Temperance

This post first appeared on my Instagram in May of 2020. It is the fifth of nine in my Virtue Series.

“TEMPERANCE is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable.” -CCC 1809

Temperance, or self-control, is the virtue that lies between intemperance and gluttony on one side, and insensibility and scarcity on the other. Our culture exalts both ends of the spectrum and shuns the virtue.

Ways I have struggled with temperance lately:
•excessive use of technology, specifically for the consumption of social media
•overeating for comfort

Ways I will work on temperance:
•limiting social media and asking my husband to help me stay accountable (update: I’m now off of all social media except for my ministries.)
•eating mindfully

I read C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters a few years back and was struck by a passage where the demon mentions that the overeating by the son and the hyper-control of the mother were both sins of gluttony. Our culture often thinks of temperance as “doing well on a diet,” but that’s such an incomplete/inaccurate picture. We must use created goods within the parameters of a rightly ordered life that leads to God. Note the wording of the definition from the Catechism on the third slide, specifically the words balance, and honorable. Food (yes, all food), drink, and social media are amoral, meaning they are neither good nor bad. It is our balanced and honorable use of those created goods that determines whether or not we are temperate. ♥️

That’s it for the 4 Cardinal Virtues! Thank you SO MUCH for joining me in this discussion. Next we’ll move on to the 3 Theological Virtues of faith, hope, and charity.