This is an excerpt from the book The Traditional Virtues According to St. Thomas Aquinas: A Study for Men, by Jason M. Craig. A thing lives when it breathes in and out. The virtue of charity is only alive when it “” in and out, so to speak, in loving God and man. This love is more than a feeling. “[It] is an act of charity to do good to ot...

The "three pillars" of Lent have a beautiful logic to them.  The first pillar is prayer because prayer unites us to God and prepares us to receive Him.  The second is fasting, which is a conscious denial to the flesh, disciplining the appetites and joining us more to Christ.  It has the added benefit of uniting us in shared suffering, which ...