12 VIRTUES

1. Compassion

Everywhere, every day, we learn of people suffering, in our own communities and in communities
throughout the world. It is difficult not to be aware of all this suffering, yet most of us manage to keep it
from the forefront of our everyday lives. Honestly, I myself don’t have care what other people
experiencing but I have this experienced with street children. During my time with the street children, I
had a chance to interact with them and know more about their personal lives. Most of them are left on
their own and simply live off the streets with their friends in their everyday lives. They have no
permanent home and wander around aimlessly. But even though they don’t have their own home and
money, they are still able to make the most of their lives. I chatted with them and got to know them. I
gave them some food and drinks and as well as colouring materials for them to work on. I spent time with
them and taught them some minor stuff. Meeting those kids made me feel sad and pitied them, but it also
amazed me how they can remain strong and positive despite their conditions in life. It taught me that even
with the most simple of lives, no matter how bad their situations that they are in, we can remain strong
and resilient. We may be different in how we live our lives but we are all God’s children. And siblings
look out for each other. That’s His great happiness, to spread love and compassion.

2. Generosity

Being generous is freely sharing what you have with others without expectation of reward or return.
Helping others is one of my greatest joys. When I help others, I also help myself see the joy and beauty to
be found in life. Sharing is one of the best investments I can make towards achieving genuine happiness.
True giving comes from the heart, with no expectation of reciprocation. Giving provides a reward that’s
far more valuable than the gift so if ever I have a chance I would gladly give without expecting something
in return. With my experience, I am happy I helped street children because as a child, I am lucky to eat
three times a day, go to school, have toys, clothes, and a home. I have experienced a happy childhood
while millions of street children are out there alone and hungry. They have already experienced so much
when in fact, they should be having a happy childhood and supposed to be cared. “Charity is in the Heart
of a Vincentian”. These are the phrases that Vincentian community should remember because it is the
fulfilment of God’s love for us by helping a community that needs help, comfort and assistance. Also
sharing what you have to other people teaches the same way what Saint Vincent thought us which is
rejecting the greed, anger, and hatred in everyday life and changing it into generosity, devotion and love.

3. Honesty

Honesty is the act of being honest. Being honest is not just saying the truth but also doing what is
right even if no one is looking. This virtue is a must for us students. Small lies produce bigger problems.
For example, if a student on an exam and gets a passing grade, he'll continue doing that. He’ll just depend
on his classmates answer and not study. It will be a problem to him in the board exams. There's no one
who will let him copy and all. For me, honesty is the most treasured values of human being. Honesty is
the foundation upon which a person builds any relationship with his loved ones such as family or friends.
Honesty produces trust; so basically, honesty is a great foundation for a relationship. If a couple is honest
with each other, there's a chance that they will end up together until they grow old. It is inevitably that
people have a tendency of relying on an honest person. Living life honestly means opening oneself freely
and exposing one's true self to others. I didn't choose this virtue because I'm not honest but because most
people forgot what the best policy is. From the corrupt government officials who takes money from the
taxes of our parents up to those people in the poverty line who do unethical things for them to survive.
Being honest is hard especially if you're headed by corrupt officials. People would do unethical things
because they think that it’s okay because it is also done by the government. Honesty can be improved by
teaching and showing everyone what is honesty. That's the simplest way to do it.

4. Gratitude

Gratitude is the state of being appreciative or being thankful. It is one of the most underestimated
ways on how we can enrich our lives. We should always be grateful for everything. From the moment our
eyes opened in the morning until the last minute of the day that we are safe, we should be grateful. Learn
to be grateful for everything in your life, especially God, the higher power that created you and
everything else in the world. When you show your appreciation, you will access a calmer state, you will
feel more peaceful and this makes you feel good about yourself, and your life. The simplest way to show
gratitude is praying. Don't just pray because you need something, pray and be thankful for everything that
He has done for us and also for the everyday that He has given us.

