Day 243: The Virtue of Hope

Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people, which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice. "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations." CCC 1819

Today's reading from the Catechism is on the second theological virtue: hope. This is the virtue in which we respond to God, trust Christ, and yearn to be united with Him in Paradise. The Catechism Compendium gives a nice summary of this virtue:

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life. (#387)

The virtue of hope "unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in the proclamation of the Beatitudes," which in turn, "raises our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land". Hope gives us the strength to endure trials (Rom 12:12) and persevere with the promises of Christ in mind (Heb 6:19-20). It also "is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father" (CCC 1820).

Fr. Mike Schmitz has a good video on the virtue of hope and why we need it: