VirTrue - Helping Man Grow in Truth and Virtue

Jethro Higgins
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VirTrue is a journey into the truth of who man is and how he’s meant to live. The root of “virtue” is vir—Latin for man. Before virtue meant moral excellence, virtus meant manliness, valor, strength. We can make it mean that again. As Christians bringing truth to the world, let’s model what a real man ought to be—not vicious, but virtuous. Let’s dive in together, and let iron sharpen iron. socialcatholic.substack.com

  1. 19h ago

    The Virtue of Fidelity (Fidelitas) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 49

    You said you would. Maybe you said it standing at an altar. Maybe you said it at the baptismal font. Maybe you made a promise to your children, your friend, your employer, your religious superior, or simply to God in the silence of prayer. At the moment we make a promise, keeping it can seem easy. Then time passes. Circumstances change. The thing we promised becomes difficult. The person we promised disappoints us. Something better comes along. Or keeping our word begins to cost far more than we imagined when we gave it. That is when Fidelity becomes necessary. Because a promise reaches out of the present moment and places an obligation upon the person we will be tomorrow. The faithful man does what he said he would do. And that’s why Fidelity matters. 🎙️ Intro Welcome to VirTrue, the podcast about becoming a man of virtue and truth. We are continuing our season on Fortitude. We began with Rest, learning that we need to stop so that we can return to the good. Then Stability taught us to put down roots. Tolerance taught us to bear unavoidable evil without surrendering to it. Constancy taught us to stay the course when difficulties threaten to divert us. Now we come to Fidelity — Fidelitas. Fidelity takes another step. I am not merely continuing because the course remains good. I gave my word. I have pledged something of myself to God or another person, and Fidelity makes my actions correspond to that pledge. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! 🟨 Virtue Description What Fidelity is Fidelity is the virtue by which we remain true to God and faithfully fulfill the rightful promises and commitments we have made, making our deeds correspond to our word despite difficulty, delay, changing desire, or even the threat of suffering and death. St. Thomas Aquinas gives us the foundation. In the Summa Theologiae, while discussing vows, he writes: “For one to be accounted faithful one must keep one’s promises.” Aquinas connects fidelity with the agreement between what a man says and what he does. A promise is more than a statement about how I feel right now. When I promise something, I use reason and will to direct something that I myself will do in the future. In a sense, I give something now that will not be delivered until later. I give you my word. And Fidelity makes the future deed agree with that word. The Catechism makes the same connection: “Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a faithful God.” — CCC 2101 Baptism entails promises. Confirmation entails promises. Matrimony entails promises. Holy Orders entails promises. Religious life entails vows. And ordinary Christian life is filled with commitments in which we place some part of our future actions into the hands of another. 💍 Marriage Marriage gives us one of the clearest human pictures of Aquinas’s principle. A man and woman stand before God and give their consent to one another. They do something extraordinary. They take a future they cannot possibly know and bind themselves within it. They don’t know what sickness may come. They don’t know what financial difficulties may come. They don’t know how they will change. They don’t know what sacrifices their children may require. They don’t know what the other person will look like decades later. Yet each says: I take you. The Catechism describes marital consent as the human act by which the spouses mutually give themselves to one another. That consent binds them together. See CCC 1626–1627. Fidelity then makes the rest of their lives correspond to the word they gave. The Catechism describes married life as a continual growth in communion through: “day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving.” — CCC 1644 That’s Aquinas’s Fidelity made flesh. I said I would. Therefore, I do. But marriage points toward something greater. ❤️ God is faithful first Christian Fidelity does not begin with our faithfulness. It begins with God’s. “If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” — 2 Timothy 2:13 God’s deeds correspond perfectly to His word. He promises. He remembers His covenant. He fulfills what He has promised. Our Fidelity is an imitation of His Fidelity. 📜 Hosea and the unfaithful bride This is one of the great themes of salvation history. God describes His covenant with His people using the language of marriage. And then He tells Hosea to live that mystery in his own flesh. Hosea marries Gomer, an unfaithful wife. Her infidelity becomes an image of Israel. God chose His people. He loved them. He made covenant with them. And they continually gave themselves to other gods. Yet God says: “I will betroth you to me forever.” And: “I will betroth you to me with fidelity, and you shall know the LORD.” — Hosea 2:21–22 Salvation history is the story of a faithful God pursuing an unfaithful people and teaching them what Fidelity looks like. Again and again, we fail to keep faith with Him. Again and again, He demonstrates His Fidelity to us. ✝️ The Bridegroom Then Christ comes. And He identifies Himself as the Bridegroom. “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” — Matthew 9:15 John the Baptist says: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.” — John 3:29 The God who called Israel His bride has come to claim His Bride. And Christ remains faithful to her even when that Fidelity leads Him to the Cross. St. Paul tells husbands: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her.” — Ephesians 5:25 Then Paul tells us: “This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.” — Ephesians 5:32 Christian marriage therefore reveals something much larger than itself. The faithful husband points toward the faithful Bridegroom. 🪔 The Ten Virgins Jesus gives us another image of Fidelity in Matthew 25. Ten virgins are waiting for the Bridegroom. All ten begin. All ten have lamps. All ten are invited to the wedding. But the Bridegroom is delayed. And only five are prepared when He finally arrives. That delay matters. Fidelity isn’t demonstrated merely by beginning. The question is whether we will still be faithful when the Bridegroom comes. The foolish virgins discovered at midnight that Fidelity cannot be improvised at midnight. The habits that keep the lamp burning have to be formed before the crisis arrives. And Scripture ends with the fulfillment of this entire story: “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” — Revelation 19:9 God keeps His promise all the way to the end. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Infidelity Infidelity is the failure to keep faith with a rightful promise or commitment, so that one’s actions cease to correspond to one’s pledged word. Aquinas explicitly describes the breaking of a vow as a kind of infidelity. Infidelity says: I gave my word then. But I don’t want to pay its cost now. This is why adultery is called infidelity. The evil isn’t merely sexual. It is covenantal. A promise was made. A person entrusted himself or herself to that promise. And now the deed contradicts the word. But marital infidelity is only one manifestation. We can be unfaithful to God. Unfaithful to our vocation. Unfaithful to our vows. Unfaithful to our children. Unfaithful to our friends. Unfaithful to legitimate responsibilities we freely accepted. Peter gives us a painful biblical example. At the Last Supper he tells Jesus: “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” — Matthew 26:35 Hours later: “I do not know the man.” — Matthew 26:72 His deed no longer corresponded to his word. Fear made the promise expensive. And Peter failed. That is Infidelity. Yet Peter’s story also gives us hope. Christ restores him. And the man who denied Christ before a servant girl would eventually give his life for Him. Infidelity does not have to have the last word. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Indiscretion Indiscretion is a disordered fidelity that clings to a promise, loyalty, or commitment without judging whether keeping it has become contrary to God, justice, truth, or a higher obligation. The indiscreet person says: “But I promised.” Sometimes those words are heroic. Sometimes they are an excuse for evil. Aquinas is clear that Fidelity does not require us to perform something evil merely because we promised to do it. An unlawful promise does not become lawful through Fidelity. You cannot promise to sin and then call committing that sin a virtue because you “kept your word.” 🩸 Herod and John the Baptist Herod gives us the perfect biblical example. At his birthday celebration, Herod makes a rash oath to Herodias’s daughter. He promises to give her whatever she asks. She asks for: the head of John the Baptist. Herod knows this is wrong. But Scripture tells us: “Because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he did not wish to break his word to her.” — Matthew 14:9 So John is killed. Herod keeps his promise. And sins by keeping it. Aquinas specifically uses this kind of case to explain why a promise or oath contrary to justice must not be fulfilled. That is Indiscretion. True Fidelity is always ordered toward the good. A lower loyalty cannot demand betrayal of a higher one. My fidelity to a friend cannot require me to lie. My fidelity to an employer cannot require me to cheat. My fidelity to my country cannot require injustice. My obedience to a superior cannot require sin. And my interpretation of a promise cannot outrank the truth. 💍 Marriage and Indiscretion This matters even in marriage. The Church teaches the indissolubility of a valid marriage. Difficulty does not dissolve a covenant. Unhappiness does not erase consent. Changing desire

