We become faster on the track by running quicker at track practice, more patient as parents by forgiving crayon drawing on walls, and we also grow in prudence by being prudent.

Last week, we looked at how Father James Keenan, SJ, describes prudence. He says that prudence “recognizes the ends to which a person is” already “naturally inclined.” Basically, prudence helps us act toward that which is good for us and others.

Well-formed consciences direct our inclinations and choices; we won’t see the proper destination for our desires unless we know what is good for us. So, how do we form our consciences?

Granted, our parents formed our consciences, and that’s hard to undo.

Parents are the first and primary teachers of the faith and of how to live in general. Our Catholic Church has always taught that. Whether your parents prayed with you or made you go to Mass, or even how they handled anger and sadness: these are all things that formed your conscience. If you’ve ever thought, “Man, that’s just like my dad (or mom),” you’re glimpsing the significant influence of your parents in forming your conscience for action. That formation is deep.

However, we can’t just blame our parents.

A line from Saint John Paul II’s The Splendor of Truth makes a good deal of sense here: “We are in a certain way our own parents, creating ourselves as we will, by our actions.”

We have talked about this before. Prudence is attained by prudent choices: deciding upon a healthy diet, planning how late we might stay up one night, etc. We need to think about what is in fact good for us. Is this a good group of guys to hang out with? Should I spend time with these women who gossip frequently? Would three minutes in prayer be better than 10 minutes of venting about a problem?

There are some things that God graciously gives us, like agapé love, abandonment to God’s providence working in us, and conversion in faith. But we can still do everything in our natural power to become prudent while praying that God will work in us, too.

St. Augustine is told to have said, “Grace builds on nature.” So, let us use our fullest human powers to live full lives—the very fullness Christ is inviting us to live in him.

Published in the South Gibson Star Times

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If we are going to live full lives, that is to say, be fully human, then we will need the final Cardinal Virtue in this series: Prudence.

Like all of the virtues, we develop virtue by habitual action. However, there are some things about prudence that, if we know them, may help us get prudence “right”.

First, prudence perfects action. Father James Keenan, SJ, tells us that prudence “recognizes the ends to which a person is” already “naturally inclined.” Another way we may put it: prudence can be likened to common sense. It helps us choose toward the goal at which we are aiming in our actions.

Each of us already has a natural inclination toward what is good for us. We eat when we’re hungry. We seek a loving hug when we are in despair. We fight or flee when we are overwhelmed.

But our natural responses aren't always prudent ones.

Many years ago, there existed a thing called “moral manuals”. These books prescribed what good acts were required. The authors tried to give direction in the moral life. With prudence, though, we are able to find the proper action without manuals.

Our consciences will help guide us to repeated good living, but only insofar as we have formed our consciences well, and are still forming our consciences well. That means reading good books, watching good movies, spending time with good men and women. Ultimately, though, it is our family that will form our consciences most significantly.

Finally, prudence integrates. Fr. Keenan writes that prudence takes into account our “entire life and the end of human life.” What he is essentially saying is that prudence is the avenue through which the other virtues find right ordering; it integrates our decisions into a full, good life.

If I am lacking in one area of my life, I will likely overcompensate with something else. Marriages begin to crumble when we don’t communicate enough with our spouses, and friendships turn sour when we cease being honest. Prudence integrates all of our actions, though, by helping each of the other virtues find the road that is best: how temperate we should be without becoming cold, how courageous we should be without becoming a fool, or how justice should be manifest when disciplining a child.

Through prudence, we are integrated as persons, moving closer to the image of God we resemble.

Published in the South Gibson Star Times

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