A Video Recording of the Presentation

See: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wxnv7jEjUx6f2mkznkXvN4Ob3l4i99Gx/view?ts=640a85d6 

You Were Made For Greatness – Notes

Recall the Portraits of Greatness

  1. Eric Liddel – Olympic Champion
  2. Emily Martinez – Artist and Evangelist
  3. André and Angèle Regnier – CCO Founders


What is Magnanimity?

  • CATECHISM (1803): A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
  • From the Latin: great-souled or greatness of soul (magna anima) or the soul tending to great things (animus magna)
  • Josef Pieper, one the twentieth century’s most knowledgeable Thomist philosophers, describes it as follows:
    • “Magnanimity, a much forgotten virtue, is the aspiration of the spirit to great things, ‘extensio animi as magna.’ A person is magnanimous if he has the courage to seek what is great and become worthy of it…Magnanimity, as both Thomas and Aristotle tell us, is ‘the jewel of all the virtues’, since it always – and particularly in ethical matters – decides in favor of what is, at any given moment, the greater possibility of the human potentiality for being.”
  • Magnanimity is the virtue or the habit of the soul striving for great things


Magnanimous Dreams

Read: POPE FRANCIS – XXXI WORLD YOUTH DAY  – PRAYER VIGIL WITH THE YOUNG PEOPLE

  1. What are your dreams for your personal life?
  2. What are your dreams for community?
  3. What are your dreams for your nation?


Cultivating Magnanimity

  1. Form Friendships – Seek the company of magnanimous people and choose magnanimous friends
  1. Expand Your World – read inspiring biographies of magnanimous people, books by great thinkers, the lives of the Saints; watch inspiring movies of magnanimous people; encounter beauty; dream; travel, experience new cultures, plan an adventure
  2. Serve With Your Talents – identify your strengths (through inventories, feedback analysis, etc.) then work to improve your strengths and talents; Do not compare yourself to anyone
  3. See and Seize Opportunities – don’t let opportunity pass; don’t be afraid of failure; seek greatness in ordinary life
  4. Dream and Do – reflect and take action!


Go Set the World on Fire!

  • One Dream, One Step – What is one step you can make towards your dream?
  • “If you are who you should be, you will set the whole world on fire!” –  Catherine of Sienna

 

Other Great Articles to Continuing Your Learning

Share this with others: