An Abridged Audio Recording of the Presentation

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?

  • 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

  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

Go Set the World on Fire!

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

 

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