Tough and Daring Religion: The Teaching of the Virtues in Catholic Tradition.
Topic: "What Is a Virtue?"
Lent is a time for toughening up, for getting rid of the flab, for regaining strength and vitality in our spiritual life. Catholicism is no religion for the timid or faint of heart. It calls forth sacrifice and courage and dogged determination in the pursuit of what is good.
St. Paul was speaking of the spiritual life when he wrote to the Corinthians: “Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in his own way. I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it!”
This Lent learn of and live the virtues as taught and practiced within the Catholic tradition. Draw on the classical insights of the Greeks and Romans regarding the moral virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, draw on the unwavering fidelity of the Hebrews and most especially, draw on the divine life granted to us by God in Christ with the means to live that life through the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Lecture Date: March 1st, 2004.
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