The Life of Virtue

In my most recent post, I mentioned that my life includes any number of things that continue to cause anxiety for me on a regular basis.  In the ensuing two weeks, my Lord has seen fit to provide wonderful and freeing perspective, particularly through a spiritual direction session and through the Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales.  Therefore, this post is something of a rebuttal to that part of the previous post by way of this new and fresh (at least for me) perspective. The modern world in which we live celebrates wealth without any inhibition.  The idea is that everyone has an inalienable right to accumulate dollars and possessions without limit or end.  Efforts to eradicate economic poverty are, at base, attempts to bring more people into this ever-increasing cycle of production and profit.  The world scoffs at poverty, and the prevailing culture proposes a glamorous solution, but one that is, ultimately, bereft of real value. Throug...

The ensuing post has been inspired by the first half of Pope Francis's Lenten Message , which focuses on Christ's poverty.  I know: the first two days of these Lenten reflections are dealing with the virtues that are no fun...no fun at all.  Yet, if our goal during Lent is to be more like Christ, we must come to understand what it means to fast and become poor like Him. Poverty is the virtue by which  material possessions and selfish pride are cleared away so that Christ can enter any situation, and so that we can be brought to salvation by His grace.  The Holy Father remarks that "there is only one real kind of poverty: not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ."  Our Heavenly Father never fails to meet any of our needs, including material needs, if we are willing to relinquish control to Him.  Further, without attachment to created goods and our own egos, human beings are much freer to enter into deep and meaningful relationships,...

The Gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount ( Matthew 5:17-37 ), "the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest Preacher who ever preached," according to Peter Kreeft.  In this segment of the sermon, just a few sentences after listing the Beatitudes, the Lord provides His audience (the hearers on the mount and us in the modern age ) a new and fulfilled understanding of the Law.  Those who follow Christ must examine their attitudes and actions in a way that is different than the legalistic culture of His day and the world in which we live.  Quite simply, a person who claims to be a disciple of Jesus must be ready to cultivate virtues, which will help her to choose rightly in the face of anger, lust, or even cultural tradition. Virtues are the habitual dispositions of mind and heart that lead individuals to act according to God's gracious plan.  It is no coincidence, then, that there are certain vi...

Last week, a popular news site posted a story entitled "Why this millennial quit his 6-figure job and gave away most of his possessions."   The young man about whom the story was written admitted that his "six-figure salary, impressive [job] title, and big house full of stuffed closets" didn't fulfill his deepest longings.  In fact, he noticed that his obsessive work habits and a vicious cycle of consumerism had destroyed his life and relationships, even his marriage.  Thus, he turned to "minimalism,"which he defines as "a lifestyle dedicated to clearing the clutter in your life and making room for the things that are truly important to you." This fellow is clearly on to something, except it isn't his original idea.  The thing that this young man calls minimalism, the Church has called detachment for centuries; and it's the reality that Jesus called poverty of spirit, which He listed as the first Beatitude (Matthew 5:3).  Indeed, fo...

[This post appeared originally on my full site, which is now no longer in operation, in October 2012.] The first Beatitude that Our Lord gave: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:3). So, poverty of spirit is a virtue, as are all the Beatitudes (which is a different article). But what does “poverty of spirit” mean? In a single word, it is synonymous with “detachment.” I have known a few sisters in my short time as a Catholic. Those sisters are nothing if they are not detached. They are detached from everything except the love of Christ and the gifts and mission that He has given to them. They are the epitome of “poverty of spirit,” in my opinion. In recent days, a news story has surfaced that a community of sisters in Baltimore, Maryland will be the beneficiary of the auction of a rare, Honus Wagner-baseball card. At this point, their detachment has merited over $65,000 for their community, not including the graces that will lead the...