There's no need to over-intellectualize.
We spend hours, days, even years of our lives trying to wrap our heads around the extraordinary intellectual depth of our faith. From Sacramental grace to apostolic succession, from debating social teaching to the teachings of Ecumenical Councils, from the lives of Saints to eschatological ponderings. The Catholic Church has a rich, beautiful tradition that has transcended millennia.
So often, sharpening the spiritual intellect feels like a Greek hero in combat with the Hydra: you feel yourself conquer one head of the beast just to find three new heads have grown in its place. We frustrate our faith by unattainable prayer goals, lofty spiritual reading, frequenting the sacraments as to allow the supernatural become natural or routine, and perhaps the most deceiving of all: prideful, so-called "philosophical" conversation in order to remain in lockstep with our peers. Over complicating virtue keeps us from recognizing our smallness and our inaptitude to understand the complexity of the mysteries of Christianity.
The theological virtues of Faith and Hope take a split second, not hours, days or years. This is not as to say these virtues are "easy" but rather that they are simple.
So often, sharpening the spiritual intellect feels like a Greek hero in combat with the Hydra: you feel yourself conquer one head of the beast just to find three new heads have grown in its place. We frustrate our faith by unattainable prayer goals, lofty spiritual reading, frequenting the sacraments as to allow the supernatural become natural or routine, and perhaps the most deceiving of all: prideful, so-called "philosophical" conversation in order to remain in lockstep with our peers. Over complicating virtue keeps us from recognizing our smallness and our inaptitude to understand the complexity of the mysteries of Christianity.
The theological virtues of Faith and Hope take a split second, not hours, days or years. This is not as to say these virtues are "easy" but rather that they are simple.
Faith is believing that God is who He revealed Himself to be.
Hope is believing that Christ's resurrection has bought for us eternal life.
Lord, give me the faith and hope of a child, one who sees you through pure, disinterested eyes. I want to gaze upon you with the eyes of charity. Give me the faith that motivates my feet to follow and the hope that I will pick them up as to run to you. Help me not be swayed by the deception of false wisdom and the chase for futile knowledge.