Week 1

Week 1 

Hey my Young Apostle Friends,

Here is a little intro to everything we are working for men's and women's groups. It starts this Tuesday May 26th with Mass then we will hang for a little bit before splitting into our groups. We are still going to do accountability, but we are also going to start by having you talk about a virtue each week. This week we are going into Friendship and how good friends lead you to virtue. All you need to do is read this blog post and be prepared to share. My hope is for you to share on your friendships and which ones  lead you closer to God or to live a virtuous life.(a virtuous life is living out the good things God plans for you. We will define virtue more next week)

So I'm hanging in Memphis this weekend so I left you guys some tunes in the background of the video. See you Tuesday I am praying for you.          

-Joe

Friendship

The Basics

3 Types of Friendships (Aristotle)

1. Those Motivated By Utility or Usefulness -We become friends, because someone is useful to us. They help us with an activity or make life easier in some way. This friendship is based on finding one another useful.
2. Those Motivated By Pleasure -These are friends that we enjoy something about them or doing something with them. This friendship is based off of enjoying one another.
3. Those Motivated By Virtue or Goodness - these friendships are indispensable and necessary for happiness. These are friendships that are built off of the pursuit of the good. They see one another's  goodness and strive for virtue together. Friends motivated by virtue can start as friends of usefulness and pleasure but are elevated through leading the other person to goodness. That doesn't mean they stop being useful of pleasurable but that it is elevated to something more.

Activity 

Think of 10 friendships and honestly categorize them into one of the three types of friendships

On the Deeper side

Aristotle knew that there are several different kinds of friend­ ship. Of these, he thought that only one was perfect friend­ ship---the kind that exists between persons who love one an­other and wish only to benefit the other.

Aristotle also knew that such friendships are rare. More frequently, we speak of another person as being a friend because he is useful to us or because we get some pleasure from him. Such friendships are selfish. The person we call a friend serves some interest of our own, and we regard him or her as a friend only so long as that remains the case. In contrast, true friend­ ship or love is unselfish. It is benevolent. It aims at serving the good of the other.

Justice, like love, is concerned with the good of the other per­son. However, there is a clear difference between them. When we truly love someone, we do not give the person loved what he or she has a right to claim from us. On the con­trary, we give to them of ourselves generously and unselfishly, without any regard to their rights. We do for them more than they have any right to expect.

-Aristotle for Everyone by M. Adler (p114-115)

Just for Fun