Why Educate in Virtue Teaching the Virtues Lesson 1

welcome to disciple of Christ education and virtue we're going to begin our journey through an educators guide to living the virtuous life I'm really excited about this opportunity to really just spend time with you mean not to get to know you personally but will be able to journey through this wonderful resource that I've been able to work on with my sister's fellow educators and people who have been using education of virtue now for about five years we listen to people answered their questions they began to realize that it was time to come out with second edition so in this edition we'll go through and we're going to answer questions the first one is why educate in virtue the second what are the virtues the third who lives and teaches virtue and finally how to educate in virtue so first of all why educate in virtue think to begin and understand this we have to really frame it in the big picture and that big picture is the kerygma now you ask yourself what is that you know it sounds like Greek to me you know because it is Greek alright it means first Proclamation this is what the Apostles Peter and Paul preached after Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon them so let's begin let's start going through here what it is you know what is this good news what is this charisma what is this first Proclamation and I've tried to give there's two illustrations there's one that you see here that's this more you know your children can relate to this and they can see this and and and actually you know as we've taught children as we taught children in grade school in high school and have them come back and teach us with the Carib mayo's when they look at these visuals that helps them to be able to proclaim it and to understand it because this is really that the first kind of that we would do when we're evangelizing people and so we begin with you know that the truly the understanding that all of us were created in God's image and likeness that we have this this this wholeness that we desire this happiness that we desire and that first of all were created by love and we're called to love now what does that mean all right well we began again with the understanding that that what john told us is that god is love and that the inter most secret of the Trinity is God in himself is an eternal exchange of love the father son and holy spirit he has destined us to share in that exchange that's from catechism number 221 that he has destined us from the beginning of all time that we are to able to share with him in this life and this in this communion with God and that he he pours himself out in love so everything that God has done for us and all that he has created he did that out of love he created us to live in this state of original holiness and justice where we had this relationship Adam and Eve were the first ones and we would look to where they had this this beautiful relationship with God that he would walk with him in the garden that that they that there was this you know that they knew him and they they had friendship with him the second is that there's the the harmony between man and the other person with each other with man and himself and with man and creation and if you think about your own life all the problems that you may have okay and we'll get this when we talk about sin and its consequences are usually related to one of those four areas that original holiness because when we talk about when we get into the section about sin we're gonna see where this is ruptured but this is what God had had plant he wanted our intellect to govern to govern our will that we wouldn't experience sickness or death and and with that we would destined to be with him forever this is what God had planned for us always but he gave us free will and even though it's it's difficult at times that's really one of the greatest gifts that he's given to us is our free will so that we can freely love him and choose to love him and return so as we move on so you know obviously you know things didn't stay that way okay but we need to understand that that is how he intended and it to be you know God is love God first loved us were made in God's image and likeness and then came this moment of the fall and we moved to what called this section where are you and entitled it seems kind of funny of that would title the section of sin and his consequences you know where are you but think it's very important to understand this under that that God he came in searching for Adam and Eve you know where are you like he knew where they were they were hiding but let's take step back before we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves in the in the story here but we here and we know of the serpent who was the most cunning of all the wild animals he had already made his decision he had he had disobey God when we understand what the word obey means obey means to hear so he wanted to he you know hear the voice instead of hearing the voice of God listening to God and obeying he wanted to he had pride entered in and he disobeyed and he and he listened to and he wanted his own his own kingdom his own gardened his own destiny whatever it may be but he had made that choice alright and so in that disobedience he his mission was always to destroy the good that God had done so with Eve he came to the to her and he and he placed within her mind seed of doubt so if you look at the image with the fall and here you have the serpent and it's interesting how it looks as though he's ready to strike the mind of Eve that's what sin does send two sorts the way we think the serpent has always tried to push