Vice and Virtue

, which is NOT a long-lost Jane Austen novel!
In the spirit of cleansing, the theme for our family this Lent is cleaning out the vice and practicing the opposing virtue. (and the CCC says that every vice is in opposition to virtue...many quotes and ideas below directly from the CCC) However, it's not that simple. There are 4 capital virtues and 3 theological virtues. They don't correlate very easily, so I tried a different angle. "The gifts of the Holy Spirit complete and perfect the virtues" and there are 7 gifts, but these also don't correlate perfectly. And, "the fruits of the Holy Spirit are perfections that the HS forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory." But there are 12 and these really don't match the vices in harmony either.*sigh* I ask myself, "why didn't we just go with giving up TV?"*deep breath*
I think we've got it though!
The Plan:
Each week we will focus on turning away from a vice and practicing a virtue. (even if "techinically" it is not categorized "virtue) When one of us practices a good or resists a bad then we place a rose petal on our Crown of Thorns. Yes, we have a very sharp crown (C. Robin cut himself 3 times with it today!) No, not real rose petals. We'll cut some out of construction paper. The more rose petals, the softer we make the Crown for Jesus.
This week: practice fortitude, root out sloth.
Week 2: practice justice and kindness, root out envy
Week 3: practice temperance, root out gluttony (this is not limited to food, but taking more than we need in anything)
Week 4: practice generosity, root out avarice (greed)
Week 5: practice purity and self-control, root out lust
Week 6: practice prudence and patience, root out wrath
Week 7: practice humility, root out pride (we thought this would be the best week to unite ourselves to Christ's amazing humility when God-who-became-man-for-our-sake humbled himself to the point of death, death on a cross.....this should make any minor humiliations I have to suffer seem miniscule in comparison!)
I will also be letting go of sweets......oh no! (this is the little something I love so much!) I need to limit of a couple of distractions, one of which is my email and computer time. Other people in my house have to limit time with their electronic of choice. Please pray for us!

Are you doing anything special?
Let me know, I can pray for you too! (this isn't easy!)
kanga