Love
Assessment

40 scenario-based questions across the 10 sub-virtues of the Love branch. Answer honestly. Don't choose how you would like to react. What would you really do in these scenarios? This is about self-knowledge, not a test.

~10 minutes 40 questions 100% free
🌳 The Virtue Tree

Love is not a feeling,
it's an act of the will.

🌴 Love
↓ grows into
Compassion Benignity Mercy Meekness Forgiveness Indulgence Peace Liberality Concord Piety

Hugh of St. Victor imagined the virtues as a living tree. Each Theological and Cardinal Virtue is a branch, and each branch bears sub-virtues like fruit. Compassion isn't separate from Love. It's what Love looks like when it moves the soul.

You're about to assess 10 sub-virtues that make up the Love branch of your virtue tree. Each one is a living part of how Love grows in your life.

⚖ The Golden Mean

Every virtue lives
between two vices.

Example — Compassion
Indifference Compassion Enmeshment

Each sub-virtue lives on a spectrum between two extremes. Virtue and vice are not a dichotomy; virtue doesn't exist at the maximum. It is found at the mean: responding rightly without excess or deficiency. The goal of this assessment is not self-improvement as an end in itself. It's about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of our own moral character, and learning to live as we were meant to live, virtuously.

If you answer honestly, your results show where you are now. Virtue formation is a lifetime work. These results are only the beginning.

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🌿

Faith & Hope

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Unlock the Faith and Hope branches of the Virtue Tree — two of the three theological branches — and grow your full virtue profile.

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Currently available: Theological virtues (Faith, Hope, Love) · Cardinal virtues (Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance) coming soon

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✝ Love Branch · 1 of 7

Your Virtue Tree: Love Branch

This is 1 of 7 branches. Reveal your full virtue tree to see the whole picture. Here's where you stand across the 10 sub-virtues of Love.

Love Branch
📖 Formation Guide
Understanding Your Results

"If we imagine moral character as a continuum... we find within it a fourfold division. On the end of extreme evil we have the vicious person, in whom reason and the will habitually follow the errant desires of the passions. Next we have the weak-willed individual, who still retains the correct judgment of good and evil, but he does not often follow the judgment, for he sides with his desires. Next we have the self-controlled individual, who has errant desires but resists them. Finally, we have the virtuous person, who follows reason both in his choices and in his desires."

— From Living the Good Life: A beginner's Thomistic Ethics [1] by Steven J. Jensen

Virtue is not a test you pass once. It's a living habit shaped over a lifetime. These results show where you are on that continuum right now, but they will change as you grow.

1
Vicious
You are a slave to your vicious appetites. You leaped from the throne on high into a chasm of habitual vice and sin, but everyone must start somewhere. Be watchful, observe your vices, and learn to detest them. Pray the "Our Father" and the "Memorare" often, and ask for divine assistance to observe your vices as God the Father does.
2
Weak-Willed
You know what the virtue looks like, but you often act against it anyway. Habits and impulses pull stronger than your intentions. This is the honest starting point for most people. Pray the Litany of Humility often with the intention that your mind may learn to control the impulses and urges of your heart.
3
Self-Controlled
You do what's right, but it costs you. You fight your inclinations every time. The will is engaged, but the habit hasn't formed or fully taken hold yet. Your efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Pray the Universal Prayer often to reinforce the virtues in both heart and mind.
4
Virtuous
Right action has become habitual. You act well without excessive struggle, but you are not finished yet. What you have received from God, you are called to share with others. Pray, the "Sucipe" often for grace to become a path and a guide toward virtue for others. And pray the "Jesus Prayer" often as a protection against pride, and a reminder that we are always in need of God's mercy.
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Cogitatio 👁️
Hugh of St. Victor describes the first process in the ascent to God as seeing with the "eye of the flesh." In this process, we work to see our vicious behavior as God sees it. When we achieve that, we move into the next stage and become incontinent or weak-willed.

What we often need to help us through this process is a shepherd to set us on the right path and help us see our obstacles so that our path to the Father, the source of all truth, is clear.
Meditatio ✝
The second process in our ascent to God is to see with the "eye of the soul." We study the Word of God with our mind and allow what was done for us throughout salvation history to really sink in to how we think about our role in the order of creation. In our thoughts, we come to know God, and this knowledge brings us to the stage of continence or self-control.

What we need to aid us through this process is a teacher. Christ Himself is our teacher, but the Body of Christ is the Church, and those members are the hands and the feet of Jesus, bringing us the Gospel.
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Contemplatio 🕊️
The third process in our ascent to God is the act of 'freely gazing,' an intuitive perception of divine truth. In this process, through the Sanctifying Grace of the Holy Spirit and the sacramental life, we form habitual patterns of virtue, moving beyond the need for self-control and into the freedom to do the good without the constant battle against our passions. The Holy Spirit works through our priests in the sacraments to give us the grace we need to avoid temptation and live a life of virtue.
Each of the 10 virtues below is a sub-virtue of Love, not a separate score, but a facet of a single branch. Together, they reveal how Love takes shape in your daily life.
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Go Deeper into Each Virtue
Individual virtue pages are coming with specific exercises, prayers, and formation guides for each of the 10 sub-virtues, plus the other 6 branches of the virtue tree. Dive deeper into Indulgence, Meekness, Charity, and every virtue in the Love branch.
Go Deeper with the VirTrue Podcast

The podcast behind this assessment model. Weekly episodes on the virtue formation framework rooted in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Hugh of St. Victor. An episode exists for every sub-virtue in this assessment.

Go Deeper: VirTrue Podcast
Theological Virtues — Now Available
Unlock Your Full Virtue Tree — Explore 6 More Branches
❤ Love 🔐 Prudence 🔐 Justice 🔐 Fortitude 🔐 Temperance 🕊 Faith ⚓ Hope
Full virtue tree across all 7 branches
$4.99 / month
Now available: Theological virtues (Faith, Hope, Love)
Coming soon: Cardinal virtues (Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance)
📖
VirTrue Virtue Formation Book
A formation companion to this assessment. Two-page spreads on each virtue: theology, daily exercises, self-examination questions, prayer, and much more... A physical companion to the VirTrue app.
View My Virtue Tree Back to Home
Your Virtue Tree: Love Branch