us into state of confusion to disorient us to make us to believe that lie is the truth that's what he did you know he fed her lie and she believed it to be truth and she enabled she went right over to Adam and and he himself fell for it but at that moment you know they begin to see is it love this word talks about in Genesis where they're walking in God's coming and he's walking in the garden that this is the breezy time of the day and he's saying where are you well of course he knew that they were they were hiding okay because at that moment again if you think about the word obey means to hear alright they were hearing no longer God's voice who was loving their their way in which they heard God's voice was one which they thought was vengeful that he was coming to punish them and he was coming to to strike them down so they were hiding from him so that relationship immediately we see here in the way and what they've reacted is that this relationship has been ruptured that that beautiful harmony that they had experienced was was destroyed it was just thrown into confusion and and they were they were shameful and they were hiding and God in His love he doesn't come you know god hasn't changed Adam and Eve had changed and when God comes he's asking them questions he didn't come and this is where so oftentimes enter and our culture and our own understanding of God especially if we begin to live life immersed in sin we have this vision of God that we that he's going to punish me that he's gonna strike me dead you know he God can't be who we he can't he can only be loving God loving God who is yes who's just loving God also who is merciful and and if you if you notice here if you read very carefully in Genesis he's asking them questions and they're answering and then they're answering there it's almost as if they're convicted themselves but the first person that he punishes is the serpent you know and and that you will be the one you know you will you will crawl on your belly as you go and then he goes and the consequences because there needs to be consequences for sins he tells Eve and then he tells Adam but these same consequences this rupture between the relationship this with you between God and man with one another with creation all of this has been thrown into confusion where our intellect now as we experience the ignorance our will is kind of is weak we have illness we have sickness all the consequences that that we all experience today are the result of this so what Adam and the end but with God at this moment though again we see he comes you know where are you are loving merciful God but he also gives us this promise of savior and genesis 3:15 the protoevangelium where he says that to the serpent as he is meeting out the punishment that the woman will your head will be crushed mean what greater insult to tell the serpent that at some point you know woman is going to crush your head because it was through the woman that he that he brought forth that he that he brought the seed of doubt that she will be the one to crush your head and of course we know that that woman is our Blessed Mother and the muscle Virgin Mary the mother of God now after this as we move on you know and understanding this looking this this understanding of the keurig this and and even when when Peter and Paul as they preach this you know they would tell it the story little bit different to the audience in which they were speaking to they didn't kind of go into all the detail that that may be offering at this moment but it has to be something that is as very as it was very personal to them and to their audience it's the same thing that has to be personal to ourselves and how we're going to retell it and our understanding as we move on we see that right after this after the protoevangelium is that love comes down so the woman of course is our Blessed Virgin Mary she's the one who by her obedience by her bein in hearing hearing God's will she listens and she undone ties and unties the knot of Eve's disobedience and by her yes to God the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and Jesus Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit was conceived in her womb and that the Virgin Mary Mary is forever perpetual virginity by this miraculous action of God that he's that that God by becomes man that he takes on flesh this is the Incarnation that the word becomes flesh mean it's mind-boggling to think of this but you you see what has to happen here is that there has to be in order to overcome sin and death there has to be power that is more okay so that so that God you know of course you know there could be many ways that guy could have come to save us but he chose chose to save us through the way in which we are created through our humanity that he that he took on flesh and that and the man becoming man that he could speak that he could walk that he could that he would you know experience everything that we experience but sin and our Blessed Virgin the Blessed Mother was conceived without self she was immaculately conceived you know she was the pure vessel the Ark of the Covenant by which this amazing work of God this marvelous work of God could take place so love comes down God becomes man and that he saves us by the power of his redemption that he that all that he had done his eyes are always on the father we see this as as we see his public ministry that he goes away to spend time in prayer we saw that even when he was young boy and his obedience when he was lost and they found him he said well I'm supposed to be in my father's house so he was always looking to the Father listening to his will until that moment and another