Jesus teaches us to build a relationship with God, our Father, in the New Testament. Throughout the centuries, countless people have prayed. But sometimes we are not sure how to address God, or whether He will listen to us. God tirelessly calls each person to the mysterious encounter that is prayer. He takes the initiative in prayer, placing in us the desire to see, speak to, and share our life with him. Prayer, listening and speaking to God, is a response to this divine initiative. Prayer is not reduced to the spontaneous outbreak of an inner impulse: to pray it is necessary to want to pray and to learn to pray. We learn to speak to God through the Church: listening to the word of God, reading the Gospels and, above all, imitating the example of Jesus. Each day without fail we should devote some time specially to God, raising our minds to him, without any need for the words to come to our lips, for they are being sung in our heart. Before the Tabernacle, close to him who has remained there out of Love. If this is not possible, we can pray anywhere because our God is ineffably present in the heart of every soul in grace. (Friends of God, 249)

The first thing that needs correcting is how we relate to God in prayer. Jesus warns us not to pray “as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matt. 6:7). This isn’t an argument against lengthy prayers. In fact, it’s hard to come up with a much lengthier prayer than Jesus’ own: on the night before he called the twelve apostles, for instance, Jesus “went out into the hills to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12).

Instead, Jesus is warning us against a certain way of approaching prayer: thinking of it as a kind of magic where if you just say the right words (or for the right length of time), then you’ll get your wish.

To put it simply, God isn’t our genie. He’s our Father. That’s what Jesus teaches us about prayer. It’s not an insignificant detail that when Jesus tells us to “pray then like this,” he gives us a prayer that begins “Our Father . . .” (Matt. 6:9). Even those of us who have prayed the Lord’s Prayer throughout our entire lives may have never really pondered the significance of that opening address.

In prayer, we do not just come before “a judge who is God of all” (Heb. 12:23), like a terrified defendant before a mighty court. Instead, we come as beloved children to a merciful father, a father who chases after us even when we have wandered off (Luke 15:20; Matt. 18:12). And God responds to our prayers as any loving father would respond to the requests of his children:

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:11-13).

Understand prayer in this fatherly way, and many of the common objections dissipate. For instance, it’s true that God already knows what we want and need. In fact, before giving us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus actually makes sure to point out that “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8). After all, a God who didn’t know our needs ahead of time wouldn’t be a God powerful enough to answer our prayers.

So it’s good that God knows what we need before we ask. But it’s still good for us to ask. Here too, I think every parent knows the drill. You may know that your son wants something, but you still want him to learn to ask for it, rather than simply assuming you’ll do it for him or (worse) trying to just take it on his own.

But notice that Jesus doesn’t just say that the Father knows what we want; he knows what we need. If we ask for a fish, God’s not going to give us a serpent. The problem is, we’re often asking for serpents in our prayers and wondering why he doesn’t give them to us. St. James puts it bluntly: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).

If my baby daughter asks for more of a healthy food, I’m likely to give it to her. But if she wants junk food (or, often as not, some random inedible object she’s found on the ground), her asking won’t get her what she wants. But notice, her not getting what she thinks she wants isn’t evidence of an unloving father but of a father who loves her and is seeking her authentic good.

That may be cold comfort to her when she’s convinced that what will make her happy is eating a Christmas ornament. And it’s likewise cold comfort to us adults when we think that a sports car or a raise is what will make us truly happy. Slowly but surely, though, even the experience of being rebuffed in prayer helps us to grow in both perseverance (as we ask, like the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8) and trust (as we come to realize that God’s plans for us consistently turn out better than our plans for ourselves). So many of our frustrations in prayer seem to be of precisely this kind: that God responds as a loving Father and not as an ATM. Or as C.S. Lewis puts it:

We want, in fact, not so much a Father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all” (The Problem of Pain, pp. 35-36).

It’s a frustrating but fortunate reality that God isn’t our senile grandfather but our attentive Father. The letter to the Hebrews quotes Proverbs to the effect that “the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6, Prov. 3:12). It is precisely because we are sons and daughters of the Father that he pushes us—just as parents are (rightly) more demanding of their own children than they are of the neighbors’ or of their grandkids.

Approaching God as a Father should help us understand why he wants us to talk to him, why we can trust him, and why we shouldn’t despair if we feel like he’s chastising us or not giving us what we want when we want it. But this same rethinking also needs to happen in the other half of the equation: how we understand the “divine plan.”

