Journey to Perfection: Magnanimity, Fortitude, Patience and Perserverance

This episode delves into the essence of virtues like Magnanimity and Fortitude, and how they can reshape not only our spiritual endeavors but also our mundane challenges. To answer the call of Christ, "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect",  We seek the Virtues that will transform us.    Alongside inspiring figures like Father Willie Doyle and guided by the reflective practices of saints such as Anthony Mary Claret and Ignatius Loyola, we examine our own lives through the lens of virtue and learn how even small sacrifices, like giving up fizzy drinks for Lent, can yield profound growth.

In this episode our meditation and prayer reaches out to Our Blessed Lady begging Her to help us in our quest for virtue  and the answer to Her Son's command.  teachings of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, we confront the challenge of transcending mediocrity in our faith. This episode invites listeners to engage with the spiritual discipline of asking, seeking, and knocking, thereby unlocking the doors to a more devout and virtuous life. Through this heartfelt discussion, emerge equipped and inspired to don the full armor of Christian virtues, cultivating a patience that weathers trials and a dedication to the path of righteousness. Join us for this soul-stirring conversation, as we reflect on scripture and welcome the transformative power of living a life graced by virtue.

Chapters

• 0:00 Acquiring and Practicing Virtues in Christianity
• 7:45 Seeking Virtue Through Prayer and Meditation

Transcript

Host: 0:00

We need to overcome and eradicate our vices. We need to acquire virtues. How do I acquire virtues? What are the virtues? How do I begin, continue and succeed to become perfect, as Jesus commanded I should? How do I help others to be virtuous? God and Mary and St Patrick.

Amy: 0:29

Dia's Muire duit agus Padrig. God and Mary and St Patrick to you. You are listening to the Meditation and Mental Prayer podcast Catholics Talking to God. This podcast is predominantly about mental prayer. And now for your host, mrs Christabel Pankhurst, Catholic teacher and theologian.

Host: 0:55

In order to carry out the command of Christ. Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Virtue is the quality of being morally good, and to desire virtue is a virtue in itself. The virtue of magnanimity: this is the virtue by which one seeks excellence in all things, but especially in great things. Think of magnify, magnificent . Magnanimity applied to the other virtues seeks the perfection of all the virtues. This is what we're doing now.

Host: 1:30

So if you're praying for a sinner to come back to the faith, you're practicing magnanimity and it's a virtue of magnanimity. You should be begging God for them, you know, so that they will turn and want to be good and want to be very good. For instance, if someone you are concerned about is suffering from addictions, they need to want to turn away from sin and Satan and toward the good and toward God. They need to want the virtue of temperance and they need to want it totally. That excellence of greatness in being addiction free needs to go beyond themselves to become a person who helps others to overcome their addictions. In your prayers, beg God for the virtue of magnanimity for them to begin their journey toward him. If magnanimity starts the ball rolling, then we need the virtues of perseverance and fortitude to keep it rolling. However, to make the virtues of perseverance and fortitude work for us, we will need to recognize the need for the virtue of mortification.

Host: 2:40

Mortification is our willingness to suffer. Remember no cross, no crown. This isn't going to be easy. Secular society recognizes that to succeed at anything, people will need to mortify their flesh, overcome their vices, their laziness, the procrastination, all those things. Christian mortification, on the other hand, relies for its attainment on the Holy Ghost. When we seek to mortify our flesh, she desires we enter a different world. Take up your cross and follow me. So when we start out on that road to our Calvary, we beseech God for his grace to succeed, and without doubt he will answer our prayer Ask, seek, knock. This is one time when no one will be able to lament. "But God never answers my prayers. But you will have to exercise the virtue of patience. Rome wasn't built in a day and the virtue of patience will have to be acquired and practiced. Patience is the ability to suffer evils without kicking up a fuss. Even rolling your eyes is a no-no.