garden the Garden of Gethsemane when he he takes his apostles and he and he's there and he moves away from them and spends that time in prayer and kneeling down and he says father you know if it is your will let this cup pass from me but but let me not my will but yours be done so that yes and that garden is is beginning to continue this hole is beginning that's the passion death and resurrection which was to come and the in the days to follow where he would become the victim of the sin of man of jealousy and of love the avarice and of Judas who would betray him you know there isn't anything in our lives that we can ever experience that Jesus that God had not experienced himself as he was man mean it's amazing but he experienced betrayal he was spit upon it was tonight everything that the experiences that we have except for and the consequences of that maybe he himself experienced so the the tree of death becomes tree of life that Jesus is crucified and and he dies and yet in his death and by and in his resurrection he overcomes death so death which was consequence of sin is now overcome that sin has been overcome by Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins he has restored all things all things have been restored in Christ so this as we move on and we begin to to think about all the marvels that God has done that he created us in love that he destined us forever to be with him forever in heaven we see how the consequences of sin we see how that he sent His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to save us that that should bring forth with us in ourselves responsive yes that we want to to live in relationship with him that we want to live with gratitude you know if you if you think about often like to use this example that if we know that God first loved us that God is saying to you to all of us at every moment love you you know that that that's all he can do if someone you know and you have relationship with if they tell you that they love you what do you naturally say back you naturally respond back and you say love you too that's as really as simple as guess in our relationship with God is that He loves us and we want to say back to him love you too and the way in which we do that is we live as his disciples that we live with that we want to live virtuously that we want to put order into the disorder of our lives that we want to begin to heal the rupture and our relationship with him our relationships with eat with each other with creation even within ourselves the struggles that we have within ourselves and that's what living life of virtue is all of that that that fight to become virtuous free and loving it has wider context it's not just truth of common wisdom of how do you live your life but it has cosmic theological context because of who Jesus Christ is really that the greatest context of it started with the fall of Adam and Eve and that if you remember the Garden of Eden where the serpent tempted Adam and Eve and they ate of the fruit and the promise was that the promise of serpent gave was that you can be like gods and the threat was if you remember Satan asked Eve he said to God tell you you can eat from any of the trees of this garden but that was lie because what God's rule was that there was one tree that they weren't allowed to eat from so the implication of Satan is is that God hasn't put you in paradise he's put you in desert look there's no trees you can eat from you're gonna starve if you follow God and in that fear and then that pride of wanting to take things into our own hands of thinking well if God put me into desert need to take care of myself need to grasp at that fruit and be like God so that can make sure survive and that fear and pride coupled together because they always go together they disobeyed God Adam and Eve and that's been the mark of humanity ever since is that splitting of that chasm between us and God because remember that the major punishment was death and separation from God well Christ did was gave us an alternative God didn't leave that state of separation between God and man but he immediately work to restore that Union and what Christ really is is he's bridge between God and man like any bridge he's anchored on both sides Jesus is God is in heaven and Jesus man is in earth he's anchored on both ends of that chasm and forms bridge that's the spiritual life that's the Christian life is passing that bridge from Earth to heaven of becoming like Christ and going over that bridge because that is the spiritual life it's journey to cross bridge but it's not journey by foot it's an inner journey of becoming like Christ ultimately what becoming like Christ is is growing in the virtues because of the virtues are as they describe what it's like to be fully alive fully human to be as God made us to be and so if you take the perfect person and you describe what he or she is like what you're gonna state or the virtuous - the descriptions of perfection and so because Christ is perfect they're description of Jesus Christ and so growing in the virtues is growing to be more and more like Jesus Christ that's really what salvation is is because God gives us the power to transform ourselves to be truly free truly loving and therefore truly happy and what's happening and all of that is God is preparing us for heaven all virtue is good habit we develop habits very early in life that's how we learn to speak that's how we learn to walk that's how we learn to interact with other people so it's something that comes from from habitually doing something over and over and when we choose to do things that really are oriented toward what's good and true then we grow in