Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination

by Vigen Guroian

When Irene “lets go” of Curdie, her trust in the grandmother gives life to a new form of courage within her. The philosopher Josef Pieper has called this “ ‘mystic’ fortitude.”12 Irene ceases fearing for Curdie, not because she no longer cares for him but because she believes in someone who cares for him even more. Mystic fortitude is an attribute of the faithful self that abandons itself for the sake of the other, letting go of earthly fear and natural desire. Mystic fortitude is entrustment of oneself and those one loves entirely to God. “The self is given to us that we may sacrifice it,” wrote MacDonald. “It is ours, that we, like Christ, may have somewhat to offer—not that we should torment it, but that we should deny it; not that we should cross it, but that we should abandon it utterly: then it can no more be vexed.”