Quick Recap of Superhabit and Virtue

 January 13, 2026

 

Hello!  How is each and every one? This post is super, super late.  What a shame!!! I am super ashamed of myself.  But I just cannot help it.  I am super sorry.  I am presently in Tagaytay doing my annual seminar.  We started last Tuesday, the same day this post had to be published.  But it still had to be finished.  You know how it is once one is in the activity, everything goes as scheduled and there is hardly solid time to attend to something outside the scope of the program.

But as soon as one gets settled down and the activity gets on its pace, one finds good enough time to work and finish what needs to be finished so that it is done and over with but still with competence and decency. That being expressed, I am more confident and at ease finishing this post and soon after publish it.

The Christmas season is over.  We are now in Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Season.  Meantime the child Jesus is growing in knowledge, wisdom and age.  Let us continue following Him while at the same time living our daily ordinary life.  We can go along and accompany Our Lady and St. Joseph as they both go about doing what every mother and father do while the child is growing up in their midst, under their care and guidance. Or better yet let us live our ordinary life in the presence of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Make them present in everything we think, say and do; with each and every person we deal with during the day. 

Last Friday, January 9, we celebrated the Feast of Jesus Nazareno, the Black Nazarene. It has been recently declared a National Feast by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) after having brought the proposal to the Vatican (CBCPNEWS). The Church formally recognizes what the faithful have long lived:  that The Black Nazarene is not merely a religious image, but a profound expression of the people’s piety and devotion.

As the image of Christ the King is in every household, most households also have a Black Nazarene.  I remember my mother placed our statue of the Black Nazarene on the staircase landing of our house, while the statue of Christ the King on the top landing of the second floor of our house. My mother had devotion to the Black Nazarene.  She believed what is said of  the Black Nazarene, that is, that He protects every household from fires.  So every time there is fire around the neighborhood, we would hear my mother instructing us to face the statue of the Black Nazarene towards the direction of the fire. There were opportunities we had to do it.    

January 9 also happens to be the birthday of St Josemaria, the Saint of the Ordinary.  Imagine he was born on January 9, 1902 and last Friday, I was inspired and convinced that it is obviously providential that he was born on the same day as the feast of Jesus Nazareno which has been formally declared a National Feast.  Nothing happens without the good Lord allowing it. Following is a short biography of St. Josemaria Escriva

St. Josemaria Escriva was born in Barbastro, Spain, on January 9, 1902. He was ordained to the priesthood in Zaragoza, Spain on March 28, 1925. On October 2, 1928, by divine inspiration, he founded Opus Dei—a Personal Prelature of the Catholic Church that fosters among Christians the search for holiness in the world, especially in the ordinary circumstances of life and the sanctification of work. On June 26, 1975, he died suddenly in Rome after a final affectionate glance at a picture of Our Lady in the room where he worked. Pope St. John Paul II canonized St. Josemaria in Rome on October 6, 2002. His liturgical feast is celebrated on June 26.

Speaking about his own life, St. Josemaria explained that, “the life of a man who lives by faith will always be the story of the mercies of God. At some moments the story may perhaps be difficult to read, because everything can seem useless and even a failure. But at other times Our Lord lets one see how the fruit abounds and then it is natural for one’s soul to break out in thanksgiving” (Conversations, no. 72).

The life of St. Josemaria Escriva, priest and founder of Opus Dei, was a life of faith, a life holy and full of God—a life dedicated to doing God’s will and bringing to the world the message God entrusted to him: “Sanctity is not for a privileged few. The Lord calls all of us. He expects love from all of us—from everyone, wherever they are; from everyone, whatever their state in life, their profession or job. For the daily life we live, apparently so ordinary, can be a path to sanctity: it is not necessary to abandon one’s place in the world in order to search for God…because all the paths of the earth can be the occasion for an encounter with Christ” (Letter 24-III-1930, no. 2).