Rethinking the divine plan

There are two more misunderstandings of prayer that I want to address:

1. God is just going to give us what’s best, whether or not we pray for it.

2. God has a divine plan, and my prayers risk screwing it up somehow, since my ideas aren’t as good as his own.

The first view is a tendency toward a kind of Christian fatalism: God’s plan is an implacable fate, and nothing that I say or do can change it. In the second view, I can change things for the worse, and so prayer—or at least, praying for anything specific—is spiritually dangerous.

Misunderstood this way, God has fish and eggs ready for us, unless we accidentally ask for serpents or scorpions. As different as these errors may seem, they’re really two sides of the same coin: namely, misunderstanding what the Christian vision of the divine plan looks like.

As with our rethinking of prayer, what’s needed is a rethinking of the idea of the “divine plan.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. Augustine: “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us” (1847; Augustine, Sermon 169). In other words, God is our Father, meaning that “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:16-17).

Maybe the closest analogue is to imagine that you own a family business that you’re hoping to pass along to your kids. One of your goals is to form them not only to be responsible adults but to understand and care about the family business. You want to bring them into the decision-making process so that they can see things “from the inside,” as it were.

This is precisely how God deals with us. God chooses Abraham, and one of the first things that he does is to invite him into the divine equivalent of the decision-making process. Before destroying the city of Sodom, God said, “shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him?” (Gen. 18:17).

What’s he doing? He’s telling Abraham what he’s planning on doing, precisely so that Abraham will learn to barter with him and to intercede for those who need it the most. Abraham successfully petitions God to agree that if there are even ten righteous people in Sodom, he won’t destroy the city (Gen. 18:22-33).

This isn’t Abraham overpowering God or God opting for a suboptimal plan. God is achieving something great in creating in Abraham a powerful spiritual intercessor. Even though there aren’t ten righteous people within the city, and it is destroyed, “God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt” (Gen. 19:29).

The salvation of Lot isn’t just for Lot’s sake: it’s also the consequence of Abraham’s prayers. But notice that none of this would have happened if Abraham had simply said, “God’s plan is God’s plan, nothing I can do about it!” or even “God, you know more than me, have it your way.”

The God who knows more than we do is the same God who places on our hearts the desire to pray, to barter with him, even to argue with him. God changes the name of Abraham’s grandson Jacob to Israel, a name that means literally “he fought God” (see Gen. 32:28). When we talk about the Church as the New Israel, the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, that includes this idea: God invites us to wrestle with him in prayer, and he even rewards it.

This is exactly what we should expect if he is raising sons and heirs instead of simply passive observers of his divine plan. We can see this powerful intercession throughout the Old and New Testaments, but there’s one parable that I think captures it beautifully.

At the end of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the elder brother complains about the father’s generous celebration of the younger son’s return, saying, “Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends” (Luke 15:29). There’s something slightly ridiculous about the elder son standing in the field and haggling over wages instead of rejoicing at home with the rest of his family. The father gently points this out: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31, emphasis added).

This is perhaps the most important single sentence in the entire Bible for understanding prayer. We constantly want to pray as petitioners, or workers, or bystanders: treating God as a force of nature (and a force that cannot be reckoned with!), or else as a senile grandfather, an ATM, or a genie: someone or something merely to be feared or manipulated.

But God is constantly trying to teach us that he’s our Father and that we’re his children—his “sons and heirs.” And if so, all that is God’s is ours. The radical promise of the “Our Father” is that it means that the whole universe is our family business, not just God’s. The divine plan isn’t just something over there somewhere, but something here that we’re invited into in a radical way.

God wants us to try to make sense of his plans, to ask questions, even to make suggestions or raise objections. It’s a sign that we’re interested in what he’s doing and that we care about the family business—which, in this case, is the business of the whole universe. After all, as St. Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (1 Cor. 6:2).

Developing your personality, christian virtues, intimacy with God, help to open your own hearts to Jesus and tell him your story. May be an ordinary Christian, just like you, opened your eyes to horizons both deep and new, yet as old as the Gospel. He suggested to you the prospect of following Christ earnestly, seriously, of becoming an apostle of apostles. Perhaps you lost your balance then and didn't recover it. Your complacency wasn't quite replaced by true peace until you freely said "yes" to God, because you wanted to, which is the most supernatural of reasons. And in its wake came a strong, constant joy, which disappears only when you abandon him. 

