Lenten Reflections

Lent as a school of virtue.

Forty-eight days through the seven virtues, taken in ascending order: first the four cardinal virtues that order a life by nature — prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance — and then the three theological virtues that only grace can give. The readings set St. Thomas Aquinas beside St. Augustine, the Rule of St. Benedict beside Chesterton and Lewis, and Scripture beside the encyclicals, on the assumption that Lent is less a season of feeling than a season of training.