This week, I spoke to a young man about virtues. He wanted to work on one or two for Lent, and was looking over the list of virtues on the website under the Destiny tab. He said there were so many to choose from. I said, let’s go at it from another angle. What fault would you like to overcome? I gave him a list of faults and he chose disrespectfulness.

There are several virtues he could focus on for Lent to overcome this fault. Obviously, respectfulness, but also empathy for the other person's feelings, both of which are intellectual virtues. (You have to think about them, if they are not yet, a habit.) Habits eventually become virtues and that is why another virtue, politeness, comes into play. This virtue comes up more frequently, so it is easier to form a habit and eventually a virtue, making it easier to overcome disrespectfulness. Working on both of these at the same time makes the more difficult fault easier to address.

This encounter with the young man made me realize I had not listed faults on my website. Some are now listed after virtues. One serious fault can wipe out multiple virtues, and a couple off simple virtues can eliminate a serious fault.