Tag: fortitude

Finishing the School Year Strong

Published on by Mary Cooney2 Comments

Time for a pep-talk! Because I bet many of you can’t wait to be done with homeschooling for the year.

Me too. It happens every May: making my kids finish their school work in the spring is like pulling teeth. I need to use all my big mama muscles to make sure my squirrelly, energetic, restless children complete their assignments. And my mama muscles are plumb worn out. Ladies, I just want to give up.

But one of the most important lessons our kids need to learn is taught best at this time of year.

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Raising Virtuous Children: The Core Virtues of Spiritual Athletes

Published on by Mary CooneyLeave a comment

In my last post, I talked about the importance of virtues and how they enable us to love fully and freely. The foundational virtue, the one that sets the stage for the development of all others, is obedience.

In addition to obedience, we want our children to develop the four cardinal virtues: justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude. These are called the cardinal virtues because cardo means “hinge” in Latin and all other virtues hinge from these four. For example, honesty and responsibility stem from justice. Chastity stems from temperance. Patience comes from fortitude. 

Virtues are like the muscles in our body. When you exercise one muscle, you also exercise the others around it.  The cardinal virtues are like the core muscles of our body. Athletes need strong core muscles. Spiritual athletes are those who are striving for holiness and the ability to love fully and freely. And they need the cardinal virtues.

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