CALLED TO HOLINESS

• Vice - A settled habit caused by sinful action which disposes to further sinful action.; happens when we follow the inclination of our animal nature against the order of our reason.
• Sin - Inordinate action that discords with truth and goodness in its intention, object, and circumstances.
• Every sin for Saint Thomas is an inordinate act.
• Sins of Commission - Sins of action, whether in thought, word, or deed.
• Sins of Omission - Sins of inaction, whether in thought, word, or deed, e.g. omitting to care for someone, like a child or against an elderly. Such sins constitute sin against God and against our neighbor.
• Mortal Sins - those sins that turn us directly away from God; grave violation of law; it destroys sanctifying grace in us.
• Venial Sins - less serious matter; disobeys the moral law in a grave matter but without full knowledge or without complete consent; we are not turned away from God.
• Capital Sins - they engender other sins, other vices.

  1.  pride
  2. avarice (greed)
  3. envy
  4. wrath
  5. sloth
  6. lust
  7. gluttony
• Convertion - a turning—a spiritual turning away from sin in repentance and to Christ in faith
• Metanoia - total change or turn of heart; turning away from sin and turning towards God; an experience of being in love with God without reservations; reorientation of one’s life to Christ who is made the center and model of one’s life.
• For Aristotle, “virtue is a state of character which makes a man good and makes him do his work well.”
• Courage - regulates fear and confidence
• Temperance - regulates bodily pains and pleasures
• Generosity - helps us give and spend money well
• What is God's primary gift?

  Love
• In our daily life, the Holy Spirit helps us to grow in holiness and enter more deeply in the life of the Trinity.
• Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues.
• Moral virtue disposes us to act well and it requires more than simply knowing what the right thing and good thing to know is.
• Moral virtue moderates our passions so that we can act according to reason for the true good. Moral virtues do not subdue our passions.
• Virtue is a good quality of the mind by which we live righteously of which no one can make bad use, which God works in us and without us.
• Theological Virtues - infused by God; elevate our powers of intellect and will so that by acts of these virtues: believing,  hoping, and loving, we can, by grace, reach beyond our natural goods, to possess our final and supernatural good, our theological good, God himself.
• Faith - The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
• According to Aquinas, faith is a habit of the mind, whereby eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is not apparent.
• What is the material object of faith?

  God
• What is the formal object of faith?

  God as first truth revealing himself to the world.
• Faith - infused in and perfects that human power concerned with truth: the intellect; elevates and perfects the functioning of human reason so that the human agent, without seeing or proving their reality,  can apprehend, understand, and judge to be true, the articles of faith. 
• Belief is the act that is proper to faith.
• What is the interior act of faith?

  Belief
• What is the exterior act of faith?

  Confession or profession
• Unbelief, heresy, and apostasy are sins against belief-interiorly.
• Blasphemy is a sin against belief-exteriorly.
• Holy Spirit gift of understanding - Gives the believer a spirit taught insight into the essence of the articles of faith; allows the believer to develop a vision of God in faith purified of unnecessary earthly imagery  and analogies.
• Holy Spirit's gift of knowledge - Gives the believer a spirit taught judgment regarding the truth of created things in view of God.
• Hope is a graced confidence that God will give eternal life to me and to those whom I love because he is omnipotent and merciful.
• Presumption - The cavalier assurance that God will save me regardless of whether or not I consent and cooperate with his grace.
• Despair - The denial that God’s promises apply to me or a fear that he will deny pardon event to the repentant. 
• Fear of the Lord - perfects hope by imparting to the soul a supernatural sensitivity for what aids us and what hinders us in our pursuit of the vision of God. 
• Will - The seat of charity in the human person.
• Charity - perfects the human power concerned with loving.
• Love of Concupiscence - We love some good for their own sake. The love with which we love the goods that keep us alive and help us to grow in virtue. We love these goods for the benefit that they offer us.