Christian holiness is thus rooted in the gift of the Triune God to mankind. We are included by grace in the intimate dynamic of the divine life, in which each divine Person possesses the same nature, but in a different way, a difference which makes the divine Persons distinct from one another. Hence the Christian has a different relationship with each of the divine Persons: the Father adopts us as his children, so that the Son is the model with whom we identify ourselves and our “door” of entry into the Trinity; while the Holy Spirit, the bond of love between the Father and the Son, is the “light and power” that impels us to identify ourselves with Christ in order to live with Him for the glory of the Father, fulfilling his will in all things. Sanctifying grace is therefore much more than a help from God to do good works.It is a new vital principle, an elevation of our nature, almost like a second nature, a radical beginning of a new kind of life: the life of the children of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Another kind of grace, called actual grace, is a specific divine help to perform a good deed. 

"Human virtues acquired by education,by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace. With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice them. It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil." (CCC. 1810-1811)

1. Grace 

From all eternity, God has called man to participate in the life of the Blessed Trinity.“This vocation to eternal life is supernatural " (Catechism, 1998). [1] To lead us to this supernatural final end, God grants us even here on earth a beginning of this participation which will reach its fullness in heaven and which St. Thomas Aquinas calls “a foretaste of glory." [2] This gift is sanctifying grace :

• it “is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it" (Catechism, 1999);

• “it is a participation in the life of God" (Catechism, 1997; see 2 Pet 1:4), who divinizes us (see Catechism, 1999);

• it is, therefore, a new, supernatural life; a new birth through which we are made children of God by adoption, sharers in the natural filiation of the Son: “sons in the Son"; [3]

• it thus introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. As adopted children we can call God “Father," united to his only Son (see Catechism, 1997);

• it is the “grace of Christ," because in our present situation—that is, after sin and the Redemption worked by Christ—grace reaches us as a participation in the grace Christ won for us (Catechism, 1997): And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace (Jn 1:16). Grace configures us to Christ (see Rom 8:29);

• it is the “grace of the Holy Spirit," because it is infused in the soul by the Holy Spirit. [4]

Sanctifying grace is also called habitual grace because it is a stable disposition which perfects the soul through the infusion of virtues, to enable it to live with God, to act by his love (see Catechism, 2000). [5]

2. Justification

The first action of grace within us is justification (see Catechism, 1989). Justification is the passing from the state of sin to the state of grace (or “of justice," because grace makes us “just"). [6] This takes place in Baptism, and every time that God pardons our mortal sins and infuses sanctifying grace (ordinarily in the sacrament of Penance). [7] Justification “is the most excellent work of God's love" (Catechism, 1994; see Eph 2:4–5).

3. Sanctification

God does not deny his grace to anyone, because he wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:4): all are called to holiness (see Mt 5:48). [8] Grace “is in us the source of the work of sanctification" ( Catechism, 1999); it heals and elevates our nature, wounded by original sin, and makes us capable of acting as God's children, [9] and of reproducing the image of Christ (see Rom 8:29): that is to say, of being, each one, alter Christus, another Christ. This resemblance to Christ is manifested in the virtues.

Sanctification means growing in holiness, attaining an ever more intimate union with God (see Catechism, 2014), to the point of becoming not just another Christ but ipse Christus, Christ himself [10] —one and the same with Christ, as a member in his Body (see 1 Cor 12:27). To grow in sanctity requires freely cooperating with grace, and this entails effort, struggle, because of the disorder introduced by sin (the fomes peccati, the inclination to sin). “There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle" (Catechism, 2015). [11]

Therefore, in order to conquer in the ascetical struggle, we need to ask God for grace through prayer and mortification (“the prayer of the senses"), [12] and receive grace through the sacraments. [13]

Our union with Christ will be definitive only in heaven. We have to ask God for the grace of final perseverance, that is, the gift of dying in God's grace (see Catechism, 2016 and 2849).

4. The theological virtues

In general terms, virtue “is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good" ( Catechism, 1803). [14] “The theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity" (Catechism, 1812). “They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children" (Catechism, 1813). [15] There are three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity (see 1 Cor 13:13).

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" (Catechism, 1814). By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God," [16] and strives to know and do the will of God: The righteous shall live by faith (Rom 1:17). [17]

“The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it" (Catechism, 1816; see Mt 10:32-33).

