THE VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE

Prudence is one of the so called 'cardinal virtues', that is the fundamental vIrtues. The concept of 'cardinal 'virtue' is very well explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church at Nr. 1805: four virtues have function of hinge." To this they are called "cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. The cardinal virtues are: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. "If anyone loves justice, virtues are the fruit of his labors. She teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude " (Wis 8,7). Under other names, these virtues are praised in many passages of the Scriptures

What is VIRTUE: although I think we all know this, it is worth repeating that virtue is generally a positive attitude towards themselves, towards the world and towards others, in which the WILL is crucial. Indeed virtue requires training, the practice and repetition in doing good acts. A discounted but always effective example: you have to be like the athlete who's training hard to improve its performance, repeating and repeating the same things. It's been 50 years, but I always remember when I went to the Judo's dojo of Master Pio Gaddi. The students, in pairs, in turn repeated the same movements for hours and hours a week. At first it seemed boring, but at last you could tell that the studying and learning the techniques and then repeating them many times during the training time, was the key to run them well during a race. To beat the opponent was important but not as important as well to apply the techniques we had learned.

Why today are we here? To waste our time? I don't believe it. We are here because we want to be trained and trained, and then to test us in the occasion, to achieve our best in the daily practice. Speaking about training, it also comes to my mind the recitation of the Holy Rosary. In addition to all the other benefits that it can procure, praying the Rosary is a workout that predisposes to acquire all the virtues. The cardinal virtues, among which there is prudence, are the main things which pertain the manhood. They are the cornerstones of the human soul, already known to the ancient philosophers (particularly Aristotle and Plato), on which it based a life that one wants to devote to the good.

What is PRUDENCE: from the point of view of a car driver, prudence is not to give up driving. Prudence means that occasionally one have to check the tires' condition, fasten the seat belts, observe signals, adjust his speed to the driving conditions and other things. And you must always keep vigilant because there is always the risk of accidents, especially if one is distracted.
Let's extend this concept to every aspect of our lives. the prudent man is not so much the undecided, the cautious, the hesitant. Prudence, however, has reason to discern, in every circumstance, what is the best thing to do, what is our true good, and to choose the means for achieving it, in fact without hesitation. The really prudent man knows how to take decision with healthy realism, he do not get carried away by the easy enthusiasm, he's not wavering and he's not afraid to dare and go against what he feels that is wrong, for example, he's not afraid to openly oppose to a culture far from the God's law.

It helps us to understand even better the Catechism of the Catholic Church to the point in 1806: prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern in every circumstance our true good and to choose the means of achieving it. The 'wise man controls his steps "(Proverbs 14:15). "Be sober, and watch unto prayer" (first letter of Peter. PT 14,7). Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas in the Aristotle's wake. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called "Auriga virtutum - charioteer of the virtues": it guides the other virtues by setting rules and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of our conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. Thanks to this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.

A fine example of prudence is St. Joseph , the foster father of Jesus, who has always used all the virtues of a good family man. The Gospel tells us how he behaved when he learned that the Virgin Mary was pregnant. He was a rightand prudent man, who would not want to give scandal and endanger the reputation and life of Mary and decided to 'send back her in secret'. We all know how it happened. We know how he was attentive and alert and that was a good family man. When he heard that Herod sought the baby Jesus, did not think twice to abandon everything and flee to Egypt with the family.
Although the Gospels do not say much of the period in which Joseph was still alive, imagine how it must run the life of the Holy Family, the bright and cheerful home, a job well done, their relations of love and their spirit of service ...

On the subject of prudence we could talk a lot, I would like to give some examples about prudence towards:
a) yourself as first;
b) your neighbour;
c) your friends,
d) your family,
e) last but not least, towards God.

a) FIRST PLACE WITH OURSELVES: the society where we live in is far from being perfect, but one can certainly imagine worse. Imagine how you would live if those who steal, or kill, or spread gossip, or forfeit the assets, or the family or the reputation of others, and live without supernatural horizons, should be regarded as saints or benefactors, and as an example to follow.
A voice inside us tells us no, that's not right. In order to live without harming himself and others, Prudence encourages us trying to follow the same rule, the same principle that should govern the human society that's worthy of it's name: the natural law. If one looks good into himself, his many personal positive and negative experiences, it turns out that this is true, that this is the absolute reference serving to avoid falling into relativism, which so fashionable today.

Then what greater damage could be that one can do to himself, that getting despaired for eternal salvation, or thinking that everything will end on this earth? One must be cautious and try to do everything possible for not to expose himself to such a risk.
Exercise of prudence for ourselves by one way is not put us in situations or actions that may harm us physically or spiritually, which is worse; and by the other side is to work actively, that put us in a position to form ourselves spiritually and culturally. We aim to be sure 1) that we took the right direction, and 2) to maintain it.
In addition to public education that the Opus Dei provides us, prudence is the reading of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church which resolves all our doubts and where we can get perfectly to clear our ideas.

