Life Framework

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."

Luke 10:27

A personal framework by Andre D Paredes, PhD

Heart

The Passionate Self

Cardinal Virtue: Fortitude

To love with all my heart is to embrace my passionate self—the core of who I truly am. It is about authenticity, living in alignment with my deepest desires and identity.

The heart is where courage resides, where I find the fortitude to be genuine even when it requires vulnerability. It is the wellspring of my truest convictions, the place where I refuse to compromise on what matters most.

This dimension calls me to:

  • Live authentically, honoring who God created me to be
  • Pursue desires that align with truth and goodness
  • Cultivate courage in the face of adversity
  • Embrace my identity as beloved and called

Through fortitude, my heart learns to stand firm in conviction while remaining tender toward others—a tough mind and tender heart.

Soul

The Humble Self

Cardinal Virtue: Justice

To love with all my soul is to embrace my humble self—recognizing my place within something far greater than myself. It is resignation to a power beyond my control, an acknowledgment of my profound connectivity to God and others.

The soul understands that true justice begins with humility: giving God what is due, honoring others, and accepting my limitations. It is the part of me that surrenders control and trusts in divine providence.

This dimension calls me to:

  • Surrender to God's will and timing
  • Recognize my dependence on grace
  • Seek right relationship with God, others, and creation
  • Practice justice rooted in humility and love

Through justice, my soul learns to give each—God, neighbor, self—what is rightfully theirs, beginning with the humble acknowledgment that all is gift.

Strength

The Willful Self

Cardinal Virtue: Temperance

To love with all my strength is to engage my willful self—the part of me that perseveres, pushes past limits, and continues even when every fiber wants to quit. It is willpower disciplined by temperance.

Strength without temperance becomes reckless; temperance without strength becomes passive. Together, they create the balanced will that pursues what is good with both intensity and wisdom.

This dimension calls me to:

  • Exercise self-discipline in pursuit of virtue
  • Persevere through difficulty and discomfort
  • Balance effort with rest, intensity with moderation
  • Channel my will toward what truly matters

Through temperance, my strength learns restraint—when to push forward and when to pull back, when to act and when to wait.

Mind

The Thoughtful Self

Cardinal Virtue: Prudence

To love with all my mind is to engage my thoughtful self—the part of me that seeks truth through precision, accuracy, and attentive discernment. It is the rational faculty ordered toward wisdom.

Prudence is not mere caution, but right judgment in action. It is wisdom applied, knowing not only what is true but how to live truthfully in each particular moment.

This dimension calls me to:

  • Seek truth with intellectual honesty and rigor
  • Exercise discernment in decision-making
  • Cultivate attentiveness to reality as it is, not as I wish it to be
  • Apply knowledge with practical wisdom

Through prudence, my mind learns to see clearly, judge rightly, and act wisely—aligning thought, word, and deed with what is true and good.

The opposite of this framework is emptiness. And emptiness is in everything sought apart from Him. This is how I seek Him in everything.