Presentation on the grace and the virtues based mainly on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

1. GRACE AND THE VIRTUES BRINGING HUMANITY TO GREATER HEIGHTS

2. VIRTUES ARE GOOD HABITS Stable dispositions to perform good actions Plato and Aristotle handed down to us the philosophy of the natural virtues.

3. VIRTUES: SKILLS IN THE MORAL LIFE Virtues are cultivated by engaging in proper conduct on specific occasions (similar to other practical skills). CLUMSY GRACEFUL

4. “Human virtues…make possible ease, self‑mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life.” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1804 Fortitude Justice Prudence Temperance

6. “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command.” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 397 “As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called ‘concupiscence’).” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 418

7. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) “This vocation to eternal life is supernatural.”CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1998

8. SANCTIFYING GRACE “(T)he 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 OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1999 Also called habitual grace because it is a stable disposition which perfects the soul through the infusion of virtues, to make it capable of living with God, of acting through his love.

9. ACTUAL GRACES “God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2000

10. JUSTIFICATION The passing from the state of sin to the state of grace (or “of justice,” because grace makes us “just”). Takes place in baptism, and every time that God pardons our mortal sins and infuses sanctifying grace (ordinarily in the sacrament of Penance).

11. SANCTIFICATION An ever more intimate union with God CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2014 To become another Christ (see Romans 8:29), whose manifestation is in the virtues.

12. THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES “…dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity.” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1812

14. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.”JOHN 14:16-17

15. THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES

16. GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT “They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.”CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1831

17. UNDER STANDING FEAR OF THE LORD WISDOM Isaiah 11:1-10 KNOWLEDGE FORTITUDE COUNSEL PIETY

18. UNDERSTANDING Enables us to penetrate intuitively revealed truths, and even natural truths, so far as they are related to the supernatural end.

19. WISDOM Enables us to judge the things of God and the things of earth by divine standards, and to order our lives according to God’s ways.

20. KNOWLEDGE Enables us to judge rightly things as related to eternal life and Christian perfection.

21. COUNSEL Enables one to judge rightly in particular events what ought to be done in view of the supernatural ultimate end and personal sanctification.

22. PIETY Arouses in the will a filial love for God as Father, and a sentiment of universal love for all men and women as our brothers and sisters and as children of the same heavenly Father.

23. FORTITUDE Strengthens the soul for the practice of virtue, with invincible confidence of overcoming dangers or difficulties in the Christian life.

24. FEAR Arouses in us the filial fear born of love and reverence for God, like a child's fear of offending his father.

25. GIFT OF understanding faith for the penetration of truth REASON ENLIGHTENED BY FAITH wisdom charity divine things knowledge hope to judge created things CORRESPONDING VIRTUES counsel prudence our actions THE GIFTS PERFECT piety relative to worship due to God religion THE WILL AND THE SENSITIVE APPETITES fortitude against the fear of danger fear temperance against disorderly concupiscence

26. THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT Acts which a Christian in the state of grace carries out under the impulse of the Paraclete, and which show docility to his motions.

27. Just as the fruits of a tree indicate which tree has produced them, so the fruits of the Holy Spirit indicate his presence and activity in the soul. Gal. 5:22

28. Resolutions Man has to grow in virtue in order to live a life worthy of God. To conquer in the ascetic struggle one has to ask God for grace through prayer and mortification, and also receive grace through the sacraments. 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 OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2016 and 2849 “There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2015