My friends would ask why I am not going inside the church before I went home, they said
"magpasalamat ka naman". For me, going to church everyday isn't a must to show Him that I am grateful.
A simple prayer in the morning to thank Him for waking me and my family, a prayer when I pass by the
church to thank Him for getting me into school safely, a prayer for every meal that I eat to thank Him for
another blessing and a prayer at night for keeping me and my family safe for the day and also thanking
Him for giving me another great day. I choose this virtue to remind everyone to BE GRATEFUL FOR
EVERYTHING, good or bad, be grateful. Lastly, thank yourself for being who you are right now and for
whatever you have had in your life. When you appreciate yourself, you will have more confidence and
thus, able to accomplish more. When you show your gratitude toward the things you have in life, you will
appreciate them and in return, you will live an abundant life.

5. Courage

Bravery comes from our hearts and minds. Having confidence and knowing yourself truly would
result to courage. Having courage would not only mean your strong physically but also in adversity’s.
What makes an individual brave is he/she is ready. Life presents a lot of adversity and it’s depends on us
either we break because of it or become stronger after it. What we are experiencing right now is now what
GOD choice was but our consequences rather. We know that GOD give us human freedom, free to
choose and act but our actions have consequences. And it’s for us to have courage to face those
challenges we made. Courage doesn’t mean physically upright also in emotionally right. Life is too short
and we should do our best for the betterment of our life consequently with others. We’re going to die,
were going to face our judgment on heaven. Courage also means preparedness, all is set.

Courage means acceptance and letting go, losing someone that we’ve truly love is hard but we should
be prepared ourselves for it. Acceptance shows courageous heart and intellectually inclined. Filipino
people are a socio centric influence that we live with our family with extension. Courage to speak and
fight for our rights is what Philippines need. Since much of the Filipinos is financially declined and lack
of awareness they tend not to fight for themselves. We the Filipinos should have courage to fight for the
just and what respect they give. Courage also means confidence, knowing our weakness and strengths.
Students may find hard to show who they are because they are afraid of judgment. Society dictates what
we act and become which is irrelevant. We should show who we are. Being you and not afraid of
judgment is showing courage because this is me and I don’t mind them. To be courageous need to follow
his heart, persevere in facing adversities and stand for what is right. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s
the strength to move forward in the face of fear. 

6. Self-discipline

Individuals choice is very powerful and changing. Disciplinary actions are a difficult move especially
human mind is diversely advocated. But through discipline, you will be able to identify or discover your
strengths and weaknesses. The ability to resist distractions or temptations is self-discipline. In education,
students have a lot of distraction especially they live in an electronically filled world. People tend to be
distracted but in moderation.
 Self-discipline encompasses control or management of time and resources. Filipinos has this attitude
called Filipino time and for us it’s natural but we should innovate ourselves to do more. For students,
managing time is critical and hard especially those students whose in tertiary level. Balancing could also
be synonymous to discipline. Doing a lot of school will pissed you off. I know that we are familiar to
procrastination in which to tend to do their task to other day instead today. In order to achieve success we
need to set goals for long term goals and we need patience and control. I want to develop self-discipline
to balance my time and use it efficiently.

7. Justice

Fair and just is what humanity wants but human want is fame. This virtue is relevant and timely in
our country. Poverty, discrimination and injustices are the basic problem what community encountered.
Injustices are rampant and diffuse in all corners of the Philippines. Our country really needs justice to
have fair and just system but what hinder us is lack of contentment and discipline. People wants are
unlimited in limited resources. Poverty is root of all injustices we’ve experience. It’s the reason why
discrimination and inequality occurs. Like for instance, the distribution of goods and economic fruits is
distributed unequally. The upper part of pyramid is occupied by rich people in a small quantity of
population. Followed by the capable people who’s in the middle part compose of the same amount of
population with their wages. But the bottom part is for the poor whose income is low and the population
is much greater than them.

Justice plays an important role in all community it equalizes human power. Without Justice in a
certain community will lead to discrepancy, poor economic system and lack of trust. Discrimination and
bullying would be a great example of injustices in school or even in a community. Students must have
prior knowledge about this phenomenon. The victims who suffered from depression and fear are
alarming. It doesn’t mean that they are weak or they don’t have courage to protect themselves but fear to
judge again. Society would always dictate what should people act and become. Justice is human freedom
with limitations and love for everyone.