virtue we grow in habits that help us become more mature human being the opposite of virtue is vice so we become less and less free when we do not follow life of virtue and often we think we're free society often says that this is what freedom is but it's wrong notion of freedom so we're not less free were actually becoming slaves and as our societies become in very addictive Society today which is one which people are really enslaved by repeated habits that they cannot break free from think our young people especially our children at time when they are really formed by good teachers or by bad teachers and they're formed also by the larger society around them by the culture the good things in culture and the things in culture that are not good so good teachers and those who help our young people understand the virtuous life especially in the context of the love of Jesus and being follower of his then they're prepared to grow and to maturity to full maturity in Christ and that's great blessing for any human person we were created to live forever in heaven and we were created to live as full human being mature man or woman so the virtues help us to move along that journey it's not only the virtuous mean it's not only our own effort but it's also the grace of God so God is always giving us Grace's that help us to make that journey but we have to put in our own effort and that's where virtue comes about so it involves this combination of the use of our own freedom and then the acceptance of God's grace within us so that we can become more mature and more joyful as we become more mature because we rejoice in and realizing that we're actually able to be what we would desire to be in the heart of hearts have you ever taught this yeah yes I've taught the virtues and think what found personally really helpful about the virtues and then seeing that an educators guide is that everything is broken out so you not only have like the theological virtues and the cardinal virtues but then you have the little virtues because that's where see gosh I'm not magnanimous or really could work on being affable and then being able to be to look at okay well this is what it looks like this and it sounds like so they do great job of it because if you've ever read anything from st. Thomas Aquinas or anybody who's written especially from the old days they come the daughter virgin and it's this long tree of virtues and the guide and what we what we've done here at education and virtue is to make it so accessible and so teachable having taught this in high school didn't have this guy and I'm really sad now want to go back and teach it using the guide because it makes perfect sense and would have had more material than it would have ever been able to use because it's so clear and precise as to how it plays out and how you teach it think another thing like about it too is you know teachers like to kind of be in control their own classrooms they'd like to get material but then adapt it to their needs of their students where there's high school or grade school or class that's difficult to teach our class that just picks up on things quick and with the educators guide you can look at it you get also general enough idea so that you can then form it to your own classroom or your own students or this particular student so can take can think of going back to affability again you know if you have class that this is not their thing being affable you know you can bring that up and you can use examples from their own class and you can ask them for examples and since you have the general outline in front of you you have that quick reference and that's teachers that we love quick references anything that's quick reference color coded you know it helps with being able to then distill it to my personal needs as teacher to be able to teach this to my students and then also what always find is this like your own self examination of conscience like when I'm teaching my students to be affable what am and and it and that's great part about the education in virtue of whole program is even though taught high school taught 11th grade morality which would have been perfect is exactly this you have all these extra materials for making bulletin boards and to get the visual because depending how the learner learns need to be talking about it that's how learn others need to see the words and the nice needed to play see it play play it out in action and using some of the lot of most of materials that come with the program you can write in what is it have done this this week there's so many ways you can make this alive in the classroom and to make each little daughter virtue or the the subverts use they could see how they are part of their lives by how the whole program fits together and how the things we never even thought of our virtues all of sudden know that virtue I've been doing it yeah already have that one lockdown and so let's move on to the next one so it's such an incredible resource again want to go back yeah think another thing that like about it compared to other ways of approaching morality is you know lots of times with depression approaching morality just through the 10 commandments is that it's this list of mostly like thou shalt not and and and actually lot of people in some ways feel like well don't really do that haven't killed my neighbor lately you know and so the virtues still takes all those ideas well you have to be nice to your neighbor but there's stepping stones the education of virtue allows you to have stepping stones to okay well yes I'm keeping that commandment just like the rich young man I'm keeping that commandment but war can do and think