God's Love

The Virtues

In a pure person perception all reality is alive as Word and Spirit.

TheWord is the source of countless ideas, the Spirit the progenitor of countless virtues.

Principal Virtues include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, righteousness and truth......   These are described by St Paul as the 'fruit' of the Holy Spirit.

The greek word  for 'fruit' in the New Testament is 'karpos'.  In normal greek usage, the term 'karpos' could also refer to human progeny, as well as the fruit of fruit trees.  To understand the nature of the 'fruit' the context is important - you understand the nature of the progeny by understanding the nature of the progenitor.  Jesus was refered to as the 'fruit' of Mary's womb, and the 'fruit' of his ancestor King David's loins, stressing that Jesus was fully human.

In the case of the nature of the Virtues, the progenitor is the Holy Spirit - the third person of the Trinity.

Rather than seeing impersonal emotions or behavioural patterns (the legacy of a western materialist mindset), the Primitive Church quite reasonably understood the virtues to be living spirits, often perceived as feminine (see Wisdom), and that holiness was vital to cultivating a relationship or communion with them. (see Shepherd of Hermas)

The virtues could be seen in the context of active combatants of vice in the realm of human experience, as angels

ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation

See also VirtueSpace