    The Virtue of Fidelity (Fidelitas) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 49

  2. Sep 8

    The Virtue of Constancy (Constantia) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 48

    Have you ever made a good decision, only to watch it slowly become something else? This happens constantly in business. You identify the problem, establish the goal, make a plan, and start executing. Then comes scope creep. Someone wants to add one more feature. Another opportunity appears. A stakeholder has a different priority. Something shiny catches your attention. Six months later, everyone is working hard, but the project barely resembles the thing you originally set out to accomplish. The same thing happens in the spiritual life. We discern what is good. We choose it. Then life starts pushing us off course. Constancy is the virtue that keeps us directed toward the good when distractions, opposition, and changing circumstances threaten to divert us. Sometimes circumstances require us to adjust our course. The destination remains the same. We have to Veer True. And that’s why Constancy matters. 🎙️ Intro Welcome back to VirTrue, the podcast about becoming a man of virtue and truth. We are working our way through the virtue of Fortitude. We began with Rest, which gives us the repose necessary for right action. Stability roots us where we have been called. Tolerance enables us to bear difficulties without abandoning the good. Now we come to Constancy, the virtue that keeps those difficulties from knocking us off course. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! 🛡️ Virtue Description St. Thomas Aquinas treats Constancy alongside Perseverance in the Summa Theologiae. He says: “Perseverance and constancy agree as to end, since it belongs to both to persist firmly in some good.” The difference is the source of difficulty. For Perseverance, the difficulty comes from duration. We have been pursuing the good for a long time. Constancy deals with what Aquinas calls external hindrances. Something enters our path and pressures us to change course. Hugh of St. Victor connects Constancy with charity. He describes Constancy as love strengthened to endure adversity. We remain directed toward the good because we continue to love the good even when pursuing it becomes difficult. St. Bernard helps us see that this firmness remains subject to reason and obedience. Prudence may discover that circumstances require a course correction while Constancy keeps us directed toward the good. Think of a navigator. Wind and current constantly push a ship away from its destination. The navigator makes corrections because he knows where he is going. St. James uses the same image for the man who lacks firmness: “The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.” He goes on to call him: “a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.” That’s James 1:6–8. Constancy keeps the destination before us so that every changing wind does not determine where we are going. 🧩 Constancy and the other endurance virtues We have already covered several virtues that can sound similar. * Patience keeps sorrow from driving us away from the good. * Longsuffering sustains us when the good we hope for remains far away. * Tolerance enables us to bear a present difficulty without rebelling against it or surrendering to it. * Constancy keeps external pressures and distractions from diverting us from our purpose. * Perseverance, which we will cover later, carries us through the particular difficulty created by continuing for a long time. Aquinas says that Constancy shares something with both Patience and Perseverance. External obstacles often cause sorrow, which brings Constancy close to Patience. Its purpose is to persist firmly in the good, which brings it closer to Perseverance. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Distraction What it is Distraction is allowing secondary concerns, external pressures, or attractive alternatives to divert us from a good purpose that reason has already chosen. Distraction can look productive. You can be busy all day and still neglect the thing you were supposed to accomplish. You can accept every good opportunity that comes along until you no longer have time for your actual vocation. You can add so many worthy goals to a project that the original goal disappears. This is scope creep in the moral life. The distracted man continually reacts to whatever is immediately in front of him. His attention begins determining his direction. 🗣️ What Distraction sounds like * “While we’re doing this, we might as well add this too.” * “This new opportunity is too good to pass up.” * “Everyone else seems to be doing it this way now.” * “I’ll get back to the original plan once I deal with this.” * “Maybe we should change direction again.” A series of small deviations can eventually lead somewhere we never intended to go. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Obstinacy What it is Obstinacy is an unreasonable attachment to one’s chosen course that refuses correction even when reason shows that a change is necessary. The obstinate man becomes attachThe Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today.ed to the plan itself. He may have made the original decision prudently. New facts emerge. Circumstances change. Someone offers legitimate correction. Yet changing course feels like weakness or defeat. A captain who refuses to adjust his heading for wind and current will miss the harbor. Constancy requires humility. We remain firm in the good while Prudence continually judges how that good should be pursued. 🗣️ What Obstinacy sounds like * “We already made the decision.” * “I’m not changing my mind.” * “We’ve always done it this way.” * “I don’t care what the numbers say.” * “Changing course now would make us look weak.” Sometimes staying true requires turning the wheel. 👤 My Life I see Constancy most clearly in business. Good organizations make decisions for reasons. We identify a problem, determine what success looks like, and build a strategy for getting there. Then everyone starts having ideas. Some of those ideas are good. That’s what makes scope creep dangerous. Every addition can be defended on its own. But every additional priority competes for the same finite time, money, and attention. I’ve seen projects become bloated because we kept saying yes to good ideas without asking whether those ideas served the purpose of the project. I’ve done the same thing in my own life. There are always more things I could build, more projects I could start, more opportunities I could pursue. Constancy forces me to return to the question: What did I discern that I was supposed to be doing? Then I can judge the new opportunity according to the mission rather than allowing the opportunity to redefine the mission. That is what it means to Veer True. 🌎 The World Our culture is engineered for distraction. * Every notification asks us to redirect our attention. * Every news cycle presents another emergency. * Every platform has something new to watch. * Every organization discovers another initiative worth pursuing. * Every family has another activity available. We can spend our entire lives responding to things that were never part of our calling. Jesus tells Martha: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.” Martha is busy. She is doing things that need to be done. But the many things have distracted her from the one thing that matters most in that moment. We can fill our lives with good things while neglecting the good God has actually placed before us. Constancy gives our attention a destination. ⛵ Example Saint: St. Brendan the Navigator St. Brendan of Clonfert was born in Ireland around the year 484 and died around 577. He became an abbot and one of the great figures of early Irish monasticism. Brendan is best remembered as St. Brendan the Navigator because of the famous voyage preserved in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani. The story tells of Brendan setting sail with a group of monks in search of the Promised Land of the Saints. The sea offered no road. There were winds, currents, storms, islands, dangers, delays, and unexpected encounters. The voyage became one of medieval Christianity’s great images of pilgrimage. A navigator has to know two things: * Where am I trying to go? * Where is the wind actually taking me? Knowing the destination allows him to correct his course. ✨ Why he fits Brendan gives us a physical image of Constancy. The Christian knows his destination, but the world continually exerts pressure on the rudder. Sometimes we hold our course. Sometimes Prudence tells us to adjust our heading. Constancy keeps us directed toward the destination through both. * Brendan was a real sixth-century Irish monk, abbot, and monastic founder. * The Navigatio was written generations after his lifetime. * Its fantastic voyage stories belong to the hagiographical tradition surrounding Brendan rather than contemporary historical records. * That tradition gives us a powerful Christian image: a man crossing an unpredictable sea while remaining directed toward his destination. Keep your eyes on the destination. Read the winds. Correct your course. Veer True. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! 🙏 Act of Constancy O my God, I believe that You are the source of every good and the end toward which my life is directed. I will remain firm in the good You have given me to pursue. I will resist distractions that draw me away from my duty. I will receive correction when Prudence requires me to change course. When the winds of this world push me aside, give me the grace to Veer True and remain directed toward You. Amen. ✝️ Closing Prayer Lord, bless us with faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice th

