Introduction to the Devout Life: Which virtue to choose?

St. Francis appears to advise us to work on our faults and seek our perfection one step at a time; so I'm going to take that advice to heart in blogging about the particular virtues presented in Part 3.  I'm definitely not going to blog about all of them at once.

The first few chapters of part three are meant to help us discern which virtues to "choose" and how to go about seeking their perfection. (see  here, here, here and  here)

Having considered that, I'm going to "choose" one virtue which I am especially in need of perfecting.  Then I'm going to move on to consider the particular chapters that deal with that virtue.

I'm not going to look at the other chapters in detail here just yet (although I have read quickly through them as I tried to grasp the overall structure of Part 3).  This would get in the way of my "one thing at a time" philosophy. 

After I consider those particular chapters from Part 3, I'll move on to Part 4, "Overcoming Temptations," and consider its advice as applied to that one specific virtue.
 
Now, which one to choose?  To recap, the particular virtues enumerated in Part 3 are

•Virtue when in troubles: Ch. 3. Patience
•Virtue when others find fault with us: Ch. 4-7. Humility, love of humiliation, and care of our good name
•Virtue when faced with frailties, faults, and weakness in ourselves and others: Ch. 8-9, Gentleness towards others and patience with ourselves
•Virtue in the performance of duties Ch. 10-11 and 35: Avoidance of over-eagerness and anxiety; obedience; fidelity on all occasions
•Virtue in the face of material riches or material poverty: Ch. 14-16 Spiritual poverty
•Virtue in friendship: Ch 17-22 Friendships, true and false
•Virtue in sexual matters: Ch 12-13 and 38-41. Chastity, with specific advice to those who are married, to widows, and to virgins

And in dealings with society:

•Ch 25 Proper attire (not modesty, but attractiveness of attire)
•Ch 26-30 Honest and respectful speech
•Ch 31-34 Fun and recreation
•Ch 36 "We must be reasonable." Fairness to neighbor as to yourself.

As you might have guessed from other things I've written of late, I choose to focus on Chapter 10, "Avoidance of over-eagerness and anxiety," along with the two chapters that have something to do with dutifulness and diligence: Chapter 11 on obedience and Chapter 35 on faithfulness in things great and small.

I admit that there were a couple of other virtues that jumped out at me.  For example, as a mother of small children who loses her temper more often than I care to admit, at first I thought that perhaps I should focus on "Gentleness."  But on further reflection I understood that most of the time I lose patience with my children, it's a direct result of anxiety about being late for something or other.  More of that "attachment to time" I have been writing about.  Better to strike at the heart of the problems.

So, "avoidance of anxiety" it is, or will be in the next post. 

Meanwhile, those of you with access to a copy of Introduction to the Devout Life -- which is all of you, as it is available online for free from several sources -- might consider whether to choose another one of the virtues to examine yourself in.  You are welcome to discuss in the comments here (or elsewhere -- drop me a link and I'll put it up).

Comments

[Tabitha]

Are you going to put all of these posts on "Introduction to a Devout Life" together? I was mentioning them to a friend tonight and would like to be able to send her a link to all of them together. I just started reading the book tonight!