| "Be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy." |
| The following exercise may help you to develop, with the grace of God, the key virtues of the spiritual life. This is how it works. With the coming of a new month, take special care to foster a particular virtue. Try your best to practise it each day, while asking God to deepen it in your soul through prayer. Call on the help of a saint who is an obvious model for that aspect of the Christian life. In the evening, recalling the virtue you have been working towards can be a guiding point when making an examination of conscience. Needless to say, we are called to practise all the virtues every day. However, focussing on one particular virtue at a time can aid us, weak that we are, in our struggle to respond to the divine call to holiness. For example: JANUARY - Living Faith - St. Thomas Aquinas FEBRUARY - Joyful Hope - Bl. Mary of the Cross (MacKillop) MARCH - Chaste Love - St. Augustine of Hippo APRIL - True Humility - St. Therese of the Child Jesus MAY - Prudent Judgement - St. Anthony of Padua JUNE - Faithful Obedience - St. John Vianney JULY - Gentle Recollection - St. Teresa of Avila AUGUST - Untiring Zeal - St. Paul the Apostle SEPTEMBER - Active Mercy - St. Faustina Kowalska OCTOBER - Patient Self-denial - St. John of the Cross NOVEMBER - Simple Detachment - St. Francis of Assisi DECEMBER - Final Perseverance - St. Alphonsus de Liguori |
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