The supernatural Virtues!

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Supernatural Virtues!
Divine virtues of Jesus Christ!

qualities & characteristics
of true supernatural

Faith, Hope, & Charity!

The supernatural virtues are gifts of God!

The virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity have God as their direct object.

By faith we know God!

By Hope we trust His goodness and promises!

By Charity we love God!

The three theological & supernatural virtues of Faith, Hope, & Charity are infused into the soul at baptism, the mediator of the covenant provides for the necessities of the members of the covenant, in the communion of saints.

No man can say he has the supernatural virtues and reject good works, faith without works is dead.
James 2:20

(dead faith is not supernatural and cannot save)

No man can say he has the supernatural virtues and reject the apostolic church.

No man can say he has the supernatural virtues and reject Mary as his spiritual mother.

No man can say he has the supernatural virtues and reject the authentic ministers of Christ.

No man can say he has the supernatural virtues and reject the sacraments.

No man can say he has the supernatural virtues and reject scripture & tradition & the church's faithful interpretation of scripture.

Christians must accept with humility and resignation & obedience the will of God found in the commandments of God.

Christians must reject pride presumption and arrogance protest, rebellion, and faith alone!

The false doctrine of "Faith Alone" is opposed to the supernatural virtues of Faith, Hope, & Charity!

1 cor 13 explains the quality of the supernatural virtue of Charity or love of God!

Three things are eternal, faith, hope, & charity and these have an interconnected unity! 1 cor 13:13

(((1 cor 13:7 charity believes all things)))

(((1 cor 13:8 charity NEVER fails)))

deut 6:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Matthew 19:17
And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

matt 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Luke 7:47
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

John 14:15
If ye love me, keep my commandments.

1 cor 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

1 cor 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

1 Corinthians 16:22
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema

1 Timothy 1:14
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Ephe 6:24
Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

Titus 2:2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

Jude 1:21
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

1 Peter 4:8
And above all things have fervent
charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

The acts of Faith, Hope, & Charity!

Christian Faith is an intellectual assent to a truth revealed by Christ and proposed by His holy church for our belief!

“Faith is the virtue by which we firmly believe all the truths God has revealed, on the word of God revealing them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived"
(John 20:29) (heb 11:6)

Act of Faith
O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe that Thy Divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.

Hope:

“Hope is the virtue by which we firmly trust that God, who is all-powerful and faithful to His promises, will in His mercy give us eternal happiness and the means to obtain it" (Romans 8:24-25)

Titus 3:7
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Act of Hope
O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

Charity:

“Charity is the virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God”
(deut. 6:5, 1 Cor 13:1-2, 1 cor 13:13, 1 pet 4:8, 1 Cor 16:22)

Act of Charity (Love)
O my God, I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured. Amen.

 

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1st vatican council defines faith


By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer”. Sacred Scripture calls this assent “obedience of faith” (See Rom 1:5, 16:26). The virtue of faith is a supernatural virtue which enables man, by enlightening his intellect and moving his will, to assent firmly to all that God has revealed, not because of the intrinsic evidence but because of the authority of God who is revealing. “Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.

In faith, the intellect and will cooperate with God’s grace: “Faith is an act of the understanding which assents to the divine truth at the command of the will moved by God through grace.”

One who believes, assents to the truth taught by the Church, which guards the deposit of Revelation. “The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers”. “No one can have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his mother.” gal 4:26 St. Augustine

Faith: "The just man lives by faith” ( Heb 2:4). Faith works through charity (see Gal 5:6) Without works, faith is dead (see Jas 2:20-26).

Perseverance in the faith: Faith is a gratuitous gift of God. But we can lose this inestimable gift (I Tim 1: 18–19 Gal 5:4 ) To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it” ( matt 10:22) We should ask God to increase our faith (Lk 17:5) and to make us “stong in faith" ( I Pet 5:9). With God’s help, we should make many acts of faith.

My God I believe, adore, hope, and Love Thee, I beg pardon for those who do not!



