I CHOOSE to be CHASTE.

Chastity is for everyone By Melissa Musick Nussbaum

For the dating couple, the energy of sexuality is rightly channeled into the good and necessary work of getting to know one another. Sharing dreams and hopes, sharing stories of the past, trading favorite books and poems, showing one another a favorite path or view, taking him to your favorite movie, taking her to your favorite ballpark: This is how the intimacy of heart and mind is fostered. 

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For the single adult, the energy of sexuality is rightly channeled into the good and necessary work of getting to know oneself.

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It’s a time of turning to friends for the assurance that we are valuable and valued; that we are loved. But once one moves out of the herd that is high school, where will one look then? The young woman all alone on a college campus far from home, or the young man among strangers on an army base or in an office building—how can they learn to listen to the inner voice that says, “Yes, you should walk this way, even if you walk alone”?

Such strength takes time and effort, reading, listening, traveling, meeting people, engaging in constructive argument, exploring, reflecting. This is how the intimacy of self is fostered, an intimacy that can only be shared if one has nurtured a self to share.

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Each stage of life—and each calling of life—is gifted with sexuality. Each stage of life—and each calling of life—has its own need for chastity.

Read the whole thing at  http://vocation-network.org/articles/show/32

A response to the negativity about Chastity

I see where all the negativity comes from. Really. We are surrounded by images that tell us that chastity is for the old fashioned, the ignorant, the un-empowered, the idealistic, what have you. So I can’t blame people for thinking negatively of chastity. In today’s environment, chastity is pegged as the virtue no one would admit to having (or aspire to have) because of this trend for sex we see everyday. I think this is all the result of a great misunderstanding of chastity and the climate of the world which makes people too lazy or too apathetic to look up what it reallymeans. Chastity is a lovely virtue when one sees it with clear eyes. It is fused with respect, love and passion in the purest of forms. Who wouldn’t want that kind of love? Chastity says no to sexual activities not because it is imposing a ban on our freedom but because it wants us to experience true love and passion that in no way takes the self or the other for granted. Chastity is the virtue of life-giving and love generating sexuality. Imagine if chastity was taken out of the picture, sexuality would be a selfish, pleasure seeking machine that abuses and objectifies others. And honestly this isn’t a far cry from the reality of our world today. It is a challenge, I know, because it opposes everything we see around us. But when lived out, chastity becomes such a liberating thing from the superficial world.