St. Elizabeth Catholic Church Granite City, Illinois

Welcome to Young Disciples Society! At St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, we want to help all of our fully-initiated youth learn about virtue and grow in a life of virtue, AND develop a community of peers who want a deeper relationship with Jesus and with their friends in Christ.

That’s why we’ve started Young Disciples Society. If you’ve received the Sacrament of Confirmation, you’ve received all of the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist.) We receive Baptism and Confirmation once, but you should be doing everything you can to receive Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist as much as possible now – even daily when you can! With Jesus in the Eucharist comes grace for our daily lives as disciples.

When we say that we want to help each other learn about virtue and grow in it, we mean the three “Theological Virtues” and the four “Cardinal Virtues,” and then all of the other virtues that “hinge” on those key virtues… PLUS the related Gifts & Fruits of the Holy Spirit (which we received in their fullness at Confirmation) and the Beatitudes.

That seems like a lot, but we’re going to learn how they’re all connected… and we’re going to learn that Jesus came to show us that a life of holiness and grace – a life of happiness and of being the best version of ourselves that God created us to be – is as simple as trying to live the virtues better each day of our lives.

We’ll learn about this with weekly challenges, which may even lead to occasional badges and other rewards. And we’ll learn more about how we can help each other out when we gather as a community occasionally through the year.

Here’s the BIG SCOOP for this week: The 3 Theological Virtues & the 4 Cardinal Virtues

Let’s start at the top. There are 3 Theological Virtues. These are supernatural gifts infused by God at our Baptism, perfected in our Confirmation, that directly relate to him (God) and dispose us to live in relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are:

• FAITH: Enables us to know God and all that He has revealed. • HOPE: Enables us to desire God above all things and to trust in Him for our salvation. • CHARITY: Enables us to love God above all and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

There are also 4 Cardinal Virtues (these are the “Big 4”!) These are pivotal habits of right thinking, getting our passions in the right order, and of moral conduct to help us live well.

• PRUDENCE (Sound Judgement): Enables us to reason & act rightly in any given situation. • JUSTICE (Fairness): Enables us to give to each, beginning with God, what is due to them. • FORTITUDE (Courage): Enables us to endure difficulties and pain for the sake of what is good. • TEMPERANCE (Self-Control): Enables us to be moderate in our pleasures and our use of God’s creation. What’s Next? Next week, we’ll look at how the Gifts & Fruits of the Holy Spirit, and maybe one more sub-virtue, tie to these 3 Theological Virtues & 4 Cardinal Virtues. Young Disciples Challenge: See how many of those 3 Theological + 4 Cardinal Virtues you can remember this week… And see if you can tell mom, dad, a teacher, or a grandparent what it looks like when you’re using one of those virtues.