“Windows To Spirituality”
Visionary Defined broadly, a visionary is one who can envision the future. For some groups, this can involve the supernatural. The visionary state is achieved via meditation, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century artist and Catholic saint. Other visionaries in religion are St Bernadette and Joseph Smith, said to have had visions of...
Understanding Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding. Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an...
Forgotten Virtue: Thrift “Thrift,” said the Roman philosopher Seneca, “comes too late when you find it at the bottom of your purse.” The truth behind that age-old adage is painfully obvious to millions of Americans today. In Tough Times, Americans Rediscover a Forgotten Virtue Reeling from high gas prices, home...
Sobriety Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels or effects from alcohol or drugs. Sobriety is also considered to be the natural state of a human being at birth. A person in a state of sobriety is considered sober. Organizations of the temperance movement have encouraged sobriety as being normative in society. In a treatment setting, sobriety...
Simplicity Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. Something easy to understand or explain seems simple, in contrast to something complicated. Alternatively, as Herbert A. Simon suggests, something is simple or complex depending on the way we choose to describe it. In some uses, the label “simplicity” can imply beauty, purity, or clarity. In other...
Monastic Silence Monastic silence is a spiritual practice recommended in a variety of religious traditions for purposes including facilitation of approaching deity, and achieving elevated states of spiritual purity. It may be in accordance with a monk’s formal vow of silence, but can also engage laity who have not taken vows, or novices who...
Silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the cessation or absence of any form of communication, whether through speech or other...
What Is Silence? All writers on the spiritual life uniformly recommend, nay, command under penalty of total failure, the practice of silence. And yet, despite this there is perhaps no rule for spiritual advancement more inveighed against, by those who have not even mastered its rudiments, than that of silence....
Self-denial Self-denial (related but different from self-abnegation or self-sacrifice) is an act of letting go of the self as with altruistic abstinence – the willingness to forgo personal pleasures or undergo personal trials in the pursuit of the increased good of another. Various religions and cultures take differing views of self-denial, some considering it a positive trait and...
The Virtue Of Reverence People are self-absorbed or outgoing, poetic or lunatic, saintly or devilish. The main difference between these two groups is the presence or absence of the virtue of reverence. The ruling attitude of the reverent person is that there is something more important, more beautiful, more wondrous...
Moral Responsibility In philosophy, moral responsibility is the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission in accordance with one’s moral obligations. Deciding what (if anything) counts as “morally obligatory” is a principal concern of ethics. Philosophers refer to people who have moral responsibility for an action as moral agents. Agents have the capability to reflect upon...
Responsibility Responsibility is a duty or obligation for which a person is held accountable. It is the human condition that people are responsible or held accountable for the things they do or cause to happen, according to certain norms. Responsibility is accompanied by three essential elements: 1) Norms that determine accountability, 2) freedom or free...
Respect Respect, also called esteem, is a positive feeling or action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. It is also the process of honoring someone by exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for...
What Is Religion? Derivation, analysis, and definition The derivation of the word “religion” has been a matter of dispute from ancient times. Not even today is it a closed question. Cicero, in his “De natura deorum”, II, xxviii, derives religion from relegere (to treat carefully): “Those who carefully took in hand all...
Religion Explained The term religion denotes a set of common beliefs and practices pertaining to the supernatural (and its relationship to humanity and the cosmos), which are often codified into prayer, ritual, scriptures, and religious law. These beliefs and practices are typically defined in light of a shared canonical vocabulary of venerable traditions, writings,...
Virtue Of Religion This article covers the virtue of religion. Of the three proposed derivations of the word “religion”, that suggested by Lactantius and endorsed by St. Augustine seems perhaps to accord better with the idea than the others. He says it comes from religare, to bind. Thus it would mean the bond uniting man...
Punctuality Punctuality is a virtue. An opposite personality trait is a tardiness. Punctuality is the characteristic of being able to complete a required task or fulfill an obligation before or at a previously designated time. “Punctual“ is often used synonymously with “on time“. According to each culture, there is often an understanding of...
What Is Prudence? Prudence is from Latin prudentia, contracted from providentia, meaning seeing ahead. One of the four cardinal virtues. Definitions of it are plentiful from Aristotle down. His “recta ratio agibilium” has the merits of brevity and inclusiveness. Father Rickaby aptly renders it as “right reason applied to practice”. A fuller description...
Prudence: Mother of All Virtues Prudence, the “mother” of all of the virtues, is the virtue by which a person recognizes his moral duty and the good means to accomplish it. I keep hearing about the importance of virtue and being virtuous, but no one explains what virtue is. Why...
What Is Humour? Humour or humor is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, “body fluid”), controlled human health and emotion. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour....
