GOOD HABITS
Some
Pentecostals accuse Catholics of being vain and repetitious in their
prayers when they critique the rosary. I wonder how they feel about the
virtuous life. The only way I know to grow in virtue and create good
habits is to repeat good choices and actions over and over again.
Neurologists will tell us that repeated actions are necessary in the
creation of solid neural pathways that will lead to good habits. If we
want to be good moral people, there is no other way apart from the
repetition of good choices.
The Fathers of the Church — Aquinas and many other great theologians
and moralists — tell us that the only way to grow in virtue is the
repeated application of good choices in our lives. In other words, sheer
hard work. Yes, it is only by grace that we are able to do anything
good. But this does not mean that we do not need to apply ourselves to
the situation at hand. A virtue without the persons who choose to avail
themselves of such graces is grace that will never be activated or used.
To live healthily, we should exercise
often and eat good food. There are very few people who find choosing
well consistently along those lines an easy task.
Growing in virtue operates under the same dynamic of becoming
consistent in our choice of the good and right. We have to work at this
choice every time it comes as it rarely, if ever, arrives in our lives
without a whole set of other choices (we call them temptations) to do
otherwise, to the detriment of our goal of the virtuous life. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL
---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------
Do you take seriously the call to choose well and to honor what is good and right in all of your choices?
Jesus, help me to see in Your own choices an example for my own moral life. Help me to choose well and not be seduced by convenience and the easy way out. Amen.
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