    The Virtue of Constancy (Constantia) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 48

  3. Sep 1

    The Virtue of Tolerance (Tolerantia) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 47

    There are things in this life that you cannot fix. People you cannot change. Suffering you cannot escape. Injustice you cannot immediately overcome. Sometimes the Christian response is to fight. Sometimes it is to flee. But sometimes God asks us to remain in the presence of something difficult without allowing it to change who we are. That is harder than it sounds. Because suffering does something to us. Spend enough time around bitterness, and you can become bitter. Spend enough time around anger, and you can become angry. Spend enough time surrounded by sin, and what once horrified you can slowly begin to seem normal. Or perhaps you never get that far. Perhaps the burden itself makes you angry. You complain. You resent it. You begin asking why you should have to put up with this. Tolerance stands between these two failures. It does not pretend that evil is good. It does not require us to approve of what is wrong. It is the strength to bear what must presently be borne without allowing either the burden or the darkness surrounding us to separate us from the good. And that’s why Tolerance matters. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! 🎙️ Introduction Welcome back to VirTrue, where we are learning how to become saints by cultivating virtue and overcoming vice. Last time we talked about Stability: the virtue that roots us in the good when circumstances tempt us to move simply because moving would be easier. But staying is only the beginning. Because once you remain where God has placed you, you discover something. Remaining there can hurt. The difficult person is still difficult. The illness still hurts. The work remains exhausting. The culture around you may remain hostile to what you believe. The temptation does not necessarily disappear simply because you decided not to run from it. That is where Tolerance, or Tolerantia, enters. Stability teaches us to remain. Tolerance teaches us to bear what remaining costs. 🌾 Virtue Description: Tolerance Tolerance is the virtue by which a person willingly bears present difficulty, suffering, or evil without allowing it to drive him away from the good. The Catechism gives us the larger virtue to which Tolerance belongs: “Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1808 That is exactly where we find Tolerance. Hugh of St. Victor helps us break the broad virtue of Fortitude into the different strengths we need when facing difficulty. One of those is Tolerantia. The important word here is bear. Tolerance does not necessarily overcome the difficulty. It does not necessarily remove it. Sometimes the difficult thing remains exactly where it is. Tolerance carries the weight without surrendering the good. That distinguishes Tolerance from the other virtues we will encounter as we move through Fortitude. Stability keeps us from abandoning our place simply because somewhere else appears easier. Tolerance bears the difficulty we encounter once we remain. Constancy will keep us steady when opposition attempts to push us from our course. Fidelity will keep us true to what we have promised. Perseverance will carry the good work through to completion. But Tolerance is simpler. Something is difficult, and I bear it. This is also why Christian tolerance cannot mean moral indifference. We only tolerate something when there is something objectionable about it. You do not tolerate a beautiful sunset. You enjoy it. You do not tolerate your best friend’s company. You delight in it. Tolerance exists because some difficulty, inconvenience, suffering, fault, or evil is present which we would ordinarily prefer were not there. But there is some greater good that makes bearing it worthwhile. A father tolerates exhaustion to care for his children. A missionary tolerates hostility because he desires the salvation of the people who oppose him. A Christian tolerates ridicule rather than deny Christ. A husband tolerates an irritating habit in his wife because preserving peace is worth more than getting his preference. We bear the lesser difficulty for the sake of the greater good. That means Tolerance has limits. There are things we should confront. There are situations we should leave. There are injustices we are obligated to correct. There are temptations Scripture tells us to flee. Tolerance does not mean allowing every evil to continue indefinitely. Prudence determines what ought to be done about the evil. Tolerance gives us the strength to bear the evil while it must be borne. St. Paul tells the Colossians: “Bear with one another and forgive one another.” — Colossians 3:13 Notice what Paul does not say. He does not tell us that the faults of others are not faults. He tells us to bear with them. That is Tolerance. The fault remains a fault. The burden remains a burden. The suffering remains suffering. But the good is greater. And because the good is greater, I can bear the burden without allowing the burden to determine what I do. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Murmuring Murmuring is the refusal to bear a necessary burden peacefully, allowing discomfort or suffering to produce resentment, complaint, and interior rebellion against the good. Murmuring is not simply saying: “This hurts.” Christianity does not require us to pretend suffering is pleasant. Christ Himself prayed in Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” — Matthew 26:39 There is nothing sinful about recognizing the weight of a cross. Murmuring begins when: “This is difficult” becomes: “I should not have to endure this.” That is the voice of murmuring. Scripture gives us one of the clearest examples in Israel wandering through the desert. God had liberated His people from slavery. He was leading them toward the Promised Land. But the road between slavery and promise was difficult. They became hungry. Thirsty. Tired. And they murmured. Again and again, their discomfort caused them to forget what God had already done and distrust where He was leading them. Eventually Egypt itself began to look attractive. Think about that. They had been slaves. But suffering in freedom made slavery begin to look good. That is what murmuring can do. The present burden becomes so large that we lose sight of the good for which we are bearing it. We do this constantly. Why do I always have to be the patient one? Why should I have to deal with this person? Why can’t my life just be easier? Why does God keep asking this of me? Sometimes those questions express genuine sorrow. But repeated often enough, they can become interior rebellion. And this is why the Benedictine tradition takes murmuring so seriously. A monastery cannot survive if every inconvenience becomes an occasion for resentment. Neither can a family. Neither can a parish. Neither can a friendship. Neither can a Christian soul. The murmurer may still perform the outward duty. He may stay at his post. He may do what he has been asked. But inwardly he has begun rejecting the burden God has permitted him to carry. Murmuring takes something that could have become an offering of love and transforms it into resentment. Tolerance says: “This is difficult, but the good is worth the burden.” Murmuring says: “This burden should not be mine.” ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Capitulation Capitulation is the surrender of the good to the evil being tolerated, when endurance gradually becomes acceptance, cooperation, or submission. This is particularly important because our culture talks constantly about tolerance. But what the world frequently calls tolerance is actually Capitulation. True tolerance assumes disagreement. I can tolerate something precisely because I believe there is something objectionable about it. If we completely agree, neither of us is tolerating the other. There is nothing to tolerate. But worldly tolerance often demands something more. First: Permit this. Then: Do not criticize this. Then: Accept this. Then: Affirm this. Eventually: Celebrate this. And refusing to make that final step is itself labeled intolerance. That is not tolerance. That is Capitulation. Christian Tolerance says: “I can bear your error without ceasing to love you or ceasing to call it error.” Capitulation says: “In order to prove that I love you, I must eventually stop calling it error.” And Capitulation does not happen only in the culture. It happens inside us. We can spend enough time around a particular sin that it stops shocking us. We can tolerate a temptation instead of resisting it until eventually we begin negotiating with it. We can remain silent because speaking is uncomfortable. Then remain silent because speaking might cost us something. Then eventually convince ourselves there was never anything worth saying. The darkness slowly changes us. That is the danger. Christian Tolerance allows us to enter darkness without allowing the darkness to enter us. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. He did not become a tax collector or sinner. He loved sinners without affirming sin. He endured hatred without becoming hateful. He endured injustice without becoming unjust. He endured violence without allowing violence to determine who He was. That is Tolerance. Sometimes love requires bearing. Sometimes love requires confronting. Sometimes love requires leaving. Prudence determines which. But the moment we surrender the good itself merely because holding onto it has become costly, we have ceased tolerating the darkness. We have capitulated to it. Tolerance says: “The darkness may surround me, but it will not determine who I become.” 👨 My Life * Born in Eugene Oregon * Demanding Tolerance as a tactic * Virtue is something God demands of us not something we demand from eachother * We should encourage others toward virtue, and tolerate them

  4. Aug 25

    The Virtue of Stability (Stabilitas) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 46

    We live in a culture that makes leaving remarkably easy. Don’t like your job? Find another one. Don’t like your town? Move. Don’t like your parish? Find one that suits you better. Don’t like the community around you? Build a new one online. Don’t like the person you’ve become? Reinvent yourself. Sometimes leaving is exactly what we should do. Sometimes God Himself tells us to go. But there’s a danger in becoming so accustomed to movement that we never remain anywhere long enough to put down roots. A tree that is continually transplanted never grows very tall. Our families need roots. Our communities need roots. Our parishes need roots. Our spiritual lives need roots. And yet Christianity isn’t a religion of staying safely where we are. God told Abraham to leave his country and his father’s house. He led Israel through the wilderness by a cloud. He called fishermen away from their nets. And centuries later, He called a former slave named Patrick to leave the safety of his home and return to the island where he had been imprisoned. The question isn’t simply whether we stay or whether we go. The question is: What is moving us? Are we being moved by reason and the call of God? Or are we being tossed around by every dissatisfaction, desire, fear, opportunity, and interior movement that passes through our hearts? And that’s why Stability matters. 🎙️ Intro Welcome back to VirTrue, the podcast where we explore the virtues that make us more fully human and more perfectly conformed to Christ. We are continuing our season on Fortitude. Last time, we began with Rest — Requies: learning to cease from activity when reason tells us that it is time to rest. Now we take the next step. Because once we have learned to stop, we have to learn how to stay. Today we’re talking about the virtue of Stability — Stabilitas. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! 🌳 Virtue Description: Stability What it is Stability is the virtue that roots us firmly in the good, so that we are not moved without sufficient reason, yet remain ready to move when reason and the will of God require it. Stability is not immobility. It is rightly ordered rootedness. St. Thomas Aquinas gives us an important principle when discussing Fortitude: “It is requisite for every virtue to act firmly and immovably.” — Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 123, a. 2 Virtue has a kind of firmness to it. If I choose the good only for as long as I feel enthusiastic about it, the good has not yet become firmly established in me. If every inconvenience causes me to reconsider my commitments, I am not rooted. Scripture gives us a beautiful image of this in Psalm 1. The righteous man is: “like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season.” — Psalm 1:3 Notice that the tree bears fruit because it is planted. Roots take time. We cannot continually pull a tree out of the ground, carry it somewhere else, replant it, pull it up again, and expect it to flourish. The same is true of human beings. We put down roots in families. We put down roots in parishes. We put down roots in neighborhoods and communities. We inherit cultures and traditions. We develop friendships. We establish patterns of prayer. We accept responsibilities. And by remaining, those things begin to form us. St. Paul uses precisely this imagery when he tells the Colossians to remain: “rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith.” — Colossians 2:7 But Scripture also gives us the opposite image. St. James describes the person who lacks this firmness as: “a wave of the sea, driven and tossed about by the wind.” — James 1:6 And only two verses later he describes such a person as: “unstable in all his ways.” — James 1:8 That’s the contrast. The stable person is like a tree. The unstable person is like a wave. The tree can move. Its branches bend. It grows. It changes with the seasons. But it has roots. The wave goes wherever the forces acting upon it happen to send it. Stability does not mean never moving This distinction is essential. Sometimes God uproots us. One of the clearest examples is Abraham. God tells him: “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” — Genesis 12:1 Land. Extended family. Father’s house. These are precisely the things that ordinarily give a person roots. And God tells Abraham to leave them. Abraham’s stability is not demonstrated by refusing to leave. It is demonstrated by being sufficiently rooted in God that when God calls him somewhere else, Abraham goes. We see an even more complete image in Israel’s journey through the wilderness. In Numbers 9, the cloud of God’s presence rests over the tabernacle. When the cloud remains, Israel remains. Sometimes it remains for a day. Sometimes for a month. Sometimes longer. Israel waits. But when the cloud rises, the Israelites break camp and move. They don’t get to say: “We’re bored here. Let’s see what’s over the next hill.” But neither can they say: “We’ve finally gotten comfortable. We’re staying.” When God remains, they remain. When God moves them, they move. That is Stability. And it raises an enormously important question for the spiritual life: How do I know what is moving me? Scripture does not tell us to trust every interior impulse. St. John explicitly warns us: “Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God.” — 1 John 4:1 Not every interior movement of the heart is God’s prompting. Restlessness is not necessarily discernment. Dissatisfaction is not necessarily vocation. Excitement is not necessarily inspiration. Fear is not necessarily a warning from God. Sometimes God really does say: Go. But until we have sufficient reason to believe that God is calling us somewhere else, Stability teaches us to remain faithful to the good already entrusted to us. Stability does not mean refusing to move. It means refusing to be moved by anything less than what ought to move us. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Inconstancy — Inconstantia What it is Inconstancy is the failure to remain rooted in a good commitment because we allow lesser desires, fears, frustrations, attractions, or interior movements to uproot us. The inconstant person is always moving. Sometimes physically. Sometimes spiritually. Sometimes intellectually. Sometimes relationally. There is always another possibility. Another parish. Another community. Another job. Another spirituality. Another plan. Another version of ourselves. The problem is not that any particular change is necessarily wrong. The problem is that we never remain anywhere long enough to become rooted. We begin to interpret every discomfort as evidence that something must change. Our parish disappoints us, so we leave. Our community becomes difficult, so we withdraw. Family obligations become inconvenient, so we distance ourselves. Prayer becomes dry, so we search for another devotion. A commitment loses its novelty, so we begin looking for the next thing. And because Christians know that God sometimes calls people to change direction, we can even spiritualize our Inconstancy. “I just feel called somewhere else.” Perhaps we are. But perhaps we’re simply restless. This is why Scripture tells us to test the spirits. The stable person doesn’t refuse to listen to interior movements. He judges them. He asks whether this movement deserves to move him. Inconstancy skips that judgment. Like the wave St. James describes, it allows whatever wind is presently blowing to determine its direction. And eventually the inconstant person discovers something tragic: A life spent continually searching for better soil never develops roots deep enough to bear fruit. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Stagnation — Stagnatio What it is Stagnation is an excessive attachment to our present place, habits, identity, or way of life that causes us to resist legitimate growth or movement when reason and God call us onward. Stability is not stubborn immobility. Roots exist for growth. A tree that is rooted but no longer growing is not flourishing. The stagnant person can take something genuinely good—home, tradition, routine, community, even a particular understanding of his relationship with God—and make remaining there absolute. “This is where I belong.” “This is how I’ve always done it.” “This is just who I am.” “This is how I pray.” “God has never asked this of me before.” Stability says: I will not abandon the good simply because something else attracts me. Stagnation says: I will not leave even if I ought to. That’s why Abraham matters. If Abraham had confused Stability with never leaving home, he would have disobeyed God. That’s why Israel had to watch the cloud. Remaining yesterday did not prove that remaining today was God’s will. And that’s why Stability ultimately requires attentiveness to God. Sometimes holiness means putting down deeper roots. Sometimes holiness means allowing God to pull those roots out of the ground and plant us somewhere we never expected to be. 👤 My Life * I was recently on a podcast with Kolbe Studios discussing this topic. * Moving can prevent us from putting down roots. * People can abandon their parishes rather than becoming rooted in them. * Moving can separate us from extended family and the relationships and obligations that give us roots. * We can also abandon the cultures and communities that provide us with a sense of rootedness. * At the same time, God often calls us out of our comfort zone. * St. Patrick is an example that has been on my mind: God called him to return to the island where he had once been imprisoned. * God does not always call us to remain in our current location. * He also does not always call us to remain in our current under

