Natural and Supernatural Virtues
The greatest fruit of redemption is the capacity to love as Christ loved through the infusion of the theological virtues, especially the virtue of charity. Every virtue is at the service of the fulness of charity. The saints show a tremendous love for God and neighbor in imitation of Christ. As charity is practiced, it grows until a person actually becomes Christlike in the ability to love God and neighbor.
Because virtues are habitual and firm dispositions to do what is good, they also tend to enable the person to become the best person he or she can be. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. Virtues can be natural or supernatural.
CCC 1804: “Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good. The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love.”
Natural virtues are good habits acquired through repetition and human effort (e.g., prudence, justice, temperance), aimed at living a moral life. For example, if someone wants to acquire the virtue of temperance with regard to food, they will need to expend effort to eat less over a period of time, such as during the Lenten season. Through this experience consumption becomes easier to control.
CCC 1809: “Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: "Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart.”
“To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's heart, with all one's soul and with all one's efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).”
Supernatural virtues (faith, hope, charity) are infused directly by God into the soul with grace, enabling humans to act in accordance with God's will and attain eternal salvation. These are typically received at Baptism, along with sanctifying grace, for the purpose of elevating human nature to share in God's own life, allowing acts that are meritorious for heaven. They are called supernatural because they make it possible to perform supernatural acts.
CCC 1813: “The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.”
The most notable infused virtues are these theological virtues of faith, hope, charity. They are called theological because their object is union with God. Growth in these virtues comes through prayer, reception of the Sacraments, and practice of the virtues; these practices assist growth in holiness by drawing one into ever closer communion with Christ.
—Deacon Gerry Flamm
“Tonight also, dear children, I am grateful to you in a special way for being here. Unceasingly adore the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. I am always present when the faithful are adoring. Special graces are then being received.”
