A Modern Take on Fortitude: Equipping Ourselves for a New Spiritual Battle
“Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things” (St. Teresa of Ávila).
Editor’s note: This Lent, the Catholic Women in Business team is exploring the theme “Cultivating Virtue in the Desert.” Learn more here.
The word “fortitude” stems from the Latin word “fortis,” which means “strength.” The Catechism defines it as “the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good” It states that fortitude “strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life” and “enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions” (CCC 1808).
This definition is, admittedly, an intense one. But in practical application, it carries a bit more nuance. A recent article shared through Catholic News Agency unpacks the virtue a bit more, shining it through a modern lens: Fortitude, the author writes, “enables a person to withstand whatever difficulties may block him from attaining his true goal (emphasis added).” If our true goal is holiness, there are many things that can block us. Fortitude is the virtue that can help us push past all manner of blocks, large or small, serious or seemingly trivial.
The article goes on to explain that historically, fortitude was the virtue that emboldened men to charge into battle. Now, we recognize that we are all in the midst of a battle, albeit a spiritual one. “We too, must be willing to offer our lives for the greatest good, namely, the glory of God,” the author writes. “Although we probably won’t be literally killed for our faith, still we must be prepared to make all kinds of great sacrifices in living out our Catholic identity.”
Thus, fortitude is not always about charging into adversity with steely nerves and gritted teeth but, rather, patient dedication to what our daily tasks demand, in life and in business—even, and perhaps especially, when we do not see any immediate or apparent fruit from our efforts. The posture with which we approach our lives and our daily work can either aid or impede our quest for holiness.
Business, and any vocation to which we’re called, naturally involves tasks that can feel difficult, thankless, or endless: tasks that simply never give us the satisfaction of completeness. Parents are all too familiar with household tasks, like laundry and dishes, that regenerate almost immediately upon completion. There are many parallels in business, from marketing funnels to filing taxes and other administrative tasks that pop up like dandelions. Yet no matter our vocations and their related burdens, we’re called to be faithful to the task at hand. Doing so graciously requires fortitude.
For many of us, faithfulness to the ongoing mundane tasks within our vocations may not seem to approach the burden of martyrdom. But it does require some level of sacrifice—sometimes even a substantial one: St. Thérèse, lauded for her lifelong commitment to performing small tasks with dedication and grace, referred to the concept of a “martyr of love.” Her life stands as a testament to how subjugating our own fleeting desires to the tangible physical and spiritual needs of others can, in and of itself, serve as a type of modern martyrdom.
Not to mention, it’s easy for anyone to charge into a new task, whether it’s a new project or a new business idea, when it’s fresh and novel. But keeping the wheels turning months later, when it’s no longer fun, demands a new level of resolve. When we’ve been called into business, commitment to our daily work is imperative, regardless of whether it’s enjoyable at that particular moment.
There is no way to “hack” our way to holiness. But there are small steps we can take to plant and cultivate tiny seeds of virtue in our lives and our work:
Accept that in the end, it’s more about growth in virtue than productivity.
Growing in fortitude requires a paradigm shift: While it certainly feels good to check unpleasant items off our lists and then move on to something more enjoyable, we need to accept that many (in fact, most) of the tasks we dislike will face us once again. If we want to use our business to grow in holiness, we need to learn to face these tasks with renewed energy. This reframe can save us from feeling like we’re pushing a Sisyphean boulder up a hill and help us see that even the grunt work in our lives can set us on a straight and narrow path to growth, virtue, and holiness.
Learn to fall in love with the process instead of craving results.
It’s hard to fall in love with doing taxes or cleaning up the literal or figurative messes in our life and work. But a small posture shift can help: Instead of constantly priming ourselves to look for the results (monetary or otherwise) of our efforts, can we come to embrace the process itself? Can we, in the spirit of Ecclesiastes, work hard and then rest well, rather than chase abundance that will leave us increasingly frustrated and dissatisfied? Can we view ourselves as soldiers on a new type of battlefield, one that requires us to offer up all of our acts, small and grand, as gestures of love instead of grasping for our own sense of fulfillment?
Schedule the tough stuff.
While there are no “life hacks” or “10 easy steps” to grow in virtue, there are ways to help manage the stress and overwhelm that can stem from certain tasks. If there’s a recurring task that bogs you down and you can’t yet outsource, schedule it. Assign it a moniker like “admin” or “housekeeping,” and try setting a specific time each week to tackle it. This approach will make these tasks function more like a standing meeting than nagging to-do list items that accumulate to the point of utter overwhelm.
Pray a Litany of Humility before you approach this type of work, and offer it for a special intention. Tell Jesus you trust him to bring forth fruit from your efforts, even if you cannot see it immediately. Trust that if the only fruit is your own growth in fortitude, patience, and humility, then that is enough.
Why It Matters
Most of us will not be asked to literally martyr ourselves. But we will be given trials proportionate to our life and callings. When we strengthen our will by facing the small trials we face each day, we prepare ourselves to face much greater challenges in time.
Alexandra Macey Davis is a wife, mother, and writer who shares her take on issues at the intersection of faith, culture, and family life. Her work has been published in Verily Magazine, Coffee + Crumbs, Public Discourse, FemCatholic, Everyday Mamas, She is Kindred, and many more. By day, she runs Davis Legal Media - a ghostwriting service for lawyers - and in the margins, you can find her wheeling her double stroller through vintage furniture stores, hoarding her favorite recipes, or writing at coffee shops. You can connect with Alex on her website, on Instagram, or by joining her monthly newsletter, where she encourages working moms to pursue goodness, truth, and beauty in their vocations.