that's what young people are looking for is that what more can do how can clear my eyes to see God more clearly in my neighbor how can respond and love somebody's asking me and really think knowing the virtues then allows you to do that because then you can check in your daily life well haven't killed my neighbor but wasn't magnanimous and this situation but have fed my neighbor yes yes very good am not spoken ill so think yeah big piece of this in how we play this out is to understand that the Commandments were given to the to the people of Israel very specific time because they wanted some type of law the things they shouldn't do yeah and as you notice it you there there you shells you shall not you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart right and hold the Sabbath the virtues aren't the things you shouldn't do don't kill your neighbor they're the things that will make you live fully human life they're the imitation of Christ the sequela Christie the way on how we live our life and it's just putting it's putting solid names to the things that like said most of us are probably hopefully already doing if not then you learn you say this is what am supposed to be doing not what shouldn't do already know that but what more can be to be like Christ this is what education in virtue does it is absolutely the perfect beautiful way to enter into the life of Christ yes yes we talk about education in virtue it really encompasses the what we talked about the moral formation and character also the life of freedom and grace in Christ and how do those two things fit together we talk about moral formation it's not simply the rulebook when they think about morals they they go right to talking about okay it's the list of things can't do and that's certainly certainly part of the moral the moral catechesis the moral formation that we have to give our children but it's really important that we diminish the value of the rules because we need those like to liken it to an analogy of football field in the playbook all the rules of football you have to know how to play football and know the rule in order to get on the field but any of us were watching game and we see an incredible catch by player or incredible tackle we don't jump out of the stands and say wow doesn't he play by the rules or well wasn't doesn't he know the rules that's not the first thing it comes out of our mouth something happened in that moment when that player excelled or did something you might say that went beyond simply keeping the rules and that's really what responding to those promptings of the Holy Spirit in freedom in grace in Christ that God's calling us to and the virtues are those foundational muscles spiritual muscles of internal dispositions that we are born with that have been weakened and have been cut off from their lifeblood it's so important with freedom that we we get our definitions of freedom correctly my name is Chris Horne played professional football for the Kansas City Chiefs New Orleans Saints Carolina and Panthers before was in the NFL played for the Arizona Rattlers here in Phoenix Arizona my wife and have four children right now ages are 11 9 6 and 2 my kids know more about their Catholic faith at this age then ever did at this age Amy and we talk about virtue quite bit one of the great things here at st. Thomas is the school will have virtue that they focus on for for that particular week and sometimes it will carry over for more than one week the last two weeks it was orderliness and it's amazing how the Holy Spirit works is during whatever virtue it is we're putting lot of focus in on so many opportunities come to talk about think it's helpful to the kids because you can see it start to make sense we're not just mindlessly let's practice the virtue of orderliness you know there are reasons and focus and it all leads to Christ want to go back and teach like said really want to want to go back and teach but just to teach you really have to start at the beginning yeah right so where do you start well for the Christian we start at the beginning of sacraments right so we start with baptism as teachers we begin at baptism baptism is the seed of eternal life it's the life of virtue it's our disciple life begins at baptism so as we're looking at these virtues we're saying where does it start it starts when waters splashed on our heads right this is this is how we start so always begin at the beginning it is the journey the beginning of our journey it's the pilgrimage to heaven baptism as we know is the death to original sin and actual sin if you have been baptized as an older person but for the baby it's that washing away of the original sin and making that debt that that baby perfect child of God it is and for the Christian it's the striving after that to have the death to sin be reality of our lives we receive grace and blessings in the good thing at baptism all these good things come to us in this grace of baptism we in baptism become sons and daughters of God that's the beautiful thing as Saint Irenaeus says the glory of God is man fully alive the life of man consists in beholding God and we can't behold God unless we are baptized and then enter into the fullness of that life given the theological virtues to assist us is what gives us the ability to do this the theological virtues are given to us that baptism it's important to know that don't think most people know that no no they didn't realize that yeah yeah you you you receive the theological virtues faith hope and love faith hope and charity the way we speak of charity and these virtues give life to every human action so that we can be spiritual monstrance of God