“Windows To Spirituality”
Seva In Indian religions Seva (or sewa), in (Indian religions), is a selfless service that is performed without any expectation of result or award for performing it. Such services can be performed to benefit other human beings or society. Seva means “service”, referring to the selfless efforts for the welfare of all (sarbat...
Care Of The Poor By The Church Objects, history, and organization A. The care of the poor is a branch of charity. In the narrow sense charity means any exercise of mercy towards one’s fellowman rooted in the love of God. While numerous classes of persons are fit objects for charity, the chief class is...
Morality And Ethics It is necessary at the outset of this article to distinguish between morality and ethics, terms not seldom employed synonymously. Morality is antecedent to ethics: it denotes those concrete activities of which ethics is the science. It may be defined as human conduct in so far as it is freely subordinated to the ideal of what is...
What Is Morality? In its “everyday sense” morality (from Latin moralitas “manner, character, proper behavior”) refers to a code of conduct, by which human beings regulate their lives. Theoretical interest in morality arises from the distinct sorts of questions that might be asked about this code of conduct. One question asks the kinds of practical...
Chastity Is A Virtue Chastity is a virtue concerning the state of purity of the mind and body. Chastity includes abstinence from sexual intimacy for the unmarried, and faithfulness to a marriage partner. Pre-marital virginity (abstinence) is the form of chastity expected of young people. Sexually active married couples are also considered to practice chastity if they remain faithful...
Temperance Movement The temperance movement is a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote complete abstinence from alcohol (teetotalism), and its leaders emphasize alcohol’s negative effects on people’s health, personalities and family lives. Typically the movement promotes alcohol education and it also...
Is Honesty Always The Best Policy? This article covers the answer to the question: “Is Honesty Always The Best Policy?” Pretty much everybody regards the Golden Rule — “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” — as the best guide to moral behavior. But did you...
Religious Order A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder’s religious practice. It is usually composed of laypeople and, in some orders, clergy. Such orders exist in many of...
Nuns Origin and history The institution of nuns and sisters, who devote themselves in various religious orders to the practice of a life of perfection, dates from the first ages of the Church, and women may claim with a certain pride that they were the first to embrace the religious state for its...
Donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blood or organs for transplant. Charitable donations of goods or services are also called gifts in kind. Donating statistics In the United States, in 2007,...
What Is Altruism? Altruism is a concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions, though the concept of ‘others’ toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism is the opposite of...
Freedom Freedom is traditionally understood as independence of the arbitrary will of another. Such a state is contrasted with slavery. A slave is constantly subject to the will of another. By contrast a free person can do whatever he chooses as long as he does not break the law and infringe on...
Forgiveness Explained Forgiveness that needs to be earned is only considered if forgiveness is requested or earned through means such as atonement, restitution, or by the offering of sincere apology. Forgiveness is the mental, emotional, and spiritual process of letting go of resentment, indignation, or anger against another person for a perceived offense, difference,...
Beauty Beauty (and beautiful), together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, one of the major branches of philosophy. Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art...
What Is Faith? St. Thomas says, “Faith has the character of a virtue, not because of the things it believes, for faith is of things that appear not, but because it adheres to the testimony of one in whom truth is infallibly found” The meaning of the word (Pistis, fides)....
What Is Fortitude? Fortitude is an engaging virtue. And when it shines from a stage, and comes directly from the heart, unrehearsed, it can prove overpowering. “No, don’t go,” the audience chanted. “Talk to us! Talk to us!” Any writer or film director, these days, living in complete comfort and...
What Is Courage? This article covers the answer to the question: “What Is Courage?“ In the discussions of ethics, courage is considered to be a moral virtue. In the history of philosophy, the concept of courage as a moral virtue originates primarily from the virtue ethics of Plato and Aristotle. Medieval philosophers, who drew upon the ideas...
Justice (Cardinal Virtue) Justice (Cardinal Virtue) is here taken in its ordinary and proper sense to signify the most important of the cardinal virtues. It is a moral quality or habit which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them. Of...
Love As A Theological Virtue This article covers Love As A Theological Virtue. The third and greatest of the Divine virtues enumerated by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 13:13), usually called charity, defined: a divinely infused habit, inclining the human will to cherish God for his own sake above all things, and man for the...
Critical Race Theory Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary intellectual and social movement of civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to examine the intersection of race and law in the United States and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice. For example, the CRT conceptual framework is one...