  5. Aug 18

    The Virtue of Rest (Requies) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 45

    We live in a culture that doesn’t know how to rest. Some of us are always working. If we’re not working, we’re checking email, scrolling our phones, listening to something, planning the next project, or worrying about everything we haven’t finished. Others have made rest into something entirely different. “I need to protect my peace.” “I need some me time.” “I deserve this.” Rest becomes another appetite to satisfy. We arrange our lives around comfort and call it self-care. Neither of these is true rest. The Christian life has always understood that there is a time for work and a time for leisure. There is a time to labor for the good and a time simply to receive the goodness that God has already given us. True rest is not laziness. And it is not merely recovering so that we can become productive again. It is the ability to cease from labor when reason tells us that labor should cease, to enjoy creation, friendship, family, beauty, celebration, contemplation, and worship without needing them to accomplish anything. Our work does not sustain the universe. Our comfort is not the purpose of the universe. We can simply receive. And that’s why Rest matters. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today. 🎙️ Intro Welcome back to VirTrue, where we are learning how to become saints by cultivating virtue and overcoming vice. Today we begin our journey through the season of Fortitude with a virtue that might seem like a strange place to start: Rest. In Latin, Requies. We normally associate Fortitude with action. Stand up. Fight. Endure. Keep going. But before we can learn when to keep going, we have to learn when to stop. A person who cannot stop working is not necessarily courageous. A person who cannot put down his phone is not free. A person who needs constant stimulation is not at peace. And a person who makes his own comfort the measure of everything is not truly resting either. Fortitude requires self-possession. And one of the first signs that we possess ourselves is that we can work when it is time to work and rest when it is time to rest. 🛏️ The Virtue of Rest — Requies What it is Rest is the virtue by which we cease from labor according to reason and enter into true leisure, receiving the goods of contemplation, recreation, celebration, relationship, and worship, while remaining ready to return to labor when the good requires it. St. Thomas Aquinas does not formally list Requies among the potential parts of Fortitude. But he gives us an important foundation for understanding it when he discusses recreation. In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas explains that just as the body becomes fatigued through physical labor, the soul also becomes weary through sustained activity. Human beings need recreation. There is nothing virtuous about pretending we do not have bodies, limits, emotions, or a need for refreshment. But Aquinas insists that recreation must still be governed by reason. There is a proper time. A proper manner. A proper amount. That distinction is essential. My sensible appetite can tell me: I’m tired. This couch feels good. I don’t want to do this anymore. I’d rather watch another episode. But appetite cannot determine what I ought to do. Prudence makes that judgment. Sometimes reason says: Keep working. Sometimes reason says: You’ve done enough. Go to bed. And virtue means being free enough to obey either judgment. This connects Rest directly to the virtues we’ve already explored. Temperance prevents our passions from ruling us. Prudence allows reason to recognize the proper time and measure of our actions. Rest puts that order into practice by allowing us to cease from labor without becoming slaves to comfort. But Christian rest goes beyond recuperation. The German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper argued in Leisure: The Basis of Culture that leisure cannot simply be understood as the time we use to recover so that we can get back to work. If the only purpose of rest is to make us better workers, then work still dominates our entire existence. True leisure allows us to enjoy things that do not need to be useful. We contemplate beauty. We make music. We play. We feast. We sit with friends. We enjoy our children. We read. We pray. We worship. These things don’t need to increase our productivity to justify their existence. They are good because they participate in the goodness of God’s creation. This is why true leisure ultimately opens toward worship. We stop producing long enough to receive. And in receiving, we remember that the world is God’s gift before it is our project. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Restlessness — Inquietudo What it is Restlessness is the inability to enter into genuine leisure because we remain driven toward activity, productivity, control, distraction, or stimulation even when reason tells us that it is time to rest. Restlessness doesn’t necessarily look like hard work. The workaholic can be restless. But so can the person who spends his entire evening scrolling through his phone. One is producing. The other is consuming. Neither knows how to be still. We finish one thing and immediately reach for another. There always needs to be another task, another video, another notification, another podcast, another project, another problem to solve. Silence becomes uncomfortable. Stillness becomes uncomfortable. Doing nothing makes us anxious. St. Augustine famously begins his Confessions with the recognition that: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” That takes Restlessness much deeper than poor time management. Our hearts are looking for somewhere to rest. And when they do not rest in God, they begin searching everywhere else. Achievement. Money. Recognition. Entertainment. Pleasure. Information. Novelty. Even religious activity can become a form of restlessness. We can become so busy doing things for God that we no longer know how to simply be with God. What it looks like * Feeling guilty whenever you aren’t accomplishing something. * Checking your phone every time there is an empty moment. * Being unable to sit in silence. * Filling every free moment with entertainment or stimulation. * Constantly starting new projects. * Taking work with you into family time. * Being physically present at recreation while mentally remaining at work. * Feeling as though everything depends upon you. Restlessness tells us: I must keep going. Rest reminds us: God remains God when I stop. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Delicacy What it is Delicacy is an excessive concern for one’s own comfort, repose, and perceived needs, by which sensible appetite rather than reason begins to determine when we rest and what inconvenience we are willing to endure. Our culture often disguises Delicacy beneath the language of self-care. Self-care itself is not evil. Sometimes you really do need sleep. Sometimes you need a vacation. Sometimes you need an evening away from work. Sometimes prudence tells you to say no. The problem begins when our own comfort becomes the standard by which we judge our obligations. “I need to protect my peace.” “I don’t have the bandwidth.” “I need to listen to my body.” “I need some me time.” Every one of those statements can be true. But they can also become ways of allowing our sensible appetite to make decisions that belong to reason. The delicate person gradually turns preferences into necessities. I need my routine. I need my sleep. I need my space. I need my food prepared this way. I need people to respect my boundaries. I need to decompress before I can deal with that. Eventually, life must arrange itself around our comfort before we are willing to give ourselves to it. That isn’t leisure. True leisure allows us to receive something outside ourselves. Delicacy continually directs our attention back toward ourselves. How do I feel? What do I need? Am I comfortable? Have I had enough time for myself? Rest receives. Delicacy consumes. What it looks like * Avoiding responsibilities because you “need a break.” * Treating discomfort as evidence that something is unhealthy. * Building increasingly elaborate conditions around sleep, food, recreation, or personal routines. * Resenting family obligations because they interrupt personal time. * Refusing reasonable sacrifices in order to preserve comfort. * Using “boundaries” to avoid ordinary demands of charity. * Calling indulgence “recovery.” * Allowing how you feel to determine whether you will fulfill your duties. Delicacy says: I need to be comfortable before I can give myself. Rest says: I will receive leisure when it is fitting and relinquish it when love requires me to act. 👤 My Life This distinction between leisure and work has become fundamental to the way I try to order my own life. I like to use the word Avodah for work. The Hebrew word can mean work, service, and worship. It’s more than just labor; Avodah encompasses a proper understanding of doing, all the acts we are called to do, the good works. Leisure is more about being. We are most like God when we recognize that creation is good and we rest like him on the 7th day. Work isn’t something we need to escape from. Work is good. God placed Adam in the garden to cultivate and care for it. But work is not the whole of human existence. Life requires a balance between Avodah and leisure. That balance is one of the reasons the Rule of St. Benedict has become so important to the way we order our family life. A good rule doesn’t exist to squeeze maximum productivity out of every hour. It gives everything its proper place. There is a time for prayer. A time for work. A time for study. A time for meals. A time for family. A time for celebration. A time for sleep. A time for leisure. We even named our homeschool St. Benedict Academy because I want that Benedictine balance to shape the way our children un

