Fear chastity, NO WAY!

I have discovered way too late in life that the quality of being chaste is nothing to fear.

If you don't understand what "chaste" means then I'd invite you to look it up. It is a real word, and one that needs to be reintroduced into our vocabulary BIG TIME.

Pardon me for shouting but I just had to do it.

Chastity has nothing to do with harming your body in ANY way other than perhaps admitting that you may have been wrong about the subject and doing a LITTLE penance.

Again if you don't understand the word penance look it up. There are plenty of very good dictionaries in print.

If you'll notice, penance is simply a way of drawing a line in the sand with yourself and refusing to cross it ever again.

That means that you have to change your habits.

Depending on how ingrained the habit is, it may take an ever more gentle dose of medicine to change it.

Medicine has nothing to do with self-abuse or masochism, and certainly not sadism on anyone's part.

So what is chastity. Obviously, if the elephant in the room hasn't made it glaringly clear, it is the quality of having good sexual health and well-being in the eyes of God, your neighbor and YOURSELF.

Pray about it. Talk to a TRUSTED friend. Act responsibly toward yourself and treat yourself as you'd like others to treat you.

I seem to have turned the Golden Rule inside out.

Perhaps that is the only language that our selfishness and conceit can understand ever since the sexual revolution that happened so long ago now.

Believe me, I'm not anti-sex in any way. I am for rational and responsible use or our sexual natures as men and women of God.

Do other people have perfectly acceptable, yet differing, views about the subject than me? No doubt. There are probably as many different views on the subject as there are persons in this world. It is not my place to judge anyone.

Finally, I am sure there are some good folks out there that are much wiser than me on the subject of Chastity and the Laws of God and Nature and all that. I ask that you be forthright in offering your advice or directives or what ever you may call it. I am being as faithful to the teachings of the church as I can. If your into that God-awful sin of perfectionism then you aren't welcome here.

I reach for the moon and hopefully I'll make it at least into orbit. That is more than a lot of people might be able to say about themselves.

I am grateful and hopeful that Our Lord will forgive me when I eventually come before Him. I trust Christ enough to speak these words. Do you?