8. Optimistic

Everyone has its own mind setting either it would be bad or good. I think Filipinos have a great mind
set towards problems and challenges in life. We always look forward to hopeful and optimistic, look
backward to be grateful, look downward to be humble and look upward to be faithful. That’s what makes
us unique from others. Having a positive mind leads us to great works and positive actions in life. I
always look at the positive side to look the beauty in each problem. I always wanted to find grace and
hope in the silver lining to betterment in life. Positive thinking makes everything positive and real.
Negativity kills us all but positivity heals and guides us through success. Life present adversity also bunch
of solutions with wise mind. I want to develop the virtue of optimistic in order for me to have confidence
and trust for myself.

9. Prudence

A person who is practical or cautious at making a good judgement. Being prudent means making
wise decisions based on principal and managing your practical affairs in a shrewd and discreet manner.
Prudence also implies preparation for bad outcomes as well as avoidance of bad outcomes. Clearly, a
prudent person who saves resources has them when needed. This virtue gives an advantage of being able
to appraise issue and situations more realistically and accurately. It helps in choosing better decisions so
that it wouldn’t harm other people in making judgements. I want to develop this virtue because most of
the time I’m not careful with my own decisions that sometimes hurt or harm the people close to me.

10. Determination

The quality of being optimistic and confident in achieving one thing. This virtue will help
motivate me in finishing my task at the right time. Being a determinate person is a positive personal
character trait that has a firmness of purpose and the resolve to achieve a goal. It
is a fixed intention or resolution to overcome obstacles. Achieving goal is not as
easy when you are not determined of aiming for it. One major benefit of being determined
is that you achieve what you set out to do. A person who is steadfast and determined to achieve an
honorable goal is admired as having good character. There is personal satisfaction in achieving what you
set out to achieve. And that achievement can make you feel confident, like a champion. I want to develop
and improve this virtue because this will help me to achieve my dreams and goals in life. Most of the
time, I feel undetermined in finishing my task for the day and that is why I cram most of the time.

11. Be a person that is obedient in all relations and aspects in family, school and own
community

Our Community, family and school is not just a place of development and growth part of this
place is a total acceptance that we are one family together in God's amazing love. An action that could
precisely help in the development of virtues is Obedience. In our community it can be practiced by being
obedience first in the law to follow what is right does not only make as good and law abiding citizens but
also make our life better and avoid unexpected harm and destructions to ourselves. For the school
obedience in our teachers the lessons taught in school will only be beneficial if we well obey what our
teachers instructed us to do this will not just help us be great but also be a real learners not just
intellectually but also spiritually. Lastly for the family Obeying the parents is part of God's commandment
they are given to us not only to love us but to guide and take care of us and one way of showing our great
love for them is to obey them and to show that they are our models as we go through different paths and
journeys of our life. Just like in our Lesson the real gratitude and kagandahang-loob can be practiced by
being person who learns to follow and obey the people around him. Aside from that, we can believe and
trust that God’s plan for us is good and loving. This is really hard, especially at times when life is
uncertain, but you are not alone in the chaos. He is right there with you of you only learn to trust and obey
him through those simple steps the virtue of obedience can be developed as part of our everyday life and
part of our everyday existence and thinking.

12. Have life of humility

Another action is to become humble have a life with profound humility. A life that is humble is a
life full of gentleness and greatness. We can practice humility in our community by Accepting that you’re
not the best at everything. To get in a more humble mind-set, you have to accept the fact that you’re not
the best at everything—or even anything. In our community that is filled by many good works and
blessings be humble enough by offering service to other people and giving simple acts of love to them
this just not only showed that you are a humble person but also a person with a hand. For the school, be
an optimist. People who practice humility are naturally optimistic because they don’t waste their time
complaining about all of the bad things that have happened to them or dreading the future. Aside from
that we should also take note that a person that is humble is a person who not just look for mistakes but
rather see these mistakes positively and take actions positively. For the Family, Be grateful for what you
have—and what you don’t. If you really want to practice humility, then you have to work on being
grateful for everything the world has given you. If your family is unable to give you material things or
riches that you want you must not be angry and hate life a humble son or daughter is thankful in every
graces that God is granting them whether small or big the important is God give you graces because you
are blessed. Being humble is something that one must take into consideration, as St. Teresa of Calcutta
once said. "Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity, and obedience. It is in being humble that
our love becomes real, devoted and ardent." Being humble does not only allow us to develop within us a
virtue but furthermore it allows us to develop a real sense of what a son and daughter of God really
means, a humble servant like Jesus who came to serve and not to be served.