  6. Aug 11

    The Virtue of Temperance (Temperantia) a Part of Temperance - VirTrue Episode 44

    Some people think lasting happiness means saying “yes” to every desire. Others think it means saying “no” to every desire. Both are wrong. One person spends his life chasing comfort, pleasure, entertainment, and satisfaction until his passions become his master. Another spends his life trying to crush every natural desire through sheer force of will until he becomes the master of his passions. Neither is free. God did not create your body to rule your soul. But neither did He create your soul to wage war against your body. He created both to live in harmony under His loving design. Temperance is not the destruction of desire. It is the redemption of desire. It teaches us not merely to resist temptation, but to love rightly. Not merely to deny ourselves, but to receive God’s gifts with gratitude. Not merely to discipline the body, but to become the kind of person whose desires themselves have been transformed by grace. And that’s why Temperance matters. 🎙️ Intro Welcome back to VirTrue, where we are learning how to become saints by cultivating virtue and overcoming vice. Today we conclude our season on the cardinal virtue of Temperance. Over the past several episodes, we’ve explored the many ways God teaches us to govern our desires—not by destroying them, but by ordering them toward what is truly good. We’ve learned to hold the world lightly without despising God’s creation. We’ve learned to fast without becoming proud. To enjoy God’s gifts without becoming enslaved to them. To speak with wisdom. To suffer willingly. To discern rightly. To mortify the flesh without hating the body. Today we step back to see the whole picture. Because Temperance is much bigger than food, drink, or self-control. It is the beautiful harmony of a soul whose passions have learned to love what God loves. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! 🌾 What is Temperance? Temperance is the cardinal virtue that moderates our attraction to sensible pleasures according to right reason enlightened by grace. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that temperance restrains those desires which most powerfully entice us away from reason—especially the pleasures connected to food, drink, sexuality, comfort, and the preservation of life. Yet he is equally clear that these pleasures are not evil. They are good because they were created by God. Sin does not consist in enjoying them but in enjoying them contrary to the order God established. The Catechism describes temperance as “the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods.” Notice that it does not say it removes pleasure. It orders pleasure. That is because Christianity rejects two opposite errors. The first says: Pleasure is the highest good. The second says: Pleasure itself is evil. Temperance rejects them both. The Christian neither worships creation nor despises it. He receives it. As Sacred Scripture tells us after every act of creation: “God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1) The problem has never been creation. The problem has always been our relationship to creation. Temperance restores that relationship. It teaches us to hunger rightly. To feast rightly. To rest rightly. To speak rightly. To suffer rightly. To rejoice rightly. Ultimately, temperance is not about saying “no.” It is about becoming free enough to say “yes” to every good gift exactly as God intended. Throughout this season we have seen how that freedom is cultivated. Contempt of the World taught us to hold earthly things lightly so that our hearts remain fixed on heaven. Fasting taught us that bodily appetites are wonderful servants but terrible masters. Silence taught us to discipline not only our stomachs but also our tongues, making room to hear the voice of God. Accommodation reminded us that love tempers our own preferences for the good of another. Sobriety taught us to receive created pleasures gratefully without surrendering our freedom to them. Mortification of the Flesh taught us to embrace voluntary sacrifice, not because the body is evil, but because love is worth suffering for. Discernment taught us to judge every desire wisely, neither acting impulsively nor analyzing endlessly, but choosing what leads us closer to Christ. Together these virtues form one beautiful whole. Temperance is not merely restraint. It is rightly ordered love. 🍖 Vice of Deficiency: Concupiscence Concupiscence is the disordered inclination to allow sensible desires to rule reason. After the Fall, our passions no longer naturally obey reason. We crave comfort. Pleasure. Recognition. Food. Ease. Security. None of these things are evil. They were all created by God. But when they become our masters, freedom disappears. Concupiscence does not merely seek pleasure. It enthrones pleasure. Every deficiency we studied this season ultimately flows from this one disorder. Gluttony. Drunkenness. Garrulity. Softness. Confusion. Each begins when the passions cease serving reason and begin ruling it. The temperate person is not someone without desires. He is someone whose desires have learned to obey reason, and whose reason has learned to obey Christ. 🪨 Vice of Excess: Autarchy Autarchy is the vice of claiming absolute lordship over oneself, attempting to govern one’s passions according to one’s own will rather than receiving and ordering them according to God’s design. If concupiscence says, “My passions will rule me.” Autarchy says, “I alone will rule my passions.” At first, this sounds like virtue. It looks disciplined. Serious. Holy. But beneath the surface lies the oldest temptation in history. “You will be like God.” The person consumed by Autarchy does not trust God’s ordering of human nature. He believes he can improve upon it. He writes his own rule. Defines his own holiness. Measures himself by standards of his own making. Instead of allowing grace to transform desire, he attempts to dominate desire by sheer force of will. He does not surrender his passions to God. He seizes lordship over them himself. This is why the excesses throughout our season shared a common thread. Scorn. Willfulness. Philautia. Affectation. Pharisaism. Misosomatia. Sophistry. Each claims an authority that belongs to God alone. Temperance rejects both slavery to desire and tyranny over the sensitive appetite. Reason does not crush the passions. It perfects them. 👨 My Life I mentioned when I lost my son and my job in the same year that I have a tendency to white-knuckle things and try to bring about “God’s plan” through my own efforts. My Celtic passions and my ADHD tend to drive me toward extremes. I’m either giving in to my sensitive appetites, or I am crushing them through my force of will. Prayerfully resting in the Lord’s will can be challenging for me. When it comes to resting in the Lord’s will, I think of myself like a bad golfer putting too hard and knocking the ball all the way to the other side of the green, or tapping it too softly multiple times in a row. It can be hard for me to feel just the right amount of effort. The further I am from contemplative prayer, the worse this dichotomy gets in me, and the closer I am to the Lord in contemplative prayer, the easier it is to find the right balance. When I feel myself leaning into the extremes in regard to temperance, I know I need to focus on hearing the Lord’s voice, not mine, in prayer. 🌎 The World Modern society usually assumes there are only two ways to live. Indulge yourself. Or suppress yourself. One side tells us to follow every desire because denying ourselves is unhealthy. The other tells us to master ourselves through discipline, optimization, and relentless self-control. Both begin with the same assumption. That you belong to yourself. The Gospel offers something radically different. Your body belongs to God. Your soul belongs to God. Your passions belong to God. The body and our passions are not accidents of the universe. They are not enemies. They are gifts. Our task is neither to be controlled by them nor to destroy them. Our task is to receive them, order them, and offer them back to the One who created them. The world seeks freedom by removing rules and limits. False religion seeks freedom by removing passions and desires. Christianity finds freedom through loving obedience to the will of God and his perfect design 👴 Example Saint: St. Benedict of Nursia Who he was St. Benedict was born around A.D. 480 in Nursia, Italy. Leaving behind the corruption of Rome, he sought God in solitude before gathering disciples around him at Monte Cassino. There he wrote The Rule of St. Benedict, a spiritual masterpiece that has guided monks, religious, clergy, and lay faithful for more than fifteen hundred years. Through its balance of prayer, work, humility, obedience, moderation, and charity, the Rule became one of the most influential documents in Christian history and helped preserve both the Faith and Western civilization after the fall of the Roman Empire. Why he fits At first glance, St. Benedict might seem to represent the very excess we have warned against. His monks fasted, kept silence, rose during the night to pray, embraced poverty, and lived under a detailed rule of life. But nothing could be further from Autarchy. Autarchy says: “I will determine my own path to holiness.” Benedict says: “Receive a rule.” The monk does not invent his own asceticism. He submits himself to one. Not because discipline saves him. Not because suffering earns holiness. But because obedience opens the heart to grace. One of the most beautiful and overlooked lines in the Rule comes in its Prologue where St. Benedict says he hopes to establish “nothing harsh or burdensome.” That surprises many people. The Rule is disciplined. But it is not despotic. Benedict und

