Chivalry for Children (Part 2)
In the last blog I shared the first two knightly virtues, “honesty” and “courtesy”, that the Chilvary for ChildrenTM group members animated for the Cub Scouts at our Blue and Gold Cross-over Banquet. Here I will highlight several of the remaining knightly virtues, which include: loyalty, humility, charity, perseverance, and courage.
The Chivalry for ChildrenTM literature explains, “Loyalty is related to honesty; a King can trust the loyal knight because he knows that he or she has accepted the duty of being the King’s defender, and as such cannot let anything come between himself and his duty.” This, however, does not mean that you are to follow anything blindly.
Sir Lancelot illustrates the knightly virtue of humility when he defeated his foes in a stunning victory. While it was not necessary for him to deny his accomplishments when in the presence of the king, humility guided him to let his actions, not his words, speak for himself.
The story of Robert the Bruce, the king of Scotland, highlighted the knightly virtue of perseverance. Fighting multiple times for Scotland’s independence, King Robert took respite from his foes by taking shelter alone in the forest on a shepherd’s cot. As he lay there he watched as a spider slowly and patiently spin a web a number of times. Each time it was destroyed by a howling wind. Never giving up, the spider continued once more with a final web that was instrumental in catching her next meal. So inspired by the spider’s persistence the formerly battle-weary King Robert went onto one more battle and finally was successful in gaining Scotland’s independence.
Yes, that is interesting…but why invest time listening to these stories of virtue and teaching them to our children?
As I said before, growing in virtue is the heart of being Catholic.
Because of original sin our natural instincts led us away from virtue and away from God. To become virtuous men and women we must expose ourselves to virtue and “bring into the light” this foreign way of thinking, feeling, and acting that God wants us to adopt.
Catholic Women’s Guide for Healthy Relationships Tip: Think of one way you can personally apply the virtue lesson from any of the anecdotes in this or the previous blog.