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" (Catechism, 1817). [18] 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" (Catechism, 1822). This is Christ's “new commandment": that you love one another as I have loved you (Jn 15:12). [19]

5. Human 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. They make possible ease, self‑mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life" (Catechism, 1804). These virtues “are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts" (Catechism, 1804). [20]

Among the human virtues there are four that are called cardinal virtues because all of the others are grouped around them. These are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance (see Catechism, 1805).

• 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" (Catechism, 1806). It is “right reason in action," [21] says St. Thomas Aquinas.

• Justice “is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor" (Catechism, 1807). [22]

• 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" (Catechism, 1808). [23]

• 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" (Catechism, 1809). A temperate person directs his sensible appetites towards what is truly good and does not let himself be controlled by his passions (see Sir 18:30). In the New Testament it is called “moderation" or “sobriety" (see Catechism, 1809).

The saying in medio virtus , "virtue lies in the middle," with respect to the moral virtues means that virtue consists in a mean between a defect and an excess. [24] However, in medio virtus is not a call to mediocrity. Virtue is not a middle term between two or more vices, but a rightness of will—a summit, as it were—which is opposed to all the abysms of the vices. [25]

6. Virtues and grace. The Christian virtues

The wounds left by original sin on human nature make the acquisition and exercise of human virtues difficult (see Catechism, 1811). [26] To acquire and live them, Christians count on God's grace, which heals human nature.

Grace elevates human nature to participate in the divine nature. At the same time grace elevates the human virtues to the supernatural order (see Catechism, 1810), leading the human person to act according to right reason illumined by faith: in a word, to imitate Christ. In this way, human virtues become Christian virtues . [27]

7. The gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit

“The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit" ( Catechism, 1830). [28] The gifts of the Holy Spirit are (see Catechism, 1831):

1st the gift of wisdom: in order to understand and judge rightly about God's plans;

2nd the gift of understanding: in order to penetrate into the truth about God;

3rd the gift of counsel: to recognize and further God's plans in particular acts;

4th the gift of fortitude: to overcome difficulties in Christian life;

5th the gift of knowledge: to grasp the order of created reality;

6th the gift of piety: to behave as children of God and in a fraternal manner towards all our brothers and sisters, being other Christs;

7th the gift of fear of the Lord: to reject all that could offend God, as a child would reject, through love, all that might offend his father.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit “are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory" ( Catechism, 1832). These are acts which the action of the Holy Spirit produces in our soul in a habitual way. The tradition of the Church enumerates twelve fruits: “love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, modesty, self-control, chastity" (see Gal 5:22–23).

8. The influence of the passions in moral life

By the substantial union of our body and soul, our spiritual life—intellectual knowledge and free choice of the will—is subject to the influence of our feelings. This influence is manifested in the passions, which are “movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil" ( Catechism, 1763). The passions are movements of the sensible appetite (irascible and concupiscible). They can also be called, in the broad sense, “sentiments" or “emotions." [29]

Love, anger, fear, etc. are examples of passions. “The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it" ( Catechism, 1765).

The passions have a great influence on our moral life. “In themselves passions are neither good nor evil" ( Catechism, 1767). “Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case" (Catechism, 1768). [30] Human perfection requires having one's passions regulated by reason and controlled by the will. [31] Since original sin, our passions are no longer subject to the control of reason and they frequently push us towards something that is not good. [32] To channel them towards the good in a constant or habitual manner requires ascetical struggle and the help of grace, which heals the wounds of sin.

The will, if it is good, makes use of the passions, ordering them towards the good. [33] In contrast a bad will, which stems from selfishness, succumbs to disordered passions or uses them for evil (see Catechism, 1768).

Paul O'Callaghan

Basic bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1762–1770, 1803–1832 and 1987–2005.

Recommended readings

St. Josemaria, homily “Human Virtues," in Friends of God, nos. 73–92.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae , I-II, qq. 22ff; 109-114; II-II, qq. 1-27; 47-62; 139-143.

Footnotes:

[1] This vocation “depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature (see 1 Cor 2:7–9)" (Catechism, 1998).

[2] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II–II, q. 24, a.3, ad 2.

[3] Second Vatican Council, Const. Gaudium et Spes, 22. See Rom 8:14–17; Gal 4:5–6; 1 Jn 3:1.

[4] Every created gift proceeds from the uncreated Gift, the Holy Spirit. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5. See Gal 4:6).

[5] One must distinguish between habitual grace and actual graces , “which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification" ( Catechism, 2000).