we're in glory of God would break out into the whole creation shining like radiant spiritual light in the midst of the physical world virtues something very exciting because it's question of how do we find happiness in our lives how do we come to know the fullness of our own humanity and the joy of life itself but we all know that we have an innate desire for happiness we all crave it and want it in and of itself everybody wants to be happy nobody says want to be miserable want to have life of pain and suffering everybody says want life that's fulfilling and that leads to happiness we actually find it quite hard in life to give of ourselves this is the selfishness of self-centeredness that we constantly fought find in our lives this person is not free because he's not free to speak the truth and this is what vices do to us they become like if you remember old vinyl records and they have those grooves carved in them and the needle runs along the groove well the device is like that needle going into that groove time again and playing the same song and it becomes very difficult to change because you become used to that pattern and what virtue does is gets us out of that pattern so that the pattern no longer is something that undercuts our freedom our ability to love and thus our ability to be happy but instead gives us the freedom to give ourselves in love another way you can look advice is that it's like poison ivy if you've ever had poison ivy then they all tell you don't scratch it whatever you do don't scratch the poison ivy but you know everybody scratches it you just can't help yourself and vice is that that poison ivy and you want to stop scratching it but you just can't because you start to realize what it's doing is through all sin and vice is locking you within yourself you're imprisoning yourself and you're unable to give of yourself you're unable to do what you're called to do and you just can't stop like you can't stop scratching that poison ivy what virtue does is it ends that imprisonment it ends that inability to give ourselves and love because ultimately virtue gives us control over ourselves it gives us possession of ourselves you can't give something you don't have so you can't give yourself in love if you don't have possession of yourself an ability to give yourself to someone else the virtues and the gifts are not just for our supernatural life but they're actually to here for us to restore us they restore us now in the present moment in our journey here on earth they're meant to help us to live the divine life and God doesn't leave us to our own devices when we practice virtue we need to get in the habit of doing good and think that's what everybody actually probably struggles with is developing those habits as developing those virtues but when we do develop this habit then we experience this true freedom and it's freedom for excellence it's freedom to truly be happy and it's actually the freedom that everybody really desires so this can sound easy you know get these gifts and then just practice them but think everybody in the virtuous life knows that it's actually difficult to practice some virtues now not all virtues and think that's what's interesting is there are virtues that you might naturally have that that actually you've moved along in perfection whether it's just gift that God has given you or it's been practiced in your childhood and through time maybe your mom was very good at asking you to wait so you grew in patience as child so some people like grow in patience and have it rather naturally and then there's people who patience is there 100% struggle that they this is difficult for them so everybody has kind of those different gifts and different virtues that they need to work on or ones that little bit can come naturally to them think it's something that's helpful that people often don't think about is that since they're intertwined the virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that when you grow in one you grow in all of them so if I'm growing in patience I'm also growing in self-control or magnanimity or whichever daughter virtue that we're talking about so god gives us these virtues at baptism but it's up to us to use these to help us to grow in holiness to perfect us and to become virtuous people so at baptism receive we received the gift of the holy spirit we received the theological virtues and the cardinal virtues and the word Cardinal comes from the Latin word hinge because all the all the human virtues are hinged to these four virtues the cardinal virtues are prudence justice fortitude temperance prudence orders the mind and intellect so that we can make right decisions justice perfects the will and relationships ordering them under charity fortitude and temperance perfect emotions either strengthening them in the face of difficulties or moderating them in pursuit pleasure beautiful statement we have from st. Gregory of Nyssa and here this well the goal of the virtuous life is to become like God and it only can be done with the help and prompting of God in the Holy Spirit that enlivens our hearts and makes us want not just be like but want to be like God and so this is the purpose of this life of virtue that we are teaching in this program virtue is not just about human flourishing on earth it is also about living bliss forever when we live virtue joys and struggles come but you are rooted in your love for the Lord and so you recognize that you can endure all things with God's help when you receive the virtues we also receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit at baptism seven ways in which the Holy Spirit can work in our lives each gift