Allow me to introduce you to a virtue you’ve likely never heard of: eutrapelia. From the Greek term for “ready wit” or “liveliness,” it’s the virtue of good humor, playfulness and fun.
Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas both wrote about this virtue, which like any virtue is a spiritual muscle, a power of soul, that enables us to do hard things more easily. In the case of eutrapelia, it allows us to more easily avoid the “worldly anxiety and the lure of riches” that choke the word of God (see Mt 13:22). It puts the seemingly all-important but passing “stuff” of life in its proper place. G.K. Chesterton quipped in his book Orthodoxy, “Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.”
Fun that has no practical purpose serves this purpose: It reminds us of our inviolable human dignity and worth by elevating what matters most.
When my wife and I just pause and go out to dinner or watch a movie, I’m proclaiming to her that we are more important than whatever struggle we’re facing. When I have fun with my kids even though paying the bills is stressing me out, I model the Father’s providential love and show by example that life is “more than food and the body more than clothing” (Mt 6:25).
Be intentional about having fun in marriage and family life. It’s important to maintain moments of levity and silliness, and time for leisure, even in hard times — or maybe I should say, especially in hard times.
There’s no one way to build the virtue of fun. Just be sure you don’t neglect this spiritual muscle. The crazier life gets, the more we need it.
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CHRIS STEFANICK is founder and president of Real Life Catholic and a member of Our Lady of Loreto Council 12336 in Foxfield, Colo.






