Thursday, July 3
Liturgical Color: Green
The Church dedicates the month of
October to the Blessed Virgin of the
Rosary. As we pray each decade, we
meditate on one of the mysteries of the
Rosary, celebrating God's love for us.
Day 202 - What is hope? // What is charity?
What is hope?
Hope is the power by which we firmly and constantly long for what we were placed on earth to do: to praise God and to serve him; and for our true happiness, which is finding our fulfillment in God; and for our final home: in God.
Hope is trusting in what God has promised us in creation, in the prophets, but especially in Jesus Christ, even though we do not yet see it. God's Holy Spirit is given to us so that we can patiently hope for the Truth.
What is charity?
Charity is the power by which we, who have been loved first by God, can give ourselves to God so as to be united with him and can accept our neighbor for God's sake as unconditionally and sincerely as we accept ourselves.
Jesus places love above all laws, without however abolishing the latter. Therefore St. Augustine rightly says, "Love, and do what you will." Which is not at all as easy as it sounds. That is why charity, love, is the greatest virtue, the energy that inspires all the other virtues and fills them with divine life.(YOUCAT questions 308-309)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (1818-1825) and other references here.