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.

As we begin our meditation today,

we want to begin a series of meditations on the four cardinal virtues, this advent. And the first cardinal virtue that we consider today is that of prudence, which is the most important of all the

cardinal virtues, which, as we know, are for prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

The reason that prudence is at the center is because it is really the one that works with all the other virtues.

In other words, we cannot be tempered unless we know how to be tempered, and that's what Prudence tells us.

We cannot exercise courage or fortitude what prudence tells us. We cannot exercise courage or fortitude

unless prudence tells us how exactly here and now we are to be courageous. And the same thing

with justice. We cannot be just unless we know how to be just at every moment here and now. And so prudence is that

virtue which allows us to apply right reason to particular action. And it always judges

about the particular situation at hand.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians,

exhorts the Philippians and also all of us thereafter,

to have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was by nature, God,

did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the nature

of a slave and being made like unto men, and appearing in the form of men, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death

on a cross.

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