Growing and Diminishing in Virtue (Aquinas 101)

[@ThomisticInstitute]

To watch other episodes with Fr. Cuddy, please check out this playlist! More to come soon! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpWrqaCIn5KYd7s

[@NorthCountry84]

He has the perfect voice for this and any audio book!

[@richard4oyeleke]

I agree with you 100%

[@2555Edu]

Fr. Cajetan should host a podcast, his voice is perfect for that medium!

[@blancopicasso4160]

I thought the same thing

[@HumanbeingonfloatingEarth]

The world has forgotten about Virtue. We NEED to remember these again.

[@aclaylambisabirdman6324]

One of finest videos they’ve ever produced and that’s really saying something.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Glad you found this helpful! God bless.

[@DavidMartinez-xb3vi]

It is not just the tenor of his voice but the cadence of his speech that is actually quite relaxing.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Perhaps we'll have to have Fr. Cuddy give voice lessons to all of the brethren!

[@yeshua1st]

I can't express how much I need to hear these videos. Thank you

[@jamesfee1966]

I want an entire Pints with Aquinas Presentation from Matt Fred with Fr. Cajetan. This was phenomenal.

[@jamesfee1966]

@@jonathanwilbur8527 That's definitely what I meant, and I can't blame autocorrect for that one

[@gridcaster]

God Bless you Brother and all the Dominicans. We love you so much for your care of the Church and our people. I pray daily for new vocations to come to your Order.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you very much for your prayers! They are certainly received. Please keep them coming!

[@awreckingball]

Excellent lucid presentation. Thank you.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Glad this was of help! God bless you.

[@AutumnRide86]

Voice is distractingly crisp and smokey. It's incredible! Need to watch again..maybe just with captions.

[@karenglenn2329]

How necessary these presentations are. A person taking on the responsibility of teaching Religious Education classes should view this information. I am so grateful for the Thomistic Institute.

[@edinnm8212]

What a wonderful video! Thank you, Father, and everyone at TI for instructing us in our Holy Catholic Faith.

[@dynamic9016]

Really appreciate this video.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Glad you enjoyed it! May the Lord bless you.

[@johannaprice4880]

Grace Love and Charity a Virtue that I love, Amen😊

[@elperinasoswa6772]

Wow. Thank you! I was hooked in from the beginning to the end.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Glad to hear it! God bless you.

[@gregorythorne6101]

Father Cuddy, This was all new info about the virtues, origin and increase, decrease for me. Thank you so much ! Stay humble, but you and the whole TI mission are the bomb ! Thank you !!

[@maxsalvador1686]

Man! I love this channel!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you! Please do like and share with your friends... because it matters what you think! God bless.

[@richard4oyeleke]

Father please start a podcast..... your voice is virtuous 😀😀😀

[@annmaryjose3589]

Thanks, Father!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you for watching! God bless.

[@ritasoto6314]

It is wonderful to have this teaching from a catholic prospective; I was looking for this video which is short,interesting,sharp, witty, easy to understand ; thank you so much; it make me think and change and to be a better person, better catholic

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thanks for such a lovely comment! God bless you!

[@markaurelevangelista8622]

Fr. Cajetan should be in the Hallow-App.

[@kristindreko3194]

Thank you, may our Lord Jesus Christ bless you!

[@navigm77]

Blessings

[@primaveralily3453]

May we have more videos by this priest, Father Cuddy? His pace and voice quality make understanding easier and pleasant to hear.

[@ktnsteve]

Excellent. Very inspiring. Thank-you.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Sure thing! God bless you.

[@pereze512]

Thanks for this; excellent delivery!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you very much! Glad the video proved helpful for you. God bless.

[@adrianwee7245]

Thanks, Father! Put things in perspective for me 👍 useful knowledge to guide us to keep doing the Will of God.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Amen! Glad this was helpful. God bless you!

[@cliveaw1206]

Thank you so much! Very clear and robust.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you for watching!

[@firstfoundations8209]

I'm going to start watching your videos

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Glad to hear it! If you have any questions, please post them in the comments with #AskAFriar. Thanks for watching, and may the Lord bless you!

[@andersonmeneses3599]

Thanks for this video. Studying St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy and other saint's lives made me reconnect to the Catholic Church after years being distant.

[@tropifiori]

Thanks Father

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Of course! God bless you.

[@Coszmonaut]

thank you, father

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you! God bless.

[@williamhunt9874]

That was terrifically helpful

[@mariadeven4112]

Great talk

[@johnnylightning1967]

Thank you

[@clintonlefort2004]

Thank you for this excellent explanation. Also, thank you for your recent edition of John of St. Thomas Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which I delightfully found available on the Amazon Kindle store. I, unfortunately, lost my used copy of the same book. Now I have the Kindle edition and it is easy to search and make notes. I'm sure St. Thomas must be very pleased with the work of the Aquinas Institute. Keep persevering in holiness.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you! Glad you have found these helpful. God bless you.

[@johnbryant1939]

I love ya'lls videos but every time y\all do the bell jingle, I keep hearing the theme to Futurama.

[@miguel__gd]

Your videos are absolutely helpful! Huge thanks to you, please continue in this line of doing videos

[@miguelvanetta1485]

Excellent video.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

We're glad it was helpful! God bless you.

[@Custodes21]

An excellent video!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Thank you!

[@awb07d]

how does one increase chastity outside of active temptation?

