The last verse of the first letter of John says, Little children, beware of idols. I used to think this was an odd way to end the letter. It seemed out of place, and then I spent a little more time in the verses leading up to it. (Reading in context is very helpful.) The Apostle is reminding the reader (that's us) that we are of God while the whole world is in the power of the evil one. There's the connection.

Idolatry is choosing something of the world, a created thing, over God, the Creator of all things. When I do that, I am in the power of Satan. In contrast, the closer I get to God, the less power Satan has in my life. John warns us to beware of idols because they pull us away from God.

I need grace. We need grace. Without it, we cannot do anything but sin. We can't get to heaven. We won't have peace in our lives. We won't be healed. We won't grow in communion with God. We won't be able to resist the devil and his lies. We need grace to fight the spiritual battle.

We need a lot of grace, and it doesn't come all at once. We get it little by little, in the measure we need. If we don't seek God's grace, we will be running on empty, so we need to fill our tanks often.

How do we do that? Two of the most powerful sources of grace are the sacraments and sacramentals.

God is love. Perfect love.

Love is a great tool in our spiritual arsenal. If the attack is fear, we know that perfect love casts out fear. If the attack is discouragement, we know that God makes all things work together for good for those who love Him. If the attack is temptation, we know that God is faithful and won't let us be tempted beyond our ability, because He loves us.

Virtue is a huge topic. It could fill volumes of books, and still there would be more to say. My goal here, which is a bit more manageable, is to focus on how virtue helps us fight the spiritual battle.

Let's start with a definition. Virtue is a consistent disposition of character that inclines a person to good acts.

In other words, virtue is when we consistently behave in a positive way that is demonstrated through our behavior. We do the right thing.