Article 7. The Virtues

Theological Virtues | Credit: Lawrence OP/Flickr

Charity (cont’d)

(1827) The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which “binds everything together in perfect harmony”; it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.

(1828) The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who “first loved us”:

If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.

(1829) The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:

Source: St. Peter Durham Ontario

Article 6. Moral Conscience

In Brief (cont’d)

(1799) Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

(1800) A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.

(1801) Conscience can remain in ignorance or make erroneous judgments. Such ignorance and errors are not always free of guilt.

(1802) The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. This is how moral conscience is formed.

Article 7. The Virtues

Ten Commandments

Article 5. The Morality of the Passions (cont’d)

In Brief

(1771) The term “passions” refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.

(1772) The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.

(1773) In the passions, as movements of the sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as they engage reason and will, there is moral good or evil in them.

(1774) Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.

(1775) The perfection of the moral good consists in man’s being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his “heart.”

Article 6. Moral Conscience

Crucifix

Article 4. The Morality of Human Acts (cont’d)

I. The Sources of Morality

(1750) The morality of human acts depends on:

• the object chosen;
• the end in view or the intention;
• the circumstances of the action.

The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the “sources,” or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.

(1751) The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. The object chosen morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of morality express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by conscience.

(1752) In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines it by its end, intention is an element essential to the moral evaluation of an action. The end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in the action. The intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal of the activity. It aims at the good anticipated from the action undertaken. Intention is not limited to directing individual actions, but can guide several actions toward one and the same purpose; it can orient one’s whole life toward its ultimate end. For example, a service done with the end of helping one’s neighbor can at the same time be inspired by the love of God as the ultimate end of all our actions. One and the same action can also be inspired by several intentions, such as performing a service in order to obtain a favor or to boast about it.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski processes into St. James Cathedral

Good Saturday evening to one and all! Earlier this morning, Archbishop Thomas Wenski presided over the re-dedication Mass of Saint James Cathedral in Downtown Orlando. It was quite the experience!

Before the Mass began, a special Cathedral Choir made up of Spanish, English, and Haitain-Creole speaking singers offered songs of praise and thanksgiving. After the prelude music came to an end, the procession into the Cathedral began, led by a processional cross donated to the Diocese of Orlando by the Archdiocese of Chicago. The crucifix was first used during the installation of Bishop Thomas Grady in St. Charles Cathedral–Orlando’s first Cathedral–which was devastated by a fire on October 1, 1976. St. James was dedicated as the second Cathedral of the Diocese of Orlando on November 20, 1977.

Towards the front of the procession was Bishop Louis Campese, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Eastern United States. As you may recall, Bishop Campese and the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando welcomed the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, of Pope Benedict XVI in September. [On a side note, the Cathedral of the Incarnation is located in the College Park area of Orlando. It is about two miles away from St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church--my parish. Another Catholic Church is also in the neighborhood, St. Phillip Phan Van Minh, the Diocese of Orlando's only Vietnamese parish. Once the parish of the Cathedral of the Incarnation becomes Catholic, College Park  will be home to three Catholic churches. Just a thought.]