“How do we know what to do to in order to find lasting happiness? If today we sometimes equate prudence with caution or timidity, to Aquinas, prudence is the virtue by which we may attain to greater personal fulfillment and true freedom. To see prudence from his perspective more fully, we need to enter into his view of the world, God, man and virtue. Then, we too may appreciate the importance of prudence for happiness in our lives as he did!
Sister Mary Christa Nutt is a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. She is currently serving on the General Council of her Institute and as the local superior in Alma, MI, where she also teaches Thomistic philosophy and theology to the postulants and novices. Sister earned a baccalaureate, license of sacred theology, and a doctoral degree in moral theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. She is presently working on publishing her first book on freedom and religious obedience” (from the TI Angelicum site).
Knowing How to be Happy: Prudence in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Video)
See the other videos in the Virtues Online Series from the Thomistic Institute of the Angelicum in Rome:
Faith | Father Wojciech Giertech, OP
Charity | Father John Emery, OP
A Virtue and More than a Virtue: Charity as Fellowship with God (Video)
Justice | Father Robert Ombres, OP
What is Just and Unjust is Usually in Dispute: How Can Aquinas Help? (Video)
Coming Soon | Hope: The Virtue of Spiritual Desire Made Possible in Christ | March 22, 2022
Hope: The Virtue of Spiritual Desire Made Possible in Christ
Wisdom (right) and Prudence (left)
Image Credit:
Rustici, Francesco. “Wisdom and Prudence.” WikiMedia Commons, May 16, 2016. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_Rustici_-_Wisdom_and_Prudence.jpg.
