Virtue is the antidote to sin. It’s not enough to avoid sin, whether by white-knuckling it or avoiding triggers. The only way to truly avoid sin is to live a virtuous life. The best way to live a virtuous life is to build prayer into your day.

Prayer functions like a daily preventative medicine. It builds up charity and virtue. It makes it harder for temptation to sway you and it keeps you from ending up in places that lead you to sin.

Teachers and pastors in the Catholic Church spent plenty of time talking about sin. Do we spend enough time talking about virtue? Prayer isn’t just a few minutes here and there of rote recitation. It’s rest. It’s time apart from the cares, concerns and worries of your life. It’s communication. It’s intimate connection between created and Creator. It’s rehabilitation. It’s acceptance and absorption of grace, restoring the soul to a state of grace.

If you want to beat sin, if you want to overcome temptation, focus on prayer. A consistent habit of prayer, of different means and expressions, sprinkled throughout your day is how your gear up for daily battle. Perfection is not possible; virtue is. The path to virtue is through prayer.

Tags: Virtue