The 7 Virtues

Guides for Life

Faith

• “Faith, apart from works, is dead.”

• A set of beliefs should affect how you live.

• All Christians are called to spread the faith.

• Faith is like trust

Hope

• Is necessary to continue in life

• Is based on the idea of faith

• Sustains people through discouragement and doubt

• Hope is linked to FAITH

Charity (Love)

• Charity is love in action

• Law is giving to others

• Love is the law of life from God

• Love is a choice

Prudence

• Is careful judgement

• Think before you act

• forethought

Justice

• The ability to see the needs and wants of others (LINKS TO PRUDENCE)

• Respect the rights of others where ever they are

Temperance

• Is balancing desires with responsibilities

• Sometimes refers to food, drink

• Self-control

• See the common good (needs of others)

• Balance

Fortitude (Strength)

• To be able to show firmness in bad times

• Able to resist temptation

• Strength

• “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

The Seven Deadly Sins

Pride

• An unwillingness to look at our own faults and mistakes honestly

• Vanity

• Does not recognize the contribution of others to our successes

• Makes us blind to our own faults

• “Pride goes before the fall.”

Avarice (Greed)

• The desire for possessions beyond

• all need.

• Leads people away from

• being charitable

• Demonstrates an unwillingness

to help other people

Envy (jealousy)

• The desire for what belongs to someone else

• Resenting the good others have acquired or received

Wrath

• The anger at real or perceived problems

• Can come from impatience or having our pride hurt

Lust

• Sexual craving beyond a healthy attraction

• Can be self destructive

• Turns those lusted after into objects

Gluttony

• Excessive eating and drinking that denies the natural limits of physical pleasures.

Sloth (Laziness)

• Is the lack of use of the gifts we have been given