Don’t Outsource Your Virtue (Guest Post)
On the Pursuit of Spiritual AND Earthly Success -- Not One or the Other
Hey Everyone! 👋
Today I’m excited to share a guest post from one of our Founding Members and my good friend,
. Enjoy and let us know your thoughts below.(PS: if you’d like to become a founding member today, we’d greatly appreciate your contribution)
Recently, my friend Silas asked me to write a piece for Catholic Founders after one of our conversations struck a chord.
Silas texted me to ask if I had ever read Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic, a collection of meditations from the Stoics meant to be digested daily over a year. I told him that I had read a lot of Ryan Holiday and Marcus Aurelius before taking my faith seriously as an adult.
But I also told him this: I don’t recommend that Catholics read Stoicism.
While Stoicism offers some valuable insights, it ultimately misaligns with the Catholic faith. Why? Because it’s incomplete. It seeks virtue for its own sake, detached from the source of all virtue—God.
This led to a phone call with Silas, where he explained that he wanted to gather a group of Catholics to read the book together because he sees a growing problem within the Church, especially among more traditional communities:
Unfortunately, many Catholics today are uninspired and idle, avoiding worldly ambitions but also failing to live fully for God, like monks without the vows.
Silas’ observation struck me because it highlights a tension I’ve seen among Catholics today. On the one hand, there are those who aim for nothing beyond the bare minimum – a life of avoiding sin but not actively pursuing greatness for God’s glory. On the other hand, there are those who pursue excellence but look to non-Catholic thinkers like Marcus Aurelius, Jordan Peterson, or Andrew Tate for inspiration.
1) The Monks Without the Vows
I’ll be upfront: this group angers me much more. As Catholics, we are called to pursue The Good, The True, and The Beautiful. Yet many stop short, OK with pursuing only the first two.
This ignorance manifests in many ways, a few easy ones:
A lack of care for physical health and hygiene.
Disregard for dressing respectfully, especially for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (I’ve seen #18 Caleb Williams jerseys in Chicago pews).
Mediocrity in work, showing little competence or ambition to excel.
This angers me because the people of a church are part of its architecture. Just as walking into a church with uninspiring art and structure leaves a sense of lost potential, so does walking into a church with uninspiring people.
Acedia [uh-see-dee-uh]
The Church Fathers called it a “noonday devil,” a spiritual laziness that goes far beyond idleness. Acedia is an apathy toward the joy of God’s call, a refusal to embrace the beauty and responsibility of pursuing holiness in every area of life.
For some, acedia manifests as indifference, a shrugging off of any higher purpose. For others, it disguises itself as a rejection of worldly ambition in the name of piety or humility - but in reality, it’s a failure to fully engage with God’s plan for them.
Acedia whispers lies like: “As long as I avoid sin, that’s all God asks of me.”
But we know that God calls us for much more. I see acedia the most, in particular with Catholics lacking ambition in work, especially if the field of work is secular. Even if our work may not directly impact the Church, God has not misplaced us in his plan for the sanctification of the world.
Bell Tower Restoration
I attend a beautiful church here in Chicago. Outside of the occasional Caleb Williams jersey, the people reflect the reverence shown by the structure of the Church. It was miraculously built in the 1880s by Polish immigrants who had nothing much to give besides everything they had.
Just like our physical bodies, our churches need constant care and restoration, especially as they age. The church is starting to show its 140+ year age, and one of the big projects that has been embarked on this year is the construction of 2 new bell tower cupolas.
As I have been following the construction, it’s hard not to marvel at the amount of human excellence and competence that goes into a project like this:
The skill of the laborers and their use of machinery
The engineers who design the new cupola specifically to our church
The parishioners who finance the project, donating money they receive from the fruits of their labor (whether the line of work be sacred or secular)
The Polish immigrants who built the original bell tower, using technology from the 1880s
Keep in mind - this is just one project at one church. Imagine if everyone involved threw their hands up at the end of each night and said to themselves: “Well at least I didn’t sin today.”
The Catechism teaches us that "man’s vocation is to make visible the invisible God" (CCC 114). To reject beauty, competence, or ambition is to miss our calling to glorify Him in all things.
2.) The Highly Motivated but Misled
On the other end of the spectrum are those who avoid mediocrity but anchor their ambition in incomplete philosophies. I have fallen into this trap more than the first one.
This group is disciplined, driven, and focused on personal excellence. They strive for greatness and pursue success, but they often turn to secular wisdom for guidance—philosophies and figures that preach self-mastery, resilience, and individual achievement. While these ideals may seem virtuous and help rid one of acedia, they ultimately lack the fullness of truth.
The issue is not their ambition but its direction. Without God at the center, their efforts become inward-focused, aiming for self-improvement or worldly acclaim instead of aligning with God’s plan. Virtue for its own sake is hollow; Catholic virtue always points beyond itself, rooted in grace and directed toward the glory of God.
This misalignment can be subtle but dangerous. Ambition without Christ may produce external success—thriving businesses, impressive accomplishments, or disciplined habits—but it risks building a life on a foundation of sand. As Scripture warns:
"Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." (Psalm 127:1)
Catholics are called to a higher standard: not just to achieve but to sanctify. True greatness lies not in what we accomplish for ourselves but in how we glorify God through our talents and efforts.
This doesn’t mean rejecting ambition—it means reordering it. As St. Paul reminds us:
"Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." (1 Cor. 9:24)
The prize is not earthly success but eternal life. Every discipline, every achievement, every effort should reflect our ultimate purpose: to serve God and share in God’s rule over the Earth.
Conclusion
Our Lord does not call us to passively wait for Heaven. God has placed greatness within us, not for our own glory, but for His. This pursuit of excellence isn’t optional for Catholics; it’s part of our mission. Whether we are working on restoring a bell tower, closing a business deal, or raising children, our work matters. It’s not about being perfect, but about offering our very best to God.
Work hard. Get in great physical shape. Strive to be the best at what you choose to do.
We do not need Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Marcus Aurelius, or New Year’s Day to tell us this...
God has already done so.
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Thanks for this post Charlie. Really valuable insights here and well written.