We need not go through every vice and every virtue. The corresponding virtue to greed in this list is charity. Often the vice that is strongest within us will also provoke the corresponding virtue to be the strongest. Most of us can identify that we have strong problems with one vice rather than another. Probably we all have some of all of these vices.

Temperance means always looking for the balance-and I donвЂ™t always like that. On the other hand, I have to work hard to eat less almost all the time because I gain weight easily. In the monastery at one time we had a monk who had to eat seven times a day just to maintain ordinary weight. This does not outlaw feasts and parties, but keeps even those within limits. Others may be incredibly thin and yet commit gluttony.В Temperance is the balance that tells us to eat what we need, not more or less. Some people who are ill in certain ways become very fat and yet are not gluttons. Gluttony and temperance are also relational as vice and virtue in some ways. An unmarried couple, doing the same, are unchaste. Thus a married couple, a man and a woman, are chaste when they have normal sexual relations. It does mean being sexual in accord with oneвЂ™s state in life. Lent can be seen as a time to pursue the virtues that are the opposites of the seven capital sins: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, forgiveness, kindness and humility. So also in our Catholic and Christian tradition, we have to work to understand to live this virtue of humility. Instead of trying to reinvent humility, we must simply rediscover its reality so that we can live it more completely in our lives.ДЇor Saint Benedict, humility is a struggle. Lewis who stated in one of his books that the problem today for many people is not pride but lack of self-esteem.This does not call us to abandon humility, however, but to understand it more profoundly so that we do not confuse humility with a lack of self-esteem.

For many people today, who already have low self-esteem, this can be a fatal recipe. For instance, Saint Benedict tells us that we must not only think of ourselves as worse than others but believe it in the depths of our hearts. Many people today do not take the time to read that chapter well because some of the ways in which Saint Benedict expresses himself go against our modern sensibilities. Saint Benedict has a very long chapter on the degrees of humility. The corresponding virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, forgiveness, kindness and humility.ДЇor us monks, humility is often pointed out to us by Saint Benedict in his Rule for Monks. Lots of us have different orders in our own minds, but this would be the classical order. From the least to the greatest of these sins, the order would be: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Instead, the worst of the capital sins is pride. Often Christians tend to think of such sexual appetites and the worst of the sins. It is also good to remember that the least offensive of the capital sins is lust, excessive sexual appetites. Rather it should mean to focus on living for God and that means to focus on virtue. We are struggling to overcome our sinfulness and yet that does not mean to focus on sin. вЂ¦n Lent we can become focused almost exclusively on sin rather than on virtue. Lenten reflections from Benedictine Abbot Philip in New Mexico:

Relations of virtues and vices catholic