What are the theological virtues?
The Theological Virtues are faith, hope, and charity. These virtues are supernatural capacities to receive three divine powers from Jesus’ fullness of grace.
These virtues are called theological, or divine, because they unite us directly to God. God infuses them into our souls, along with sanctifying grace, in the Sacrament of Baptism.
The Theological Virtues, along with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Cardinal Virtues, are the means God gives us in Baptism for activating and developing the share in His divine nature and life that sanctifying grace confers. These virtues and gifts enable us to function and live in the dimension of God’s own life, of God’s own acts of consciousness, intellect and will.
By making repeated acts of these virtues, we develop strong habits of them. These habits enable us to grow constantly in our union with Christ in the Holy Spirit, and with the Father through Christ. The Theological Virtues give us the power to share Jesus’ own possession of and obedience to the truth, His commitment to His Father’s will and plan, and His habit of saying “yes” to all God gives Him and asks of Him. They are also our most fundamental weapons in the battle against evil and our strongest protection against the wiles of the devil.