written 11/22/2024, by Aubrie F.
Have you ever considered that your own virtue (or lack of virtue) has a profound impact on every other single person in your life?
Our leadership team read Dr. Edward Sri’s book called “The Art of Living” this year, and among the absolute abundance of gold nuggets, a passage from page two stood out to all of us.
Sri was sharing how an intensive summer of study on Aquinas’ account of virtues in Summa Theologica provided a new lens through which he came to understand virtue:
“I began to see more clearly the close connection between growing in the virtues and growing in friendship and community with others. Previously, I think I had a more individualistic perspective on the virtues […] One needs to grow in virtue for the sake of his own moral and spiritual progress.
What Aquinas helped me appreciate at a deeper level that summer was how virtue was not simply something good for me. It was crucial for the most important relationships in my life […] Those relationships were all deeply affected by how much I possessed or lacked the virtues.”
We were rocked by this beautiful new approach to growing in virtue: in light of community. No longer did we understand virtues primarily as spiritual badges for ourselves; instead, we now understood that the pursuit of virtue gives us, in Sri’s words, “the freedom to love [others].”
A Bit of Self-Reflection
How is your own pursuit of virtue? Do you find yourself trying to be more holy primarily for your own sake, or for those around you? Are you surrounding yourself with relationships that drive you to grow in virtue?
The pursuit of virtue is difficult. Living virtuously once we’ve established a habitual disposition to good is one thing, but it’s getting to that point which is difficult, sometimes incredibly frustrating. And in the Christian life, this is growth that takes place over a lifetime.
How Do We Do It
We invite our young adult missionaries to undertake asceticisms, spiritual exercises which help us grow in virtue and help us realign our priorities to ensure that we seek pleasure from God primarily. Practicing self-denial is like building your spiritual muscles against moral weakness and laxity of heart.
The idea behind asceticism is that we believe God purposefully designed us to pursue happiness and delight; however, in this pursuit, we often place the created good above the Creator. That is, we are accustomed to love the enjoyable things of this world more than our love for God Himself who blesses us with those enjoyable things.
The practice of asceticism is meant to help us grow in virtue and help us realign our priorities to ensure that we seek pleasure from God primarily.
We will only truly be joyful if we place God at the center of our lives and pursue Him first, and then let everything fall into place after that. Asceticism helps us to walk that path in life.
So What Now
I, and the whole team at Biking for Babies, desire for you to be “free to love” by growing in virtue. So, consider what asceticisms you may be called to adopt in your pursuit of virtue and to rightly ordered relationship with God and others.
Historically, Advent is a time of asceticism as we prepare ourselves to be open to receiving the Word Incarnate, so with that season approaching, there’s no time like the present to take this to prayer! We’ll be praying for you as you do!
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2025 applications for young adults to join our mission opportunity are open now, until February 2025. Visit this link for discernment resources, to see if the Lord is calling you to be a missionary, for life.