Host: 3:50

It was the tenacity and fortitude of Father Willie Doyle that helped me understand the value of perseverance. His constant cry was Against the Self Against the Self. Father Doyle was a Jesuit priest who served in the army during World War I. In order to serve his men, he had constantly to fight against himself. Time after time, he dashed through the mortar fire on the battlefield to give the last rights to men lying dying in agony.

Host: 4:23

To overcome our vices and practice virtue any virtue we must constantly work against the self. This daily perseverance leads to the big one, final perseverance, which is the situation we should find ourselves in the hour of our death. In the meantime, how do we practice perseverance? We must be dedicated and we must be vigilant and we must be persistent. With magnanimity. We state our goal. Which virtue have we chosen to acquire? Write it down and view it daily.

Host: 4:58

Our daily examination of conscience should check out how many times that day we overcame ourselves and practiced that virtue and, obviously, how many times we have failed. St Anthony Mary Claret would pause on the sound of the bell striking the hour and check his behaviour during the previous hour. St Ignatius Loyola set aside time at noon and time at the end of the day to make a short examination of conscience. In his pursuit of perfection, we can see that acquiring virtue is hard work and thus the need for fortitude. No matter which virtue we decide we need, attached to it will be magnanimity, fortitude, persistence and patience All virtues in themselves.

Host: 5:46

Let's think of an example. Say, during Lent you decided to go off fizzy drinks. The day is hot, you're tired and thirsty. You go to the cupboard and the only drink available is your favourite fizzy drink. Now observe what happens in your thoughts and your emotions. Your eyes see the drink and it appeals to you. Listen to your thoughts, be aware of your emotions and bodily desires. Reason with yourself and go against yourself. Our Lady told the children at Fatima that most people go to hell because of sins of the flesh. Trying to acquire the virtue of purity and chastity can be huge. Some people have found that if they understand the overpowering desires of lust, they can bring reason to prevail upon the rush of emotions and longings. Some reasoning is needed in order to subdue lustful thoughts or wait patiently until they pass. That is, after you have shouted as loudly as you can in your head the names of Jesus and Mary. Avoid checking to see has this worked because, believe me, those thoughts are waiting to see if you're really serious about keeping them out.

Host: 6:54

Scripture Meditation: "James is servant of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad Greetings when you shall fall into diverse temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith work with patience, and patience hath a perfect work. St Paul says to the Colossians Put ye on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, magninity, humility, modesty, patience. And as he continues, he tells us how to do this bearing with one another and forgiving one another If any have a complaint against another. Even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also See how all the virtues intertwine. Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Host: 7:45

Meditation and prayer. "Dearest Mother Mary, I remember you said my soul magnifies the Lord. I want to magnify the Lord. I want to be the best that I can to please God. Will you show me how to gain the virtue of magnanimity? I don't want to be mediocre any more. Mother, when I read in the Book of Revelation that Jesus said the lukewarm, I will vomit out of my mouth. I have imagined this applied to someone else. Perhaps that because at the time I am reading this verse I am doing something good, that is, reading my Bible. I am lukewarm in everything concerning the love of God. Show me how to intensify my commitment to becoming perfect All these years.

Host: 8:31

Reading the Sermon on the Mount, I imagined great crowds of people listening, but when I look again, I realise that Matthew tells us that your son, jesus, left the multitude of people and went up into the mountain where his disciples gathered around him. So this teaching was a very special teaching. It was intensive. It was the beginning of putting on the whole armour of God. Dearest Mother, you know my heart.

Host: 8:58

You know I disliked reading the Sermon on the Mount because I was afraid of it. If you would help me, mother, what would your advice be? How will I gain the virtue of magnanimity? How can I read again the Sermon on the Mount, not as a casual bystander, but seated with the disciples? How can I make it my way of life, as they did? And my Heavenly Mother brings to mind the words of her son Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you, for everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Do not fear this way of life. Go forward toward Jesus and, as he said, enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it.