Catholic Growth

It’s no secret that our world is becoming more and more self indulgent. Hedonism is the belief system of this world, and it’s tearing people apart. As Christians, we need to rise above this destructive behavior. This is where the virtue of temperance comes in. With temperance we keep our basic instincts in check and avoid over indulgence. When we do this we can accomplish more and focus on more important things.

Temperance is the virtue involved in exercising restraint. When we control our own impulses so we do not excessively indulge in pleasure. Typically in modern times this means refraining from too much drink or not drinking at all, but the classic definition of temperance means controlling any source of pleasure. Too much pleasure can cause us to lose sight of the responsibilities we have. It can also make us seek immediate and short term rewards instead of working toward long term and lasting good.

Parts of Temperance

There are four subjective parts of temperance that St Thomas Aquinas describes. These are abstinence, sobriety, chastity, and purity.

Abstinence

Abstinence is a virtue that deals with food. Overeating is so common in our modern world, because food is actually designed to make us want more. Companies spend millions on research to tweak their recipes for snacks and fast food, to make us eat more and spend more. Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, and keeps us from treating our bodies like we should, as temples of the Holy Spirit.

Sobriety

Sobriety is the virtue that helps us refrain from drinking too much. It’s important to note that it is not a sin to drink, but it can be a sin to drink too much. St Thomas described alcohol as something that is good but can be used too much and turn into an evil. Good because it allows people to relax and have fun together. It can be evil of course, when we lose control. There are some people who cannot drink, due to a past with alcoholism or being predisposed. For these people to have sobriety they will likely never touch alcohol at all. For the rest of us, we cannot drink to excess and lose control of pour faculties. Excess alcohol takes away our inhibitions, making us do things we would not have done if we were not drinking. This can be detrimental to a Catholic, who is trying to avoid sin, because all sin is an afront to God.

Chastity and Purity

Chastity is the virtue of restraint in sexual intercourse. This is the virtue of a rightly ordered sexuality, which can only occur in marriage with an openness to life. Sex before marriage is not being chaste and is actually not good for your soul or your relationship. This can be a controversial statement in today’s world, but this has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church from the beginning.

Purity is the virtue which deals with restraining sexual behaviors. These behaviors include looks, thoughts, and touch. We live in a world where sexualized images are everywhere. In order to stay strong and not objecify people, we need this virtue to help us. A pure mind helps us keep focused on the prize.

A disordered view of sexuality will inevitably cause people to see others as objects of pleasure. People stop having inherent dignity and only have value if they can provide something good. Lust is a poison that destroys our souls. St Thomas described the daughters of lust as “blindness of mind, thoughtlessness, inconstancy, rashness, self-love, hatred of God, love of this world, and abhorrence or despair of a future world.”

How to Improve Your Temperance

St Thomas talks about the virtue of continence as a virtue that is related and is something we should develop. Continence is the ability to stop ourselves. Stop ourselves when we’re reaching for that cookie, stop ourselves when we’re picking up yet another shot glass, or to stop ourselves when we’re alone with a person we’re attracted to. Training ourselves to stop when we’re in the midst of temptation will help us have less temptation in the future.

A great way to develop this ability to say no is to fast. Fasting can have such incredible spiritual benefits, because it really brings you closer to God. This alone will help you have more temperance, but constantly telling yourself not to eat when you really want to will improve your willpower, and improve your mental toughness, allowing you to say no.

Conversely if we indulge without resisting, we solidify our vices and soon feel like we need to eat a lot, or drink a lot, or somehow sex becomes a basic need. St Augustine knew this very well:

Lust indulged became habit, and habit unresisted became necessity.

St Augustine

In addition to resisting our urges, we need to know that eating, drinking, and sex, are not inherently bad. Eating is necessary for survival, drinking brings celebration, and sex produces offspring. If we assume it is all bad we have a disordered view of all our passions, which exist to help us produce good things. But of course we need to know that an excess of any passion can be disordered, and produce evil.

Praying for Temperance

Developing a consistent prayer life is very useful for improving temperance. Everyday we should be praying for an increase in virtues. Virtues help us keep our eyes on Christ, so of course He would want to give us incredible graces to obtain these virtues. St Catherine knew this, and spoke extensively of the merits of prayer for increasing virtue:

Prayer is a pasturage, a field, wherein all the virtues find their nourishment, growth, and strength.

St Catherine of Siena

The Rosary helps us root out vices and resist temptation. This is what temperance is all about. So I heartily recommend a daily Rosary as part of your prayer routine. Some people even pray all 20 mysteries of the Rosary throughout the day! If you’re not used to intense prayer routine you may want to stick with a regular Rosary until you are used to it. For more on why you should pray the Rosary, check out this article.

Concluding Thoughts

Overindulgence is running rampant in our society. Without good temperance, we run the risk of slipping into a hedonistic lifestyle, where everything is about getting that next pleasure.

To develop temperance we need practice and prayer. Fasting is fantastic for doing this. Developing a regular prayer life is so important in developing all virtues including temperance.

So take charge of your passions and resist overindulgence. Take up this mission of ridding yourself of vices of overeating, drinking too much, and disordered sexuality.