  7. Aug 4

    The Virtue of Discernment (Discretio) a Part of Temperance - VirTrue Episode 43

    You have two opportunities before you. Both seem good. One promises success. The other promises sacrifice. One gives you peace. The other fills you with uncertainty. So which one is God’s will? Most people think discernment is about waiting for a sign or following a feeling. But feelings can deceive us. Even good desires can lead us astray. The saints teach that discernment is not about finding the most exciting path. It is about recognizing the path most in accord with truth and right reason. Without discernment, we mistake temptation for inspiration, fear for prudence, and pride for holiness. Discernment teaches us to distinguish truth from error, virtue from vice, and God’s voice from a world full of competing influences. And that’s why discernment matters. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, upgrade to a paid subscription today! 🎙️ Intro Welcome to VirTrue where we work together to turn away from vice, and to adopt the virtuous life we’re all called to. I’m your host Jethro Higgins. Today we continue our journey through the virtues of Temperance with the virtue of Discernment, or Discretio. When most Catholics hear the word “discernment,” they immediately think of discerning a vocation, discerning God’s will, or discerning spirits. Those are all important. But before discernment becomes something we do, it is first a virtue we must possess. It is the habit of judging rightly according to reason so that every thought, desire, and action remains properly ordered toward God. 📖 Virtue Description What it is Discernment (Discretio) is the virtue that judges according to right reason, recognizing the proper measure in our thoughts, desires, and actions so that every virtue remains rightly ordered toward God. When Catholics hear the word discernment, we often think about discerning a vocation, discerning spirits, or discerning an important life decision. Those are all important applications of discernment, but they are not the virtue itself. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that every moral virtue is governed by right reason. We become virtuous not by following our emotions or doing whatever seems good to us, but by acting in the manner and measure that reason directs. This is why Hugh of St. Victor places discernment among the virtues of Temperance. Temperance moderates our desires. Discernment recognizes what that moderation looks like. It keeps every virtue from being corrupted by confusion, pride, fear, or self-deception. This is also why the Church speaks about discerning spirits. When we discern spirits, we are asking whether an inspiration is truly consistent with God’s truth and the order established by right reason. Likewise, when we discern a course of action, we are not merely asking what we want to do. We ask: * Is this true? * Is this good? * Is this the proper action for this circumstance? * Does this lead me closer to God? Sometimes discernment reveals that something is sinful. More often, it helps us choose correctly between two good things by recognizing which one is most fitting here and now. Without discernment, even good works become disordered. Prayer becomes an escape from responsibility. Fasting becomes an occasion for pride. Mercy becomes permissiveness. Justice becomes cruelty. Silence becomes cowardice. Boldness becomes recklessness. Discernment preserves every virtue by keeping it within the measure established by right reason. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Confusion What it is Confusion is the inability to distinguish what ought to be distinguished. Rather than seeing reality as God has ordered it, the confused person blends together ideas, motives, and actions that should remain separate. Without clear distinctions, right judgment becomes impossible. What it looks like Confusion sounds like this: “Mercy means there should never be consequences.” “Love means I should never correct anyone.” “If I feel peaceful, this must be God’s will.” “If something is difficult, God must be closing the door.” The confused person mistakes feelings for truth, appearances for reality, and good intentions for good judgment. Discernment restores clarity by teaching us to distinguish according to truth rather than emotion. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Sophistry What it is Sophistry is the misuse of reason to justify what right reason already knows is wrong. Rather than seeking the truth, the sophist seeks an argument. He multiplies distinctions, exceptions, and technicalities until the obvious becomes obscure. He cannot see the forest for the trees. What it looks like Sophistry sounds like this: “Technically...” “That isn’t exactly what Jesus meant.” “The Church only teaches that in ordinary circumstances.” “My situation is different.” “God wants me to be happy.” The issue is not intelligence. The issue is that reason has stopped serving truth and has begun serving desire. Instead of allowing reason to correct his passions, the sophist uses reason to defend them. Discernment seeks the truth with simplicity. Sophistry buries the truth beneath clever arguments. 🙋 My Life I struggle with both vices. I second-guess myself quite a bit. I am suspect of my own motives. I wonder if I am fooling myself with sophistry. At the same time, I can be bogged down by confusion and fail to move into a decision with alacrity. I’ve found a lot of help with the Sainmaker Catholic Life Planner. The discernment pages have helped me to work through a number of decisions, and I find writing out your discernment is very helpful. 🌍 The World The modern world tells us to trust our feelings. It tells us that sincerity is more important than truth and that whatever feels authentic must be right. But feelings are not infallible. They can be shaped by fear, pride, anger, comfort, or temptation. Others respond in the opposite way. Instead of following their feelings, they become experts at explaining away the truth. Every commandment has an exception. Every sin has an excuse. Every uncomfortable teaching gets buried beneath endless qualifications. The Christian rejects both paths. He neither follows every feeling nor rationalizes every desire. Instead, he learns to judge according to truth, right reason, and the will of God. That is discernment. 😇 Example Saint: St. John Climacus Who is he? St. John Climacus spent nearly forty years living as a monk in the solitude of Mount Sinai before becoming the abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery. Drawing on decades of prayer, fasting, and spiritual direction, he wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, one of the greatest works of Christian spirituality ever written. In the twenty-sixth step of the Ladder, he teaches that discernment is the maturity of the spiritual life because it enables us to recognize God’s will in every circumstance while avoiding the subtle deceptions that accompany even good works. Why does he fit? St. John Climacus understood that Satan does not always tempt us with obvious evil. Sometimes he tempts us to perform good works for the wrong reasons. He tempts us toward excessive penances born of pride. He tempts us to excuse our sins through clever reasoning. He tempts us to mistake emotion for divine inspiration. Throughout his life, St. John taught Christians to distinguish truth from deception by remaining humble, seeking God’s will, and judging according to right reason. Help us spread virtue by upgrading to a paid subscription now! 🙏 Act of Discernment O my God, I desire with all my heart to seek Your truth above my own understanding. I am sorry for the times I have allowed confusion, pride, fear, or self-interest to cloud my judgment. Relying on the help of Your grace, I firmly resolve to seek Your will through prayer, Sacred Scripture, the teaching of Your Church, and wise counsel. I will judge my thoughts, words, and actions according to right reason, reject every false appearance of good, and faithfully choose whatever leads me closer to You. Grant me the wisdom to recognize the truth, the humility to accept correction, and the courage to follow wherever You lead. Amen. 🙏 Closing Prayer Lord, bless us with faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice that we may live as you intended man to live, in all virtue and righteousness. Help us to flee from sin, and avoid all temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Protect us with a spiritual hedge in front of us, behind us, above us, below us, to our right, and to our left, within us, and all around us, and seal it with the blood of your precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to keep you in everything that we think, say, and do. Amen. Go out and fill the world with virtue. Deus Vult! Follow Us on Social Media and Popular Podcast Networks: Get full access to The Social Catholic at socialcatholic.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jul 28

