Growing Catholic Virtues in Our Children:
A Summary of Monsignor Knestout's Homily

At once reminding and encouraging, Monsignor Knestout offered his insights at a recent parent meeting called to address the challenges that emerged in the recent ACRE test results. According to Monsignor, by offering a framework for building a moral life, the Catholic education we parents aspire to give our children can actually work like Christmas morning: “All your children receive the theological virtues through the sanctifying grace of baptism. They are like gifts waiting to be opened, once they are realized. Our job (as teachers, parents and parish) is to awaken in our children the practice of these virtues and to build a Catholic culture of virtue in the school and at home.”

As parents, we meet the challenges inherent in parenting by providing a strong academic environment for young minds to grow. We cut down on sugary snacks, shuttle them to practices and supply them with sports equipment to give their bodies a chance to grow. It’s these virtues, hidden little wonders, we also offer, embedded within our home life and the culture of St. John’s. We hope these beauties will guide our children through a life well lived. In fact, as this hidden life is practiced and encouraged in the school and at home, there is a magnifying effect: our children feel happier, grow healthier and learn better.

Monsignor was quick to illustrate that the People of God have had a long history of contemplating human nature in its fallen and redeemed states. For our children this translates into a rich inheritance. For, thousands of years, now, generations have tried to raise children who “move from having been created by God to what they are destined, eternal life.” There is comfort in knowing that Moses and St. Paul were not the first and certainly not the last to help the faithful discern how best to live as God’s people: steadfast, able to get along with one another, capable of facing hardship and living with tremendous sacrifice. By standing on the shoulders of our Fathers in Faith, we can breathe a sigh of clear, clean air, knowing that our children (however difficult it may appear while they are fighting, yet again, over the last brownie) have been given the ability to believe, even without seeing, the ability to hope, even against reason, and the capacity to love and be loved, just because of the generosity of our God.

Monsignor pointed to a way of living that works the soul like a training regimen works the muscles. The benefits of this moral workout “dispose us to treat others and self in a moral, right way.” Furthermore, the Christian virtues help us combat some of the less than scintillating aspects of our human nature: humility tempers pride, generosity unlocks the bonds of covetousness, chastity cools lust, gentleness softens anger, temperance walks away from that last brownie, brotherly love replaces sibling rivalry and diligence blows sloth out of the water so that the homework gets done (even without nagging or cheating).

Finally, Monsignor, like a Santa opening his pack, offered a series of stages that pull one along from childhood, through adulthood and into old age. Initially, in the purgative stage, we become aware of right and wrong and feel compelled to do something about it. With the environment surrounding our children, there is every hope that they will generally feel compelled to choose good. If that is not working in our homes and school, we can come together to encourage deeper wisdom. In the second stage, illuminative, the light goes on and the child realizes that by practicing “doing good,” he/she is in cahoots with Christ—this is where an active partnership develops between the child and the Lord. Finally, the dessert, the unitive phase: with plenty of practice, the child will have fallen into the habit of thinking like God, seeing with his eyes. The final stage results in “habitual and intimate union with God,” perhaps the best Christmas gift any parent can give her child. With the help of the St. John’s community, even as it addresses the concerns raised in the ACRE testing, we can give our children the best that our heritage has to offer after thousands of years of stumbling and falling, enlightenment and development. We can give our children the gift God intended: a life worth celebrating.