Four Cardinal virtues

Prudence, Justice, Restraint, and Courage.
These are known as the Cardinal virtues.
"Cardinal" is derived from Latin "cardo" which means 'hinge' because moral life hinges on our exercise of prudence, justice, restraint, and courage.
When I first joined Blessed Sacrament I was struck at how Fr. Joe would end each Mass by wishing us a good week and urging us to love and respect one another.
Implicit in that petition would be the call to respect ourselves also, I presume, and doing so would to my mind mean doing our best to live our lives with these four Cardinal virtues in mind, and in practice.
The remaining three virtues of the seven we are taught are Faith, Hope, and Love or Charity.
I had been wondering how I would bridge the blogs on the four Cardinal virtues to the blogs on the three Theological virtues I just cited.
The past few weeks have been hectic ones for me, so I've been quite tired at the end of most days so this evening I decided to take a long walk in no particular direction.
This walk lead me to the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park.
During its construction I remembered thinking how some of the sculptures were not to my aesthetic tastes and how unlikely I would be to set foot in that park to relax and reflect so I was surprised to find myself meandering to this patch of green space in a semi-residential, semi-industrial zone.
I thought of how my step-mother was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago now and how her indomnitable spirit -- and patience waiting nearly eight months for radiation treatment -- has seen her to the successful treatment of her cancer.
So, I figure, why not give the park a chance? I just won't look at the sculptures I don't like.
I'm glad I did give the park a chance and when my step-mother and father come to visit this fall I will suggest we walk through it.
There are stations throughout the with pithy comments and advice from cancer survivors.
If I were to try to sum up the messages in a handful of words, they would be these: rest on your faith, never lose hope, make every moment count (love and charity would be the means to doing that if you ask me).
This was a walk well worth taking.