by Magis Center | Oct 11, 2019 | Church Teaching, Culture, Latest, Virtue & Freedom
In many lists of the deadly sins, vanity is included within the sin of pride. However, some scholars—including the originator, Evagrius Ponticus—kept it separate due to its difference from pride’s lust for power and dominion. Though the cause of vanity and pride is...
by John Clark | Sep 12, 2019 | Guest Blogs, Latest, Virtue & Freedom
“You can’t handle the truth!” These words were spoken in “A Few Good Men,” a 1992 taut legal thriller about the prosecution of two Marines who accidentally killed another Marine during a terrifying “disciplinary” exercise. Their defense attorney, played by Tom Cruise,...
by Crisis Magazine | Sep 10, 2019 | Guest Blogs, Latest, Virtue & Freedom
When Pope Francis, the first Jesuit to become pope, celebrated Mass for the feast of St. Mark last April, he used his homily to exhort the Church to proclaim the Gospel with magnanimity and humility. He noted that St. Thomas Aquinas taught that magnanimity, or...
by Magis Center | Sep 3, 2019 | Church Teaching, Culture, Latest, Virtue & Freedom
Though sloth (acedia) generally means “laziness or indolence,” in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it refers to spiritual apathy—a complete lack of concern for oneself and others. Sloth is considered one of the deadly sins, because it reflects a complete disinclination...
by Carol Lynn Miller | Aug 25, 2019 | Latest, Philosophy, Transcendental Desires, Virtue & Freedom
In previous posts, we discussed intellectual and moral conversion: intellectual conversion has to do with knowledge of God and moral conversion focuses on the practice of moral actions directing one toward the good and away from evil. The last, and certainly not...
by Carol Lynn Miller | Aug 5, 2019 | Latest, Philosophy, Transcendental Desires, Virtue & Freedom
This article is part of a three-part series on conversion first articulated here. In a previous post, it was mentioned that the human person possesses two “selves,” that is, the higher self and the lower self. The higher self is guided by reason and love and the...
