The Holy Virtue of Temperance I

This is the first in a long series I’ve started on, exploring the Seven Cardinal Virtues of the Christian Church. Getting the AI to catch on to and depict concepts like these isn’t an easy thing. Still, this is one of the three that I felt captured an aspect of temperance.

Because of the “temperance movement” that, in the US, led to the disastrous Prohibition, the virtue of Temperance is commonly confused with abstinence from something. But it actually isn’t! Christian temperance is about everything in its right time, right measure, and right priority. It shouldn’t be about wallowing in one’s misery or taking an excessive amount of pride in deprivation.

Obviously someone who has struggled with a particular thing may need to abstain from it; an addict in recovery is an example of that. But this is a matter of survival, not of mere deprivation for its own sake.

It’s because of temperance, being in balance, that these two priests are able to relax, knowing peace, not angst.