Anna Schweers (OLIH Parishioner) writes:

For the majority of my life, I have had a very surface level understanding of the virtues, especially prudence. As a camper at Catholic Youth Camp in Panora, many years ago, I was given a pin that said, “I act with saintly virtues.” I liked the buzz words but I really didn’t know what it meant. After some discussion with a friend years later, we came upon the definition that virtue is “the active pursuit of the good.”

This definition completely reframed my mind. I was so struck by the fact that Dr. Sri brought up Habit 2 of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Begin with the End in Mind. As a teacher in the Ankeny Community School District, I have a close look at what the children of our community are learning. If you have children in the school system you may know that Ankeny Schools has adopted Leader in Me, which is a children’s version of those habits applied in their daily lives.

The children you encounter each day are being taught to actively pursue the good everyday. This begs for us to dive in as well. Like all of you, I want to be a good person and have good things in my life. I want to act in a way that brings about good in the world for myself and for my neighbor.

As Dr. Sri stated, “prudence is the charioteer of all virtues.” Prudence is the guiding virtue that shows us what that good actually is. We must use prudence to determine what our end goal is and the best path to get there. Throughout this section, Dr. Sri acknowledges the things that get in the way of living with prudence. I feel that all of the examples given were areas where we are choosing to only use our head knowledge or only use our heart knowledge. Our head knowledge is the things we know to be true.

When we act out of our head knowledge we tend to only act in ways that have acted before, doing things with a specific ending that we can count on. When we use only our head knowledge, we will never see the new good the Lord wants to provide for us.

Heart knowledge, on the other hand, is doing things that make us feel good and acting out of emotion. When we act out of only our heart knowledge, we make impulsive and irrational decisions. The reality is that prudence is the balance between both our head and our heart knowledge.

It is acting with right judgment while also keeping our eyes open to the experiences around us. It is being cautious while not letting anxiety take over our lives.

Jesus shows us this balance so beautifully in the story of Lazarus (John 11), Jesus’s dear friend whom he loved. Throughout the story, Jesus acknowledges the truth in that “this illness will not end in death,” (John 11:4). Later on in the story we see that Jesus still wept over his friend. Jesus knew what was going to happen and could be confident in his decision to come when he did, but he also acknowledged his emotion and felt it.

When we live with prudence we acknowledge the both/and of our lives, rather than the either/or. I pray that as you continue this journey in learning about prudence and the virtues, you acknowledge that there is room for both your intellect and your heart in decision making.

I pray that you will recognize where you have been and allow it to impact where you are going. Most importantly, I pray that you allow the Lord to be an active participant in your decision making and rely on him to give you what you need to, “act with saintly virtues.”

Your Sister in Christ,

Anna Schweers



 Reading plan:  

  • Monday, January 9 – Wednesday January 18 – Part One: Virtue and Friendship 

  • Friday, January 20 – Part Two: The Four Cardinal Virtues 

  • Monday, January 23-Friday, January 27 – Prudence 

  • Monday, January 30 – Friday, February 3 – Fortitude 

  • Monday, February 6 – Friday, February 10 – Temperance 

  • Monday, February 13 – Friday, February 17 - Justice