When God sanctifies a soul, He gives it not only the sublime supernatural quality by which it is made like to Him and shares in His divine life sanctifying grace - but also a number of other qualities or habits by which the soul can act supernaturally. These are called the supernatural virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These supernatural habits are said to be infused by God - that is, poured into the soul. They are given in proportion to each one's measure of sanctifying grace, and they increase proportionately with the increase of that grace. The supernatural virtues do not destroy the natural virtues which one may have acquired by repeated good acts, but rather strengthen and perfect them. Neither do the supernatural virtues free one from the obligation of acquiring the natural virtues. The ideal Christian has both natural and supernatural virtues. However, it is possible to have one type without the other. Thus a baptized infant has the supernatural virtues, infused at Baptism, but he has no natural virtues. On the other hand, a sinner, who has not the supernatural moral virtues may have some natural virtues.
The noblest of the supernatural virtues are the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, by which the soul believes in God's revelations, hopes to possess Him for all eternity, and loves Him because of His infinite goodness. The infused moral virtues help one to use created things properly, employing them so as to gain eternal life from their use. These virtues, like the corresponding natural virtues, are grouped under the four chief or cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. Finally, the gifts of the Holy Ghost make one docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit. Every good Christian knows that at times he chooses a certain course of action or performs a good deed so suddenly that it would seem that he is impelled by a power outside of himself; and afterwards he realizes that it was the proper thing to do. This is a manifestation of the activity of the Holy Ghost, working on the soul through His gifts. Often we find Catholics who believe that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are given only in Confirmation; but this is incorrect. They are always given with sanctifying grace, though the sacrament of Confirmation, since it makes us soldiers of Christ, urges us to use the gifts in a special degree.
The greatest of the theological virtues is charity, which is love for God because of His infinite goodness and love for our neighbor because he shares, or can share, in the goodness of God through the possession of sanctifying grace. Our Lord told us that we must love God with our whole heart and soul, which means that we must be willing to renounce every created good rather than offend God by mortal sin. We can have true love for God even though we are not sorry for our venial sins, though it is surely more perfect to repent of our venial as well as our mortal sins when we make an act of love for God. The goodness of God which is the motive of charity is His supernatural goodness, which is made known through revelation.
Similarly, love for our neighbor, to be charity, must be based on a supernatural motive - namely, the fact that every one of our fellow men either possesses sanctifying grace or is capable of possessing it. If we love a person merely because of his natural qualities, we are not making an act of charity, When Our Lord told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, He meant that we must love all our fellow men in the same manner as we love ourselves that is, supernaturally - but not necessarily in the same measure. Moreover, we are not obliged to love all our fellow men in the same degree. We can and should have greater love for those who are united to us by the bonds of relationship, faith and nationality.
As long as we retain sanctifying grace, the infused virtues and the gifts remain in our soul. Mortal sin drives out all these supernatural habits, except faith and hope, which remain even in the soul of the sinner unless he commits a sin directly against hope - in which case only faith remains - or a sin directly opposed to faith, in which case all the supernatural qualities are driven out.
St. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians (5:2223) speaks of the fruits of the Holy Ghost - acts of virtue which bring sweetness and joy to the soul, like delicious fruit. Our Lord has given us the beatitudes (Matthew 5:310), eight principles concerning the practice of virtue in an exalted manner, which will bring us happiness and peace, The Church is constantly urging her members to the practice of virtue. The first condition required in the process of canonization, or declaring one a saint, is to prove that this person practiced the theological and moral virtues in an heroic or extraordinary degree.
RESOLUTION: Resolve to make progress in virtue every day. It is best to center one's attention on a particular virtue, especially that which we find most difficult to practice, and perform acts of this virtue whenever the opportunity is offered.