Growing in Virtue and Passing Them onto Our Children Fraternus and Fidelis
September 11, 2022
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
This week Holy Redeemer will embark upon a new program that teaches and models the virtues for all adults down to middle schoolers. It is called Fraternus for males and Fidelis for females. As long as you are between 12 and 100, you’re welcomed and encouraged to come to our new Parish Night on Wednesdays. The format is simple: we will begin at 6pm with prayer, followed by food, an activity, a message about a virtue, sharing in a small group, and finish with prayer in the church. Men and boys will meet in the parish center, women and girls in the Annex (big green house on the west side of parish parking lot). You can register by going to here – or just show up, but registering helps us to plan.
We are all aware of the crises of faith in our families and the world. The consequences of rejecting Jesus Christ: the way, the truth, and life, are devastating – divorce, adults not marrying, parents not marrying, fatherless children, broken and dysfunctional families, abortion on demand, pornography addiction, fornication/adultery/sodomy/transgenderism, depression, suicide, et cetera. What can be done? Amongst many things, learning and living the virtues.
While Holy Redeemer’s catechists try to catechize willing adults and their children in the faith, over the past few years we have come to a greater appreciation of the need to teach and model the virtues too. What is a virtue? Simply put, a virtue is a good habit according to human nature. Let’s unpack that.
An example of a good habit might be calling our elderly parents every week, or turning out the lights on time every night so we get up on time every morning rested and ready for the day, etc. But those habits are actions and the kind of virtues we’re talking about are dispositions such as patience, kindness, chastity, courage, etc., dispositions that can be applied to multiple thoughts and actions throughout our day and life to better our lives and others. When we develop a virtue, we overcome our natural proclivity to selfishness and create a good habit that will improve our character and moral wellbeing in the process. We become more like God. But what do we mean by “according to human nature?”
God has created each of us in his own image and likeness, thus we have an aptitude to be like God in truth, goodness, and beauty; however, two things prevent that from happening in full. The first is, compared to God, our ability is limited or finite due to our not being infinite like God – nothing we can do about that. The second reason we struggle to be like God is that our nature fell in the Garden of Eden when our first parents sinned, hence our now fallen nature is inclined toward selfishness (not God like). As Christians, desirous of being like God, and thus enjoying life more and living with God forever in the next life; we strive to overcome our fallen nature through the practice of the virtues.
I have attached some information from the websites of Fraternus and Fidelis on the back of this page, please read on and I hope to see you this Wednesday evening at 6pm.
In Christ, I Love You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