[6] “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but sanctification and renovation of the interior man" (Council of Trent: DZ 1528).

[7] In adults, this step is the fruit of God's impulse (actual grace) and human freedom. “Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high [sanctifying grace]" ( Catechism, 1989).

[8] This is a truth our Lord has wanted to remind us of, with special force, through the teachings of Saint Josemaria, since October 2, 1928. As the Church proclaimed in the Second Vatican Council (1962–65): “all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love" ( Lumen Gentium, 40).

[9] See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q.2, a.12, c.

[10] See St. Josemaria, Christ Is Passing By , 104.

[11] But grace “is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart" ( Catechism, 1742). On the contrary, “grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom" ( Catechism, 2022).In the present state of human nature, wounded by sin, grace is necessary to live constantly in accord with the natural moral law.

[12] Christ Is Passing By, 9.

[13] To gain God's grace we can also have recourse to the intercession of our most holy Mother Mary, the Mediatrix of all grace, and also of St. Joseph, our guardian angels, and the saints.

[14] Vices, on the contrary, are moral habits which result from bad acts and incline one to repeat them and to grow worse.

[15] In a way analogous to how the human soul operates through its potencies (understanding and will), the Christian in the state of grace acts through the theological virtues, which are, as it were, potencies of the “new nature" elevated by grace.

[16] Second Vatican Council, Const. Dei Verbum, 5. [17] Faith is manifested in deeds: a living faith works through charity (Gal 5:6), while faith apart from works is dead (Jas 2:26), although the gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned directly against it (see Council of Trent: DZ 1545).

[18] See Heb 10:23; Tit 3:6–7. “The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man" ( Catechism, 1818): it purifies and elevates this aspiration and protects us from discouragement; it opens our heart to the prospect of eternal beatitude, protects us from selfishness and leads us to happiness (see ibid.).

We should hope for the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him (see Rom 8:28–30) and who do his will (see Mt 7:21), certain that with God's grace we will be able to persevere to the end (see Mt 10:22) (see Catechism, 1821).

[19] Charity is superior to all the other virtues (see 1 Cor 13:13). If I . . . have not love, I am nothing . . . I gain nothing (1 Cor 13:1–3).

“The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity" ( Catechism, 1827). It is the form of all the virtues: it “informs" or “vivifies" them because it directs them to the love of God; without charity, the other virtues are “dead."

Charity purifies our human faculty of loving and elevates it to the supernatural perfection of divine love (see Catechism, 1827). There is an order of charity. Charity is also shown in fraternal correction (see Catechism, 1829).

[20] As is explained in the next section, the Christian develops these virtues with the help of God's grace which, as it purifies nature, gives strength to practice them, and orders them to a higher end.

[21] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae , II–II, q.47, a.2, c.Prudence leads one to judge rightly about how to act: it does not dissuade one from acting. “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" ( Catechism, 1806).

[22] Man cannot give God what is owed to him or what is just in the strict sense. Therefore, justice towards God is called more properly “the virtue of religion," “since for God it is sufficient that we fulfill these duties insofar as we are able to" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.57, a.1, ad 3).

[23] In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33).

[24] For example, laboriousness consists in working as much as one should, which is a mean between an excess and a lack. Opposed to laboriousness is to work less than one should, wasting time, etc. And also opposed to laboriousness is working without measure, without respect for all the other things which one also has to do (duties of piety, attention to family, necessary and just rest, charity, etc.).

[25] The principle in medio virtus is valid only for the moral virtues, which have as their object the means for attaining a goal, and in the means there is always a measure. This is not true of the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity), which have God directly as their object. Therefore no excess is possible with them: it is impossible to “hope in God too much," or “to love him too much."

[26] Human nature has been wounded by sin. As a result it has inclinations which are not natural, but are the consequence of sin. Just as limping is not natural, but the result of an infirmity, and it would not be natural even if everyone limped, the wounds in the soul left by original sin and by personal sins are not “natural" either: the tendency to pride, to laziness, to sensuality, etc. With the help of grace and with personal effort these wounds can be healed, so that the person becomes and acts as befits his or her nature as a child of God. This “health" is gained through virtues. Similarly, the “sickness"is aggravated by vices.