In the elevation of human nature to the supernatural order, God infuses into it a principle of new life, which is called grace. He also infuses new operative habits (called supernatural or infused virtues) and the gifts of the Holy Spirit into its natural faculties. We will deal with them later on. Habitual grace (which elevates nature) and the supernatural operative habits (which elevate the operative potencies to the supernatural order) form what is frequently called the supernatural organism. This term must be understood by analogy—it is both similar to and different from a natural organism.

In the supernatural order, God is also the cause of the supernatural being and operations of the person. He acts through the person’s supernatural organism—a term that must be understood in an analogical way, as was said earlier. God, the first cause, moves the natural potentialities to act. If these potentialities have good moral habits, they respond with more skill in the performance of good acts. In the same way, God also moves the infused or supernatural habits (virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit) to perform concrete acts of virtue that are supernaturally meritorious. For example, a person has the virtue of faith (an operative habit) even while sleeping. In order to perform a concrete act of faith (i.e., “My Lord and my God!”), this habit needs the help of an actual grace that enlightens the intellect and moves the will. The will must freely respond to this grace.

In the following pages, we will distinguish between supernatural virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

19. Supernatural Virtues

19a) Supernatural Virtues as Infused Operative Habits

Along with sanctifying grace, supernatural operative habits are simultaneously infused into the soul (de fide with respect to the theological virtues; de fide eccl. with respect to the moral virtues).

The Roman Catechism taught that “sanctity is inaccessible to nature. This sublime goal can only be attained by the Christian through the grace that God infuses into the soul with charity and the most noble array of all the virtues.”2

An operative habit is a stable quality that is found in an operative potency, enabling it to perform certain acts. In the case of good natural operative habits (or virtues), the potentiality is endowed with the facility to carry out corresponding good acts. If the human virtue is deep-rooted, one also experiences joy in doing good. In the case of supernatural virtues, they alone do not bring about the capacity to perform their corresponding acts, but only the possibility to do so. This is why the supernatural moral virtues must be joined to their corresponding human virtues.

19b) The Theological Virtues

Along with sanctifying grace, the three theological (or divine) virtues of faith, hope, and charity are infused into the soul (de fide).

The Magisterium of the Church states, “In the very act of being justified, at the same time that his sins are remitted, a man receives through Jesus Christ, to whom he is joined, the infused gifts of faith, hope and charity.”3 The word infused means that these virtues are not the fruit of natural effort but are a gift of God. They are bestowed not as acts but as habits that abide in the soul. A baptized infant possesses these three virtues even though the infant is incapable of performing their corresponding acts.

Sacred Scripture contains this truth of faith: “God’s charity has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). The Apostle also says, “Charity never ends” (1 Cor 13:8). In the verses that follow, St. Paul explains that faith—which is conserved in this life—will give way to vision in the life to come; and hope—also conserved in this life—will disappear in heaven, for it will be replaced by the possession of God: “So faith, hope, charity, abide these three” (1 Cor 13:13).

Tradition unanimously emphasizes the importance of these three virtues, which have God himself as their immediate object. Regarding Baptism and its effects, St. John Chrysostom comments, “You have faith, hope, and charity, which abide. Foster them. They are more precious than miracles. But nothing can compare with charity.”4

 

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20. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

20a) The Gifts as Infused Operative Habits

Christian life is rendered possible by habitual grace, which is a stable supernatural quality in the soul (although it can be lost through mortal sin), and by the infused, or supernatural, virtues. The fullness of Christian life, however, can be attained only by means of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

The just man who already lives the life of grace and, like the soul utilizing its potencies, acts according to corresponding virtues, stands in need of those seven gifts we call proper to the Holy Spirit. By virtue of these gifts, the soul is disposed and strengthened to follow the divine inspirations more easily and readily. Such is the efficacy of these gifts that they lead to the summit of holiness; and such is their excellence that they are preserved intact—although more perfect—in the kingdom of heaven. Thanks to these gifts, the Holy Spirit moves us and inspires us to achieve the beatitudes of the Gospel.5

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are supernatural habits (permanent dispositions) that are infused into the soul along with habitual grace and the virtues. They differ from the infused virtues in their manner of operation. The gifts of the Holy Spirit enable a person to receive and readily obey the promptings that the Holy Spirit himself sends to the soul in grace. Two further points in this vein must be clarified:

(1) The gifts are bestowed on all
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are bestowed on all the baptized together with habitual grace (de fide eccl.).

