The Cardinal Virtue of Prudence

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Welcome to episode 13 of the Saint John the Baptist Parish podcast. We're in February already.

Can you believe it? You know, the Catholic church takes the month of February as a time to honor the holy family. We reflect on the life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This tradition of looking at the holy family in the month of February actually dates back to the seventeenth century. We're called to look to the holy family as a model in our everyday lives.

Well, we are excited to announce that Saint John the Baptist is starting a Catholic book club. We're gonna have an informational session on Monday, February 17. That'll be at 3PM in the parish hall, and you're most welcome to come attend. Our Bingo Burgers and Beer was a big success last week. Thank you to the men's club and all who helped to make that a lot of fun.

Couple of items for your calendar. We're going to be having our first communion pop up boutique. That's gonna be on February 27 through the third. Okay? This is gonna be brought to us by Gowns of Graces.

It's a pop up shop, a first communion boutique. And this gives our first communion families an opportunity to purchase beautiful and affordable dresses, suits, and accessories for the blessed occasion of first communion coming up later this year. And the great news is the parish will earn 10% of the sales. And we're about four weeks away from Ash Wednesday, so mark that on your calendar. It will be Wednesday, March, as we begin the penitential season of Lent.

Loving and serving the poor has been part of the tradition of the Catholic church since its founding. The catechism of the Catholic church teaches us that the Eucharist commits us to the poor. This means that we have a responsibility to care for those in need. Whether it's donating our time, talents, or resources, we can make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. Doing so is an essential part of our faith and shows God's love in action.

On the last episode of the Saint John the Baptist podcast, we talked about one of the cardinal virtues, the virtue of temperance. Today, we're gonna talk about another one of the four cardinal virtues. So just to recap, the four cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. And today, we're going to talk about the first one. It's called the mother of all virtues, and that is the virtue of prudence.

Now prudence might sound like being overly cautious or or too careful, but prudence isn't just about playing it safe. It's about being wise. It's about making choices that are good for you and for those around you. The church emphasizes the seven heavenly virtues of faith, hope, and love, which are theological, and prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, the cardinal virtues. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote about prudence.

He defined it as right reason in action, and he emphasized how important it is to use wisdom when you make moral decisions. Not to go by our feelings, but to use wisdom. Now at the heart of prudence is the gift of discernment. The ability to see through situations, to understand their complexity, and to pick the best path forward. Prudence teaches foresight.

It encourages us to think ahead about the consequences of our action rather than simply reacting in the moment. One of the worst things you can do is just react in the moment. Typically, we're going to overreact and perhaps say things we shouldn't say. The virtue of prudence calls for reflection before we act. This helps us to make decisions in line with moral principles, to consider the long term effect.

Not just it's gonna make me feel good right now, or I need to get this off my chest right now. But prudence is taking the long view. How will what I do now affect my life a week from now, a year from now, ten years from now? In our personal life, prudence is self control where we use reason to master our passions. We make sure that our actions reflect what what our values are and our beliefs as Christians.

The best way to embody prudence is through thoughtful reflection, by weighing the options, and, again, considering not only the immediate benefits of your action, but the well-being of all beyond the immediate moment, not just your well-being, but the well-being of everyone involved. Prudence values lessons from the past. We use what we've learned through life as a guide to navigate the future wisely. Isn't there something in all of our lives that we'd like to do differently if we had the choice? Had we had more prudence, perhaps we would have.

In the Proverbs, there's a verse that a wise man has many counselors or seeks many counselors. And the virtue of prudence promotes this seeking of advice, acknowledging that wisdom often comes from collective experience, not just what we think, not just what we feel. And prudence isn't just about avoiding risk, but it's about managing it wisely, deciding when to act with boldness and when patience is a better strategy. Now the four cardinal virtues all work together, so prudence might go with fortitude in certain situations when you do need to act bold. And the cardinal virtue of temperance would also come into play, how bold you need to be.

Pope Benedict the sixteenth, of course, was one of the great theologians of the last one hundred years. He said this about prudence. Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities or postponing decisions. It means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibility and the road to be taken. Now we live in this crazy world, the twenty first century, where everything comes at us at lightning fast speed.

Right? We have a microwave culture. It's now, now, now. We need prudence more than ever to take a moment, to be patient, to reflect, to take time to have deep thought before taking action. So as the church holds up these four cardinal virtues, prudence is the mother of all virtues.

We want to embrace prudence. It will make our lives tangibly better. It'll help us to navigate the challenges of life and help it to go more smoothly when we have the virtue of prudence as our companion. Thanks for listening to the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Parish podcast from Fort Lauderdale. Be sure to follow our show on Apple Podcast and Spotify, and that way you'll be notified every time we release a new episode.

This has been a production of the Parish Podcast Project.