[27] In this sense, there is a prudence which is a human virtue, and a supernatural prudence, which is a virtue infused by God into the soul, together with grace. For the supernatural virtue to be able to produce fruit—good acts—it needs the corresponding human virtue (the same thing happens with the other cardinal virtues: the supernatural virtue of justice requires the human virtue of justice; and the same with fortitude and temperance). In other words, Christian perfection—sanctity—requires and involves human perfection.

[28] Here, to help in understanding the function of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the moral life, we can add the following classic explanation. Just as human nature has certain powers (intelligence and will) which permit it to carry out the operations of understanding and willing, so also does nature elevated by grace have powers which permit it to accomplish supernatural acts. These powers are the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity). They are like the oars of a boat, which permit it to move in the direction of its supernatural end. Nevertheless, this end surpasses us to such an extent that the theological virtues are not sufficient to attain it. God grants us, together with grace, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are new perfections of the soul that enable it to be moved by the Holy Spirit himself. They are like the sail in a boat that enables it to move by the wind's force. The gifts perfect us by making us more docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.

[29] One can also speak of supra-sensible or spiritual “sentiments" or “emotions," which are not properly “passions" because they do not bring with them movements of the sensitive appetite.

[30] For example, there is such a thing as good anger, which is to become indignant in the face of evil, and there is also bad anger, which is uncontrolled or which impels one towards evil (as is the case with vengeance); there is a good fear and a bad fear, which prevents one from doing the good; etc.

[31] See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I–II, q.24, aa. 1 and 3.

[32] At times the passions can come to dominate a person to such an extent that one's moral responsibility is reduced to a minimum.

[33] “Moral perfection consists in man's being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: 'My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God' (Ps 84:3)" (Catechism, 1770). “The passions are bad if our love is bad, good if it is good" (St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 14:7).

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. 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 love. (CCC 1812-1813).    👇

Faith is the knowledge that guides the whole life of the children of God. Without faith it is not possible to live as God’s children, just as, without intellectual knowledge, human life could not be lived. Faith consists in a firm adherence, made possible by grace, to all the truths that God has revealed to us, to all that God has told us about Himself and about his saving plan for mankind and for the world, not because these truths are self-evident or fully comprehensible to us, but because they have been revealed by God, supreme Wisdom and supreme Truth. By faith we participate in God’s knowledge of Himself and of the world, and that participated knowledge is the supreme rule of the Christian life.

But faith is not just a body of knowledge held to be true. Since what is believed is that God is our Creator and Saviour, faith presupposes a full openness of our soul to God’s saving action in Christ, an act of trust and surrender to God’s action in us. Because faith is the acceptance of the salvation that God works in us, Saint Paul teaches that we are justified by faith, that is, that there is no other salvation than that which God gives us in Christ, and that after original sin there is no other way to be righteous before God than to open ourselves to the action by which God makes us righteous through Christ. No man can justify himself. That is why the Church teaches that “faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification; without it, it is impossible to please God and to reach the fellowship of his children; and we are said to be justified freely, because nothing that precedes justification, whether it be faith or works, merits the very grace of justification; for if it is grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise (as the Apostle himself says) grace is no longer grace.”[5]

Grace and faith are not produced by our good works, but once grace and faith have been received, in order to be saved we need to live as God’s children and avoid deeds incompatible with the life of grace.

Whoever consciously and deliberately does not accept God’s revelation commits the sin of unfaithfulness. The Christian who abandons the faith commits apostasy, and the one who changes or distorts the revealed truths commits the sin of heresy.

Pillars of character 

Moral knowledge is not an abstract discourse, nor a technique. The formation of our moral conscience requires a strengthening of our character that is grounded on the virtues as its pillars. Virtues reinforce our personality, rendering it stable and even-tempered. They enable us to rise above ourselves, our self-centredness, and focus our concern on God and others. A virtuous person is “poised,” with the right measure in all things, upright, self-possessed and well-rounded. Those who are short on virtue, in contrast, will find it hard to undertake significant projects or to give shape to high ideals. They will be forever improvising and lurching to and fro, and end up being unreliable, even for themselves.

Fostering virtues enlarges our freedom. Virtue has nothing to do with getting used to situations or acting out of routine. To be sure, a single action is not enough for a good operative habit to take root, to shape our way of being and make it easier for us to do good. Habits are formed thanks to repeated actions: we become good by being good. To act once and again upon the resolution of getting down to study at a set time, for example, renders every successive effort a little less costly. But we need to persevere in this effort in order to preserve the habit of study, or otherwise it might be lost.