    The Virtue of Mortification of the Flesh (afflictio carnis) a Part of Temperance - VirTrue Episode 42

    You skip dessert because you’re dieting. You wake up early because you have to catch a flight. You endure the pain of training in order to run a marathon. The world understands suffering when it has a purpose. But mention voluntary sacrifice for the sake of holiness, and people think Christianity is about punishing yourself or hating your body. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian does not despise the body. He disciplines it. He does not seek suffering for suffering’s sake. He willingly embraces the small crosses that free him to love God more completely. And that’s why Mortification of the Flesh matters. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. 🎙️ Intro Welcome to VirTrue, where we work together to turn away from vice and to adopt the virtuous life we’re all called to. I’m your host Jethro Higgins. Today we continue our journey through the virtue of Temperance with Mortification of the Flesh. If fasting teaches us to govern our hunger, and sobriety teaches us to govern our use of intoxicants, then mortification teaches us to govern our attachment to comfort itself. The Christian life is not about escaping the body or punishing it. It is about placing every part of our lives, body and soul, under the loving lordship of Jesus Christ. 🌿 Virtue Description 📖 Sacred Scripture Luke 9:23 (NABRE) “Then he said to all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’” Jesus does not invite us to occasional sacrifice but to daily self-denial. Mortification is one of the practical ways Christians answer that invitation. Romans 8:13 (NABRE) “...if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” St. Paul is not calling us to destroy the body, but to put sinful desires to death so that we may truly live. 📜 Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 2015 “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes.” The Catechism teaches that mortification is not reserved for monks or mystics. It belongs to the ordinary path of Christian holiness. 🏛️ Magisterium Pope St. Paul VI, Paenitemini (1966) “The necessity of the mortification of the flesh stands clearly revealed... This exercise of bodily mortification... does not imply a condemnation of the flesh... On the contrary, mortification aims at the liberation of man.” The Church rejects two opposite errors. The first says the body should never be denied. The second says the body itself is evil. Christian mortification rejects both. The body is God’s good creation. We discipline it so it may become a better servant of the soul and a more faithful instrument of charity. 🧠 Aquinas & the Fathers St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that bodily mortification is always ordered toward a greater spiritual good. Speaking of fasting, he explains its purpose in a way that applies to all Christian mortification: “Fasting is practiced for a threefold purpose. First, in order to bridle the lusts of the flesh. Secondly, that the mind may arise more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things. Thirdly, in order to satisfy for sins.” Summa Theologiae II-II, q.147, a.1 John Cassian echoes this wisdom from the Desert Fathers. He teaches that fasting, vigils, and every bodily discipline must be governed by discretion, because the goal of mortification is not suffering itself but purity of heart. Even the greatest ascetical practices become obstacles to holiness when they are separated from right reason and charity. What it is Mortification of the Flesh is the habit of freely accepting or choosing bodily discomfort to subject the passions to reason, grow in holiness, and become more conformed to Christ. Why it fits Mortification disciplines the body without despising it. As Aquinas teaches, bodily discipline restrains disordered desires, frees the mind for God, and fosters repentance. The Desert Fathers remind us that every sacrifice must be governed by discretion so that the body is trained in virtue rather than treated as an enemy. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Softness (Mollities) What it is Softness is the unwillingness to endure hardship or deny oneself legitimate comforts for the sake of virtue. Why it opposes Mortification Rather than governing bodily desires, the soft person is governed by them. Every inconvenience is avoided. Every sacrifice is postponed. Comfort becomes the highest good. What it looks like * Complaining about minor inconveniences. * Skipping prayer because you’re tired. * Refusing to fast because it’s uncomfortable. * Always choosing the easiest path. * Avoiding any sacrifice that interrupts personal comfort. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Misosomatia (Hatred of the Body) What it is Misosomatia is the error of treating the body itself as evil, despising or punishing it as though suffering were the source of holiness. Why it opposes Mortification Christian mortification disciplines the body because it is good. Misosomatia despises the body because it mistakenly sees it as the source of evil. It turns sacrifice into an end instead of a means of growing in love. What it looks like * Believing suffering automatically makes a person holy. * Neglecting legitimate health out of contempt for the body. * Measuring holiness by the severity of one’s penances. * Pursuing bodily punishment instead of interior conversion. * Forgetting that charity, not suffering, is the measure of sanctity. 🙋 My Life When I was 17 and 18, I might have erred on the side of misosomatia, but my temptation, especially later in life, is toward softness. It’s much more tempting to slide into something that is more comfortable and less challenging than it is to accept a difficult penance. A really great experience for me that I highly recommend if you struggle with mortification is Exodus 90. There are similar programs centered on a female spirituality. 90 days of cold showers will certainly help rectify the temptation toward softness. My wife and I often rally each other to be disciplined and diligent, but oftentimes this looks like mortification. * Building a fence, a patio, a garden, rural life provides a lot of opportunities for physical mortification. Training the body to serve the mind through difficult manual labor. * Marriage in general is an opportunity to choose to suffer to improve your relationship: video games, alcohol, tobacco, “Me Time”, fishing, even work. 🌎 The World Modern culture tells us that comfort is the highest good. Every inconvenience should be eliminated. Every craving should be satisfied. Every discomfort should be medicated, distracted, or escaped. The Christian chooses something radically different. Not because suffering is good in itself, but because love often requires sacrifice. Parents lose sleep for their children. Spouses forgive when it’s difficult. Disciples carry crosses. But Christians also freely choose small acts of self-denial to train the heart in love. Taking the less comfortable seat, fasting on Fridays, choosing water instead of a favorite drink, turning off the radio for silent prayer, parking farther away, or giving up a small convenience all remind us that comfort is not our master. These voluntary sacrifices prepare us to faithfully accept the crosses we do not choose. Mortification does not make us less human. It makes us more free to love. 🌟 Example Saint: St. Peter of Alcántara (1499–1562) St. Peter of Alcántara was a Spanish Franciscan friar, reformer, and spiritual director renowned for his extraordinary life of prayer, poverty, and bodily mortification. His wisdom and holiness earned the admiration of St. Teresa of Ávila, whom he encouraged during her Carmelite reforms. Why he fits St. Peter embraced severe bodily discipline, yet he never treated suffering as an end in itself. Every sacrifice was ordered toward deeper union with Christ, greater humility, and more generous charity. His life reminds us that authentic mortification is measured not by how much we suffer, but by how completely our sacrifices are transformed by love. 🙏 Act of Virtue O my God, I will willingly embrace the ordinary sacrifices You place before me. I will choose discipline over comfort, gratitude over complaint, and obedience over ease. I will accept the small crosses of each day with love so that my body, mind, and soul may become more perfectly ordered to Your will. ✝️ Closing Prayer In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, bless us with faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice that we may live as You intended man to live, in all virtue and righteousness. Help us to flee from sin, and avoid all temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Protect us with a spiritual hedge in front of us, behind us, above us, below us, to our right, and to our left, within us, and all around us, and seal it with the Blood of Your precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to keep You in everything that we think, say, and do. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go out and fill the world with virtue. Deus Vult! Follow Us on Social Media and Popular Podcast Networks: Get full access to The Social Catholic at socialcatholic.substack.com/subscribe

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VirTrue is a journey into the truth of who man is and how he’s meant to live. The root of “virtue” is vir—Latin for man. Before virtue meant moral excellence, virtus meant manliness, valor, strength. We can make it mean that again. As Christians bringing truth to the world, let’s model what a real man ought to be—not vicious, but virtuous. Let’s dive in together, and let iron sharpen iron. socialcatholic.substack.com

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