Shall we get back to business and conclude the chapter on the superhabit of practical wisdom (prudence) (From  SUPERHABITS, The Universal System for a Successful Life by Andrew V. Abela, PH.D., Dean, Busch School of Business, The Catholic University of America, 2024).

 This integration of both types of “good” (competence and decency - true human excellence) is the very essence of virtue. It is an uplifting and inspiring thing to see. This, I believe, is what Flight 1549 stands for, and why its captain and crew earned such an overwhelming emotional response from people.

We usually think of competence and decency — effectiveness and ethics — as two separate things. We know that there are highly competent people who do evil things and that there are ethical people who are incompetent. Both make the world a worse place, in their own ways.

That’s not the case with virtue. Self-Discipline, Courage, Practical Wisdom, and all the virtues — the superhabits — always make you simultaneously both more effective and ethical. 

Think about it. Is Self-Discipline something that makes you more effective, or that makes you a better person? It’s both. Always. It’s always more effective to act with Self-Discipline than to be self-indulgent. And it’s always morally better to be self-disciplined than to be self-indulgent.

Is it possible to make a bad use of a virtue? No. The full definition of a virtue is “a good habit of the mind, by which we live righteously, of which no one can make bad use.” If you make a bad use of a virtue, or a superhabit, it is not a virtue or superhabit, by definition.

Remember, superhabits are not something foreign to you. They already exist within you, like unused muscles. You just need to start exercising them. But those “muscles” can only be used in certain ways. If you try to use them for something inappropriate, they won’t work. It’s like trying to use the muscles in your tongue to wind a wristwatch. It won’t work. They’re just not made that way. Likewise, superhabits cannot be used for evil — they’re just not made that way.

Let’s say that you are trying to cultivate the virtue of Courage, but you want to use it to rob a bank. You want to overcome the fear that would arise naturally, if you held a teller in broad daylight, and reframe it as a challenge, so that it will give you more energy to steal.

It won’t work. You’d be trying to using those “muscles” for something they weren’t designed for. What you’re developing may resemble Courage. You might learn to proceed despite your fears of getting caught, or shot. But you’re not building a superhabit. A superhabit doesn’t just make your life easier, it also makes you happier and healthier. Practicing robbing banks will make it easier for you to rob banks, but you will not find yourself becoming calmer, healthier, or happier.

The word virtue is not commonly used in our world today. Indeed, for many people it’s almost a “bad” word — as in “virtue signaling,” which, according to the Urban Dictionary, means “To take a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a good cause but actually to show off how much more moral you are than everybody else.” That doesn’t make virtue sound very attractive. 

This is why I’ve mostly used the word superhabit in this book. But the idea of virtue, properly understood as the unification of competence and decency, is beautiful. When we see someone displaying the height of competence for a good cause, like Captain Sullenberger and his crew, we are struck by it. We recognize its attractiveness, and we want it for ourselves.

If you build the superhabits in this book, quietly, year after year, as Sully did, you will find your life increasing in calm, joy, and strength. One day, you too might be in a position to help people in some dramatic way, and perhaps even to inspire millions. You will never know if, how, or when the moment will come, until it does. You just have to get ready.

The difference between virtue signaling and virtue is perhaps nowhere more evident than in our final superhabit, Justice. Like Courage (which governs our fears), Self-Discipline (which governs our desires), and Practical Wisdom (which governs our thoughts), Justice is also a cardinal superhabit. It governs our actions, so that at all times we act justly, giving others what is due to them.

Guess what!  Providential things are simply happening.  Would you believe that these things are somehow alluded to in one of the subjects in this seminar that I am attending?  More and more things are being affirmed and confirmed as what they really are and that still are that matter in life.  They are things that will always add value and meaning to our daily ordinary life leading us to where we are truly headed for. 

Anyway, as always let you and I take these thoughts and ideas into our quiet moments of conversation and rest in our Father God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph during the day.  Listen and heed what each one will tell you and me at every moment of the day.

May I request you to accompany us with your prayers and offerings through these days of our seminar.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky