In Brief

Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good.

The human virtues are stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order our passions, and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. They can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

Prudence disposes the practical reason to discern, in every circumstance, our true good and to choose the right means for achieving it.

Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbor their due.

Fortitude ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.

Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods.

The moral virtues grow through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them.

The theological virtues dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object—God known by faith, God hoped in and loved for his own sake.

There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. They inform all the moral virtues and give life to them.

By faith, we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief.

By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it.

By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, “binds everything together in perfect harmony.”1

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Christians are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.