Episode 10: Temperance

La Bonne Vie

Deacon Conque and Kyle talk about the virtue of temperance. Join us as we seek moderation in our discussion of the role of temperance in the Christian life, Classical Education, and our homes.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, General Audience, 22 November 1978. “A temperate man is one who is master of himself. One in whom passions do not prevail over reason, will, and even the "heart". A man who can control himself! If this is so, we can easily realize what a fundamental and radical value the virtue of temperance has.”

1. What is temperance? A Classical View

○ moderating our pursuit of goods, not evils

○ temperance and the ordering of the passions: training our desires

○ the danger of intemperance

2. Temperance in Light of the Incarnation

○ in light of faith, hope, and charity, temperance increases the tension we experience to be in the world and not of it

○ urgency of temperance, a great Christian need: the freedom to say yes to Christ present in those around us

○ self-indulgence is an enemy of the call of Christ to serve the poor

○ temperance and poverty of spirit

○ training temperance in the home

○ temperance and Fear of the Lord, the gift of the Holy Spirit

○ nourishing and cultivating desires through temperance

○ an example of intemperance: binge watching

○ the freedom to enjoy goods in community

○ temperance is about aiming our desires to the highest goods: becoming more hungry for heaven

○ fasting from goods to discover the need to grow in temperance

3. Living out Temperance

○ bios (physical) goods; bodily level of goods, psyche (psychological) goods, and zoe (spiritual) goods

○ discerning intemperance through attention to charity; having a hungry heart on a heroic journey

○ the spiritual offering of fasting rooted in charity

○ living in constant satisfaction dulls our cognition, feeds delusion

○ masculine and feminine ways to pursue temperance; stability and rootedness in the home

○ overindulgence in communal goods weakens community

○ concuscible and irascible goods

○ temperance in thought, word, and deed

○ choosing words carefully in the home

○ temperance with spiritual goods and cultivating spirituality in the home

○ mutlum non multa: much of one thing, not many things

○ the temptation of distraction

○ the liturgical life and temperance

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.