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the privileged possession of select souls. They are operative habits in any soul in the state of grace. However, their actual exercise depends upon the degree of spiritual life of the subject, just as is the case of the human intelligence (intellective potential of the soul). Its actual exercise begins only after the person has reached a certain age, even though it was already present in the soul from the very moment of conception. Further, just as a more perfect physical constitution and a good education facilitate the use of the intelligence, the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is more productive if there is more holiness in the soul.

(2) The gifts do not violate man’s freedom
Although the divine action upon the soul in the case of the gifts is so immediate that the proper response of the will is more passive than active (thus, the person obeys the Holy Spirit’s promptings, reinforces his interior motions, and allows himself to be led along), nevertheless, the will must cooperate. The action of grace always depends on the consent of the will. For this reason, docility to the action of the gifts merits an increase of the life of grace in the soul.

20b) The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Some gifts of the Holy Spirit pertain to the intellect. These perfect the virtue of faith (the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding) and prudence (the gift of counsel). Others pertain to the will and perfect the virtue of fortitude (the parallel gift of fortitude), piety (the gift of piety), and humility (the gift of fear of God). “Among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I would say that there is one which we all need in a special way: the gift of wisdom. It makes us know God and rejoice in his presence, thereby placing us in a perspective from which we can judge accurately the situations and events of this life.”6

We can better understand the supernatural infused virtues by way of contrast with the natural acquired virtues:

While, as we saw, the NATURAL VIRTUES are acquired and strengthened by repeated acts, the SUPERNATURAL VIRTUES are infused into the soul by God along with sanctifying grace and grow with sanctifying grace.
NATURAL VIRTUES dispose the faculties to follow the dictates or commands of reason, while SUPERNATURAL VIRTUES dispose the faculties to follow reason illuminated by faith.
NATURAL VIRTUES are lost by non-use, or by repeated acts contrary to the virtue; SUPERNATURAL VIRTUES, on the contrary, are lost (along with sanctifying grace) through mortal sin.
NATURAL VIRTUES increase the ease with which good actions are performed, whereas SUPERNATURAL VIRTUES do not increase the facility of action, but give the supernatural capacity to perform actions that are meritorious of heaven. No matter how much we have advanced in natural acquired virtues, they bring no supernatural benefit without the infused virtues to make their acts meritorious.

Theological Virtues: The virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity have God as their direct object. By faith we know God, by Hope we trust His goodness and promises, and by Charity we love Him.
FAITH - which enables us to assent to the divine truth that God has revealed, has been defined by the First Vatican Council as “a supernatural virtue whereby, under the inspiration and assistance of grace, we believe those things revealed by God to be true, not because the intrinsic truth of these things has been perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself revealing them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.” By its very nature, faith is imperfect and obscure; but to help correct its imperfections as far as possible, we have the Gifts of Understanding and Knowledge which perfect Faith to become more penetrating, more comprehensive, more divine.
HOPE - is a divine infused virtue by which, with certain confidence, relying on God’s goodness and promises, we expect to attain eternal life, and the means to attain it. This virtue enables us to live the Christian life without the uncertainty and inconstancy of human hope, but with the unshakable support of God on Whom we rely. While faith gives light, hope gives confidence. It eliminates discouragement from faults, temptation and aridities found in every life. The more one advances in the Christian life the stronger hope must be, for the struggles become more difficult, the sacrifices greater, and the operations of grace more difficult to understand. This virtue is brought to its highest perfection by the Gift of Fear of the Lord.
CHARITY- is the supernatural infused virtue infused by God into the will, by which we love God for Himself above all things, and our self and neighbor for His sake. It is the “queen of all virtues,” the one that unites all the other virtues and makes their actions meritorious. It is the key virtue, therefore, responsible for growth in grace which is the measure of glory in the life to come. Charity (love of God) makes easier every effort, and sweetens every sacrifice. It can find expression in countless ways as St. Paul testifies. (1 Cor. 13:4-7) It is the heart and soul of prayer, as well as the motivating force of the spirit of mortification. It is brought to its highest perfection by the Gift of Wisdom.