CPC Evening Class: "The Virtues, Reality, and the Good" with Fr. David Bellusci - Session #1

Name: CPC Evening Class: "The Virtues, Reality, and the Good" with Fr. David Bellusci - Session #1
Start: 2025-10-20T19:00:00-07:00
Location: St. Matthew's Parish

Schedule

Mon, 20 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

St. Matthew's Parish | Surrey, BC

Details
Dates: Mondays, October 20 to November 24, 2025
Time: 7pm
Location: St. Matthew's Parish, 16079 88 Ave, Surrey.
Cost: $150 for all six sessions.
General Description:
Happiness and the good life are the focus of Virtue Ethics. In our six meetings we explore the
nature of virtue ethics drawing from both Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and St. Thomas
Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. We examine the four cardinal virtues, courage, temperance,
justice, and prudence and discover the significance of each in relation to the good. Courage is
necessary for the good life and individual happiness through endurance-- producing nobility of
character; the challenges in temperance -- to reject disordered pleasures in a hedonistic
society—ensures the pursuit of the objective good; individuals participate in the common good
to promote and defend what is just—neither can the individual good nor the common good be
compromised; and finally, the virtue of prudence that looks back, looks at the present, and
looks ahead--to reflect on the implications of our choices. The course in Virtue Ethics aims to
help participants think critically and to find happiness in pursuit of the objective good by living
virtuously.
Meeting 1—The Nobility of Virtue
We consider the nature of virtue; what kind of acts we engage in that are noble and that we
find noble in others. We will answer the question: What makes virtue attractive? We shall
examine sections from both Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics,” and St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa
Theologiae” on virtue.
Meeting 2—Virtue Ethics and the Good Life.
After considering the different categories of ethics, we will focus on the object of virtue ethics:
happiness. Aristotle’s ethics shows that we attain the good life by exercising virtue--and the
good is what truly makes us truly happy.
Meeting 3—Courage: the Heroic Path
The first of the four cardinal virtues we explore is “courage,” fundamental to the good life and
happiness. We discover the different synonyms associated with courage producing a quality of
the soul and inclination towards: forbearance, endurance, determination, perseverance,
steadfastness.
Meeting 4—Challenge of Temperance
In hedonistic communities where pleasure and gratification shape the “meaning of life,” how is
the virtue of temperance possible? The practise of temperance is considered and why a endless
pleasure-seeking pursuits cannot bring true happiness? Exercising moderation and even
rejecting certain pleasures teach us that temperance is fundamental to the good life.
Meeting 5—Justice: Individual or Common Good?
We will consider areas of justice in Aristotle based on “Nicomachean Ethics,” especially in
relation to the common good. What is the relationship between the individual and the good of
the community? Can we uphold what is just for the individual without compromising the good of
the community?
Meeting 6—Prudence: the Queen of Virtues
Based on Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas, the cardinal virtues draw from prudence, the
virtue that looks back (self-knowledge), looks at the present (circumstance), and looks ahead
(consequences). Prudence, referred to as “practical wisdom,” considers the personal and social
impact and moral implications of our choices.