[@KevinCoriolan]

Generally, sacraments and prayer. Pray the rosary everyday with intention and awe. 🙏🏼

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Great question. Kevin is correct: sacraments and prayer are surefire ways to grow in chastity. Contemplative prayer is particularly helpful because it helps our minds to better understand the virtue of chastity, to see its goodness and necessity for a virtuous Christian life, and thereby to desire it. In this regard, we can contemplate Scripture passages like the 6th Beatitude, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (Mt 5:8), or "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Mt 6:22-23). Recognizing that heaven is about seeing God, in his fullness, with our minds ("face to face" as St. Paul says in 1 Cor 13:12), we are led to desire a pure mind so that we can, in the fullness of time, see God in himself in heaven and, in the meantime, recognize his will in our lives and in the order of creation. In the particular case of chastity, a pure mind helps us to see the order God has promulgated for men and women and their conjugal unity, which is a most holy thing. Study, too, can be of aid, i.e. studying the way the natural law orders our natural inclinations (see the Aquinas 101 video on natural law) and, in particular, the way in which the virtue of chastity (a species of temperance) correctly orders the human appetite for conjugal union according to our state of life (single, married, clerical, religious, etc.). In sum, since the operation of the will follows the understanding of the intellect, if we train our minds to understand and to love the virtue of chastity-to really see the goodness of chastity-our wills will incline toward chaste acts all the more promptly, easily, and joyfully. The Aquinas 101 video on Temperance and and the Angelic Warfare Confraternity (Google search) might be helpful aids to your study and prayer. Thank you for your question, and God bless you!

[@ihs2021]

♥️

[@Patrick-gr2wr]

From the catholic perspective, can one grow in virtue despite not having confessed a mortal sin? If so, then what necessitates the sacraments, If one is able to make a demonstrable movement toward The Good, the result of a greater participation in the nature of any virtues which are a part of its nature, say, such as justice? If not, then what is to be made of those who in fact do appear to grow in virtue, despite not having partaken of the graces conferred by a Christ in the sacraments? Are they said still to be vicious? But if they are said to be vicious, why do they act in such a way as to reflect more of God’s good? Was Socrates lacking in virtue? Plato? Aristotle? If so, being prior to Christ sacrifice and death, how could they speak of such things, if they hadn’t at some level grasped their realities intellectually?

[@matteosalonia3158]

Hello Patrick. It seems to me that in the case that you are describing these people have some of the moral/natural virtues. Yet, they do not possess the theological virtues, or have not restored them after a mortal sin. Confession is necessary because a mortal sin orients our soul away from God in such a way that if it were to be separated from the body (by death) before the sacrament of Confession, its orientation would forever remain hostile to God. Even leaving the issue of death and eternity aside, to restore the theological virtues we need to mend our relationship with God, that flow of Grace that comes from Him and that we have to freely cooperate with. And Christ, who knows our nature better than anybody, has given us as an ordinary means for this restoration the sacrament of Confession. I hope this helps. God bless you.

[@Patrick-gr2wr]

@@matteosalonia3158 Thanks for the distinction Matteo. I’ve been reading Plato and the Neoplatonists, and had, prior to commenting, not been made aware of this distinction in Aquinas’s, or I suppose, the Church’s understandings of moral as opposed to theological virtue. I’ll have to do some further reading. I appreciate your help. Best wishes.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

This is a great question, Patrick, and Matteo has provided a helpful reply. The distinction indeed comes down to the natural/moral (cardinal) virtues and the supernatural/theological virtues. When someone commits a mortal sin, he orders himself away from God as his final end. In doing so, he loses the theological virtue of charity and therefore falls out of friendship with God, which friendship is the effect of charity. But that does not mean he has necessarily lost the virtues of hope and faith; indeed, the person who commits a mortal sin but desires to go to confession both believes (has faith) that the sacrament of confession is real and hopes that its effects will heal his soul. Hope and faith are lost by committing explicit acts against hope and faith, as when one commits sins of despair and blasphemy, respectively. The Aquinas 101 videos on Faith, Hope, and Charity are very helpful in these regards. The question of growth in natural virtue while in mortal sin is subtle. Man has a nature, which has natural powers, and thus he really can grow in natural virtues, which perfect those powers, without needing the grace of God. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were, by external signs, virtuous men-and especially intellectually virtuous (possessing the virtues of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, which perfect the intellect's powers of understanding). And they were so because they perfected their natural powers (their passions, intellect, and will) toward their proper natural ends. It is also quite possible that the grace of God was working in them invisibly, as it was in the Patriarchs of the Old Testament and all righteous people who lived before Christ (see ST I, q. 43, a. 6). Because natural virtues do not require grace, someone in mortal sin can still possess them. While one mortal sin cuts off our friendship with God, it does not entirely destroy our natural virtues. Repeated mortal sins, however, do destroy our natural virtues in the exact manner outlined by the video.

[@Patrick-gr2wr]

@@ThomisticInstitute Thank you for taking the time to make a thoughtful and clarifying reply. The distinction, which at the time of posting, I hadn't been aware of, has been made clearer to me. I'll continue my efforts at understanding. Best wishes.

[@ThomisticInstitute]

@@Patrick-gr2wr You bet. Glad this was of help! God bless you.

[@Fausaidoug]

Is confessional necessary to restore theological virtue? Consider the Lord’s Prayer in which one asks God for forgiveness. This prayer has efficacy otherwise Christ, who cannot error, would not have included it. Therefore does it not suffice to restore theological virtue in the soul?

[@avemaria7698]

Dear fr. Peace be with you. Your class is excellent and enlightening on the virtues. What does it mean when we say we become what we eat? Is it that if a person eats pork meat he becomes a pig? Could you give me an explanation to this, please? May God bless you. Thank you.

[@adriadua5019]

🤍

[@aaronargottelopez3488]

❤