corresponds to virtue flowing from theological virtue or perfecting the cardinal virtues the hinge virtues that we just mentioned John of st. Thomas has an analogy it's the wind and the sails like the Holy Spirit assisting the roller each action is step toward or away from God we need to understand this very well everything we do and in the moral life in the virtuous life forth of the vicious life and we say the Vice life is we're either going towards God or we're retreating or walking away from God not necessarily retreating but maybe walking away so everything we do matters but the seed planet at baptism can either grow grow in virtue and give us that life that looks like God or it can lie dormant it doesn't disappear it is still there when you're baptized you're baptized and so you have the Holy Spirit there but it can be dormant God pours out his grace to awaken and sustain that seed now baptism removes original sin but not its effects it leaves us with concupiscence an inclination towards sin and we must take up our cross daily because conversion is constant we're never not where we don't live static lives as Christians we're either moving toward the cross and the resurrection of Christ or moving away from it and so we have to take up that cross daily but sin can distract us sin clouds our minds it makes us less smart if you will could say something worse than that but it does not it clouds our intellect it clouds our minds clouds our judgment and snares us in cycle of sin we've all seen how this occurs either in our lives or in the lives of people around us mortal sin cuts us off completely you're doomed at that point but not really because we can enter into reconciliation but the cross shows us how serious how serious the mortal sin is and that's why Jesus hung on that cross to show us how sin has affected the the god man thus the the savior of the world it cuts us off like branch off of tree but go to reconciliation be reconciled with the church and with one another and were grafted back on the tree and it's like we were never gone my flows again it life flows again the blood is pumping again and in the Holy Spirit is alive again confirmation is piece of this - and it strengthened us it strengthens us and perfects us in the life that we have already chosen and it is our obligation as confirmed people to then witness to that faith to live fully this life of virtue so that people can see there you are there's Jesus know that person knows Christ and then of course last but not least in this is the Eucharist nourishes us in our life of Christ it's that true encounter with Christ it is an intimate union with Christ and when life is the hardest we need to return and always be at and receive the Eucharist st. Irenaeus said the glory of God as man fully of live well we have to ask the question is what does it really mean to be fully alive and there is there anybody we can look to for that example and the church presents us with whole list of people that we can look at who are fully alive that we are assured are fully alive because they are canonized their saints in heaven and of course you can look too many virtuous people that you know but the scenes are kind of put forward towards to us by the church so that we can see their heroic virtue so one wonderful thing about the Saints is that they're all completely different if you look at you have Saint gemma Galgani you have Padre Pio mother Teresa st. John Paul the second all of these Saints God made them Saints they grew in holiness they grow in virtue by practicing virtue in the life where God had placed in them during their life here on earth and so this is this is really beautiful it's beautiful to see these souls that have fully flourished and have completely given themself over to Christ transformative grace so disciple of Christ is rooted in this divine love and like the Saints seek to give themselves away to him so that we can find happiness and we can find holiness gaudiya Mitzvahs says man cannot fully find himself except through sincere gift of himself when we give ourselves and when we're selfless we actually find who we are who God created us to be we should never forget that God loves us with an infinite love and has particular plan for each one of us st. John Paul the second said you or thought of God you are heartbeat of God to say this is like saying that you have value which in sense is infinite that you matter to God and you're completely unique individuality think sometimes is easy to get really wrapped up that God loves us God loves us that we forget well it's actually God loves me he's very personal that God loves each individual with personal love that's he created them to be unique person and to respond to his love in very unique way and often think know when teach this my kids often can get kind of jealous of Adam and Eve that they were able to walk in the garden with God but when we think about it what we've received through being redeemed through Christ coming and dying on the cross and rising from the dead is this intimate closeness with God is Adam and Eve were never like st. John who could lean his head on the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Last Supper and as well as we actually receive Jesus in the Eucharist into our very bodies and Adam and Eve could never get that close to God they walked with God but they never received God so we have received this great gift in Jesus's coming down and coming to earth and saving us and redeeming us so how then we have to look and say how am going to respond to this great gift and our response is how am going to give my whole life my whole being and that's the life of virtue