Personally I also found a great help in the recitation of the Rosary. In addition to all the other benefits that we can get from it, the recitation of the Holy Rosary gives us a humility workout that predisposes us to virtue.

b) WITH MY NEIGHBOR: I read a few lines from the pastoral letter Gaudium Gospels, Pope Francis. I seemed to understand a message that at first is addressed to consecrated people, but I think that these tips also may apply in the case of lay people who firmly intend to follow the word of Our Lord, as I think of us here.
I read from the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis 'Evangeli Gaudium: 171. More than ever, we need men and women who, from their experience of accompaniment, to know how to proceed with the outstanding prudence, comprehension skills, the art of waiting, docility to the Spirit, to protect all together, sheep who rely on us from the wolves that try to disrupt the flock. We need to practice the art of listening, which is more than you feel. The first thing, in communication with the other, is the heart's ability that makes possible the vicinity, without which there is no real spiritual encounter. The listening helps us to identify the appropriate gesture and word that stirs us from the peaceful spectators' condition. Only from this respectful listening and ability to sympathize you can find the ways to genuinely grow, you can awake the desire of the Christian ideal, the anxiety to respond fully to God's love and the desire to develop the better that God has sown in our lives.

And who is our neighbor? It's the one closest to us in everyday life, especially at school, or doing work in the office, or in any situation. The prudence consists, according to the words of Pope Francis, in listening more than to hear, trying to understand the others' reasons; it consists, in not giving hasty or rash judgments, and in acting with anyone without feeling it as an opponent or enemy, although maybe he is. Certainly in this case exercise of prudence and fortitude go together, because often at work and also out of work environments, it can happen that there is someone with whom it is difficult to relate, and even with someone that we have a natural negative empathy. In these cases the prudence tells us that it is not good to clash, and if one just cannot do it to win the antipathy that the other feels for him, absolutely must win it's eventual own. But because we just do not get where God there certainly comes, in these cases a standard elementary prudence may be recommending these people in our prayer.

c)FRIENDS A particular type of neighborhood are our friends. Friendship and confidence: to really be friends with someone you have to really look for a spiritual encounter, as the Gospel tells us: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'. It is not just to apply socialization practices, to know the secrets to socialize easily and to improve relationships with their friends, but to see ourselves in the friend, loving maybe even their flaws, maybe you can correct it.
With people of whom we feel friends, we must strive even harder to exercise the virtue of prudence, because friends should be helped even more than the others, and the help is not always about material things. When I tell a friend something that could shocks or displease him, I first pray for him and for me, that I understand better what I can tell, or how can I tell him. About friendship, because I think we're all friends here, I make a confidence: so many clues and facts in all these years I have discovered that my first true friend is the Guardian Angel.
That prayer reciting the Angelus at noon and at the end the call for help to the Guardian Angel, is not an empty formula, but a reality. Personally a technique that always apply, not only with friends, but also with the people with whom I meet, is to ask for help to the guardian angels. Mine and that one of the other. Here we're not only us alone, but also our Angels are with us. It is a good practice of prudence to maintain assiduous and confidencial relationships with our best friend, the Guardian Angel. Prudence and fraternal correction: (from Friends of God, nrs. 160-161) Be prudent and always act with simplicity, virtues so typical of the good God children. Behave naturally in the way of talking and doing. Get to the root of the problems; not stay on the surface. Look that if we really want to make a holy and manly our duties as Christians, we must anticipate unpleasant moments for others and their own.

d) (OUR) FAMILY: today for the institution of the family the wind is not favorable! The family is the basic unit of society, yet today it seems that the society is committed to demolish itself, destroying family and marriage, and making propaganda to deviant and hedonistic behavior. However, if we have a family we want to keep it healthy and happy. Within our family there's the place where we must do our utmost to realize the 'bright and cheerful home heart' following the example of the Holy Family. To do that we must exercise prudence using at first the greatest care in maintaining friendship and confidence with our own wife, who is origin and pin of our family.
Love your neighbor as yourself it's especially true sentence for the care and attention that you must have for the companion of your life. It is superfluous to tell you in detail what should you do to keep alive the same love of the first times, and do not allow that it dies as the time passes and changes you and your mate both inside and outside. If you really 'love your wife as yourself', you have to know what are the behaviors that bother or or sadden her and what you should do or not do. Let's help concretely at what she does, to her work and our, let's speak and communicate with her to make her feel that she's always important for us, as well as a support and as a confidant for the everyday things.
Our children just because they are children, as well as support on us to have affection, should see both their parents together a umanimous guide, receive the character's formation and the preparation to face their life. So the relationship that you must keep with your children is necessarily different from all the other kind of relationship. I had three children, of whom the eldest is now 44 years old, and six grandchildren, the largest of which is twelve years old, and I well realize what mistakes I made. If I could go back, knowing what I know now, I could certainly do a lot better, but unfortunately the experience can not be taught: everyone must do his own. The 'Opus Dei' also provides support to families, with schools of family guidance, other schools promoted by christian parents, where you can find an environment that is not opposed to the family, but is synergistic with the good training that the same family wants to give to their children.

e) The daily life offers each of us a lot of opportunities to strive for holiness.
Let's read from 'Solco' nr. 270. sometimes we feel the temptation to be Christians while maintaining a prudent distance from the wounds of the Lord. But Jesus wants us to touch human misery, we touch the suffering flesh of others. He expects us to give up a look for those personal and community shelters that allow us to keep us at a distance from the node of the human drama, so that we really accept to get in touch with the concrete existence of others and know the power of tenderness. When we do, our life becomes always wonderfully complicated and we live the intense experience of being people, the experience of belonging to a people.

Lino Bertuzzi March, 8, 2014 at Elis in Roma