In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The virtue that we want to pray about today is the virtue of justice. It is last week we prayed about the virtue of prudence,

and we said it was the most important virtue of the cardinal virtues. And now we want to

see how we are living the virtue of justice, which has to do, as the classical

definition goes, with giving each person his or her due.

The author Luis de Granada in his book called The Sinners Guide, he has a great description of the threefold obligation of the virtue of justice.

He says,

It belongs to justice to render to everyone his due,

to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves.

If we faithfully acquit ourselves of these duties to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves,

we fulfill the obligations of justice and thus become truly virtuous.

To accomplish this great work, let your heart be that of a son towards God, that of a brother towards your neighbor, and that

of a judge towards yourself. In this, the prophet tells us, the virtue of man consists. I will

show thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee, verily, to do judgment

and to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with thy God. That's from Micah. The duty of judgment

is what man owes to himself, the duty of mercy what he owes to his neighbor, and to walk carefully before God is the duty he owes to his creator.

So this is really a great way of thinking of justice in a threefold manner, because justice has to do with the right relationships that we have

with God, with others, and with ourselves. And the right way of thinking about our relationship

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