Francis Spirago’s The Catechism Explained (English edition edited by Richard F. Clarke, S.J., 1899) is used here as a historical catechetical source for turning Catholic moral teaching into concrete habits. Current Catholic teaching governs wherever discipline, terminology, or pastoral practice has developed.
Spirago treats virtue as a stable disposition strengthened through repeated good action, with human effort depending on divine grace. One heroic act matters; repeated ordinary acts form character.
App cue: “What is one small act of this virtue I can do now?”
His treatment of temptation and the development of sin distinguishes what first appears in the mind or appetite from the later act of willing it. This fits the Aquinas work already in the app: an unwanted thought, feeling, craving, or bodily movement is not yet the same thing as chosen consent.
Notice → Name → Pause → Judge → Consent or refuse → Choose the next act.
The older phrase “occasions of sin” maps cleanly to modern trigger and relapse planning: people, places, routines, media, substances, or situations can reliably lower freedom and increase risk. Avoid needless exposure; when duty requires exposure, plan support in advance.
Trigger + vulnerability + urge + planned response.
Christian perfection is built in ordinary moments: truthful speech, keeping promises, punctuality, prayer, work, patience, sobriety, and small acts of charity. This prevents “waiting to feel transformed” before behaving differently.
Do the next small faithful thing.
Humility
Truthful self-knowledge before God; neither self-inflation nor theatrical self-contempt.
Obedience
Teachability and right obedience: willingness to receive legitimate authority, truth, correction, and duty without surrendering conscience.
Meekness / peaceableness
Patient gentleness: strength governed rather than discharged through anger; seeking peace without abandoning truth.
Liberality
Generosity: freedom from possessiveness with money, time, attention, credit, and control.
Temperance
Moderation and sobriety: using created goods in the right measure and for the right end.
Chastity
Sexual integrity: desire integrated with love, dignity, fidelity, and vocation rather than using another person.
Diligence / zeal in good
Faithful effort: promptness and perseverance in good without frantic over-control or perfectionism.
Cardinal virtues
Prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance organize moral action; faith, hope, and charity orient the whole life to God.
1. What is true? → 2. What arose in me? → 3. What am I tempted to choose? → 4. Which virtue governs here? → 5. What one act expresses it? → 6. Ask for grace → 7. Do it → 8. Review and repeat.
Historical-source safeguard: the 1899 work contains examples, terminology, and disciplines from its period. The app extracts durable Catholic moral principles while treating the current Catechism, current canon law/liturgy, sound spiritual direction, and present Church discipline as governing where applicable.