Renewing our spirit

Virtues, both human and supernatural, direct us towards the good, towards the attainment of our deepest aspirations. They help us reach true happiness, union with God: This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.[16] They make it easier to act in accord with moral precepts, which are no longer seen as rules to follow but as a path leading to Christian perfection, to identification with Christ in the life marked out by the beatitudes. The beatitudes, a portrait of Christ’s face, “speak of basic attitudes and dispositions in life”[17] that lead us to eternal life.

The path of growth in Christian life then opens up before us, as Saint Paul exhorts: Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.[18] Grace transforms the way we judge events and gives us new criteria for action. We gradually learn to adjust our way of seeing things to God’s will, expressed also in the moral law. And then we come to love moral goodness, a holy life, and taste what is good and acceptable and perfect.[19] We reach Christian maturity in our moral and emotional life, which helps us to readily appreciate what is really noble, true, just and beautiful, and to reject sin, which offends the dignity of God’s children.

Liturgy. —The various Christian liturgies are described each under its own name. (See Alexandrine Liturgy; Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite; Antiochene Liturgy; Celtic Rite; Clementine Liturgy. treated in Pope Saint Clement I; Rite of Constantinople. Gallican Rite; Liturgy of Jerusalem; Mozarabic Rite; Sarum Rite; Syrian Rite, East; Syro-Jacobite Liturgy.) 

So in Christian use liturgy meant the public official service of the Church, that corresponded to the official service of the Temple in the Old Law. We must now distinguish two senses in which the word was and is still commonly used. These two senses often lead to confusion. On the one hand, liturgy often means the whole complex of official services, all the rites, ceremonies, prayers, and sacraments of the Church, as opposed to private devotions. In this sense we speak of the arrangement of all these services in certain set forms (including the canonical hours, administration of sacraments, etc.), used officially by any local church, as the liturgy of such a church—the Liturgy of Antioch, the Roman Liturgy, and so on. So liturgy means rite; we speak indifferently of-the Byzantine Rite or the Byzantine Liturgy. In the same sense we distinguish the official services from others by calling them liturgical; those services are liturgical which are contained in any of the official books (see Liturgical Books) of a rite. In the Roman Church, for instance, Compline is a liturgical service, the Rosary is not. The other sense of the word liturgy, now the common one in all Eastern Churches, restricts it to the chief official service only—the Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist, which in our rite we call the Mass. This is now practically the only sense in which Xe rovpyta is used in Greek, or in its derived forms (e.g., Arabic alliturgiah) by any Eastern Christian. When a Greek speaks of the “Holy Liturgy” he means only the Eucharistic Service. For the sake of clearness it is perhaps better for us too to keep the word to this sense, at any rate in speaking of Eastern ecclesiastical matters; for instance, not to speak of the Byzantine canonical hours as liturgical services. Even in Western Rites the word “official” or “canonical” will do as well as “liturgical” in the general sense, so that we too may use Liturgy only for the Holy Eucharist. It should be noted also that, whereas we may speak of our Mass quite correctly as the Liturgy, we should never use the word Mass for the Eucharistic Sacrifice in any Eastern rite. Mass (missa) is the name for that service in the Latin Rites only. It has never been used either in Latin or Greek for any Eastern rite. Their word, corresponding exactly to our Mass, is Liturgy. The Byzantine Liturgy is the service that corresponds to our Roman Mass; to call it the Byzantine (or, worse still, the Greek) Mass is as wrong as naming any other of their services after ours, as calling their Hesperinos Vespers, or their Orthros Lauds. When people go even as far as calling their books and vestments after ours, saying Missal when they mean Euchologion, alb when they mean sticharion, the confusion becomes hopeless. 

Sacraments, outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification (Catechismus concil. Trident., II, n. 4, ex S. August “De catechizandis rudibus”). The subject may be treated under the following headings: (I) The necessity and the nature of a sacramental system. (II) The nature of the sacraments of the new law. (III) The origin (cause) of the sacraments. (IV) The number of the sacraments. (V) The effects of the sacraments. (VI) The minister of the sacraments. (VII) The recipient (subject) of the sacraments. 

1. In Sacred Scripture we find expressions which clearly indicate that the sacraments are more than mere signs of grace and faith: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John, iii, 5); “He saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost” (Tit., iii, 5); “Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost” (Acts, viii, 17); “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed” (John, vi, 55, 56). These and similar expressions (see articles on each sacrament) are, to say the least, very much exaggerated if they do not mean that the sacramental ceremony is in some sense the cause of the grace conferred.

2. Tradition clearly indicates the sense in which they have been interpreted in the Church. From the numerous expressions used by the Fathers we select the following: “The Holy Ghost comes down from heaven and hovers over the waters, sanctifying them of Himself, and thus they imbibe the power of sanctifying” (Tertullian, De bapt., c. iv.). “Baptism is the expiation of sins, the remission of crimes, the cause of renovation and regeneration” (St. Gregory of Nyssa, “Orat. in Bapt.”). “Explain to me the manner of nativity in the flesh and I will explain to you the regeneration of the soul….Throughout, by Divine power and efficacy, it is incomprehensible: no reasoning, no art can explain it” (ibid.). “He that passes through the fountain [baptism] shall not die but rises to new life” (St. Ambrose, De sacr., I, iv). “Whence this great power of water”, exclaims St. Augustine, “that it touches the body and cleanses the soul?” (Tr. 80 in Joann). “Baptism“, writes the same Father, “consists not in the merits of those by whom it is administered, nor of those to whom it is administered, but in its own sanctity and truth, on account of Him who instituted it” (Cont. Cres., IV). The doctrine solemnly defined by the Council of Trent had been announced in previous councils, notably at Constantinople (381; Symb. Fid.), at Mileve (416; can. ii) in the Second Council of Orange (529; can. xv); and in the Council of Florence (1439; Deer. pro. Armen., see Denzinger-Bannwart, nn. 86, 102, 200, 695). The early Anglican Church held fast to the true doctrine: “Baptism is not only a sign of profession and a mark of difference, whereby christened men are discerned from those that be not christened, but is also a sign of regeneration or New-Birth, whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the church” (Art. XXVII).

3. Theological Argument: If baptism does not confer grace ex opere operato, but simply excites faith, then we may ask: (1) Of what use would this be if the language used be not understood by the recipient, i.e. an infant or an adult that does not understand Latin? In such cases it might be more beneficial to the bystanders than to the one baptized. (2) In what does the baptism of Christ surpass the baptism of John, for the latter could excite faith? Why were those baptized by the baptism of John rebaptized with the baptism of Christ? (Acts, xix). (3) How can it be said that baptism is strictly necessary for salvation since faith can be excited and expressed in many other ways? 

The seven sacraments are baptism, confirmation, Holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony. The encyclopedia entry below dives deep into all of the sacraments, explaining their nature, their origin, their number, and much more.

Husband and wife are called to sanctify their married lifeand to sanctify themselves in it. It would be a serious mistake if they were to exclude family life from their spiritual development. The marriage union, the care and education of children, the effort to provide for the needs of the family as well as for its security and development, the relationships with other persons who make up the community, all these are among the ordinary human situations that Christian couples are called upon to sanctify. (…)

The aim is this: to sanctify family life, while creating at the same time a true family atmosphere. Many Christian virtues are necessary in order to sanctify each day of one's life. First, the theological virtues, and then all the others: prudence, loyalty, sincerity, humility, industriousness, cheerfulness...

When the Church declares the sanctity of one of her daughters or sons, she highlights in a special way the mission to which she is called: namely, to lead to Heaven those she has engendered to a new life, through the action of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, every beatification or canonization is an occasion to rejoice for the People of God still journeying here on earth. 

The Fathers of the Church are so called because of their leadership in the early Church, especially in defending, expounding, and developing Catholic doctrines. For the first two centuries, most of these men were bishops, although in later years certain priests and deacons were also recognized as Fathers.

The list includes such notables as: Clement of Rome (d. A.D. 97), Ignatius (d. 110), Polycarp (d. 155), Justin Martyr (the Church’s first major lay apologist; d. 165), Irenaeus (d. 202), Cyprian (d. 258), Athanasius (d. 373), Basil (d. 379), Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), Ambrose (d. 397), John Chrysostom (d. 407), Jerome (d. 420), Augustine (d. 430), Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), Pope Leo the Great (d. 461), and Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604).

The Church demands four major characteristics to be exhibited in the life and works of an early Church leader if he is to be considered a Father of the Church. These are antiquity, meaning that he lived before the eighth century (the death of St. John Damascene [cir. A.D. 750] is generally regarded as the close of the age of the Fathers); doctrinal orthodoxy; personal sanctity; and approval by the Church.

For more reading on the church fathers, see our encyclopedia entry.