Sunday Meditation: On Receiving Jesus in Holy Communion

I'm reading the initial magazine from W.A.K.E.U.P. 

What a beautiful apostolate! You can see and read this powerful issue here which focuses on chastity, exposes the new sexual revolution, and emphasizes traditional family values. What a resource for families, especially families with teenagers!

One article by Fr. Ed Broom, offers "Ten Ways to Win the Battle for Purity." Of course the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion are paramount in his list.

"A good confession," Father tells us, "can transform our souls ito the beauty of freshly fallen white snow on the virgin ground."

But it was Father's description of Holy Communion that made me pause and reread and then read again:

From the "Duh!" Department at the CDC

Teens who remain chaste are healthier all around than their sexually active peers. Wow! Who woulda thunk it?

A Saint for Our Time: St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr

St. Agatha by Caravaggio

St. Agatha, one of the early Roman martyrs, lived during a time of tremendous sexual immorality. What is known of her is from the tradition of the Church. Wealthy and renowned for her beauty, many sought her in marriage, but she dedicated herself to God praying, "Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil."

A determined young woman, Agatha resisted the advances of a high Roman official, Quintian, who thought he could force her into an immoral relationship. When she spurned him he retaliated. As a judge, he sent her to a brothel where she refused the advances of the customers. Quintian had her tortured, her breasts cut off, and ordered her rolled in hot coals. Nevertheless, she prayed as she was dying, "Lord, my Creator, you have always protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer. Receive my soul."

Did We See the Same Movie? Homosexual Activists Call Third Way "Hate Speech!"

Gay advocates slam New Zealand bishop’s plan to use ‘The Third Way’ film as a teaching tool

The Third Way is a sensitive portrayal of the struggle of same-sex oriented Catholics who find freedom in accepting and following Church teaching. The individuals witness to the peace they experience in embracing the "third way" of chastity. (Chastity, by the way, is everyone's vocation.) But homosexual activists demand that sodomy be blessed and celebrated and label any other opinion as "hateful", "homophobic", "intolerant", etc., etc. The only opinion one is allowed to have on homosexuality is the right of homosexuals to engage in whatever kind of perverted sex acts they prefer in order to simulate sex between a man and woman (pretending the anus and mouth are vaginas). So they are slamming The Third Way which illustrates exactly how powerful it is. It's a threat that must be eliminated because it questions the mantra that "I can do whatever I want with my body."

Lust never makes anyone happy. Oh, it may be pleasant in the short term, but in the end it's deadly (and boring). True happiness lies in embracing the will of God. Our hearts are restless, as St. Augustine says, until they rest in Him. Pray for those inflicted with the cross of same-sex attraction that they may find the love of Christ and the peace that surpasses understanding. 

If you haven't watched The Third Way, take a look. 

Chastity: It's Everyone's Vocation!

Did you know that chastity is your vocation? It's everyone's vocation! God calls every single person on the face of the earth to chastity. Yes, married people too. 

Do you know what chastity is? Simple -- the proper use of God's gift of sexuality according to your state in life. So what does that mean? Here's the rundown:

1)  For single men: treat yourself and others with dignity and respect.

Some Good Articles for Fighting the Sexual Revolution

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. During her apparitions, Mary described herself saying, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Later at Fatima she told the little shepherd children that most sinners go to hell for sins of the flesh and she showed them a vision of people falling into hell "like snowflakes" as Jacinta said. The children said they would have died on the spot without the protection of the Blessed Mother. The answer to the sexual revolution is chastity. Chastity isn't abstinence, it is the right and moral use of our sexual powers. Only when we do that, can we be truly happy. God wrote the owner's manual. If you misuse your car and try to run it on honey because it's so sweet, you destroy your car. The same goes for misusing what God gave you. The road to happiness is loving God and embracing His will.

Part of that will is for us to engage the culture. It is absolutely essential for the Church Militant to fight the culture of lust we live in whether heterosexual or homosexual. We need facts and a vision of the beauty of God's plan to do it well. Here are some facts and arguments about the evils we face. Use them to fight the absolute deluge of feeling-based nonsense that promotes deviant and promiscuous behavior. The prophet Malachi tells us what God expects of us -- to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with God. Let us work for that ideal as we fight for the faith and the culture.

Answering the Top 10 Arguments Used to Push Homosexuality

Ten Myths About the Porn Industry

The Epidemic of Pornography Use and Destroyed Marriages

The Fornication Culture

Author Michael O'Brien on Modesty

Modesty is the guardian of chastity. Is it any wonder that, in a society fixated on sex, modesty, even among Christians, is so rare? Ironically, even those ostensibly trying to fight impurity in the culture tend toward vulgar and crude language. Michael O'Brien as an artist and author has some interesting insights on the problem.

"Semi-nudity has become commonplace on magazine covers, advertisements, at swimming pools and beaches. Total nudity is becoming more frequent in media such as television and film, and is rampant in the vastly more popular 'private' cultural consumption of the internet. Juxtapose with these near-universal phenomena the fact that more than sixty percent of marriages now end in divorce or separation, that self-denial and sacrifice have become widely discredited concepts, and that the pursuit of happiness through the avenues of sensual satisfaction have produced a profoundly disordered society. No people in history has been so richly rewarded with pleasures, and no people in history has ever been so unhappy....

"I am convinced that the modern harping on the supposed repressiveness of the past is really no more than a symptom of our current obsession with sex. If we were to plunge back a century or two, I think we would find that while our ancestors' manner of dress was indeed more formal, and at times even constricting, most people still wed and had children and made happy marriages with startling frequency - and with an enviable rate of success. Compare that to our own dismal, liberated era, in which the image of the cavorting human body is thrust at us a thousand times a day from the pages of the tabloids at the supermarket check-out counter, from chewing gum commercials on television, home computer screens, and from what is being worn on the beach and at church. Modesty has gone out of style....

"The times are very ill, indeed they are nearly sick unto death. "The culture of death," the Holy Father calls it. And by this he means far more than the death of the body. Within the short space of a century, Western society has degenerated from a Christian culture to a despiritualized one, and from there it has further degenerated into a dehumanized one. The next stage is the diabolization of culture, a process which has already begun. At this moment in the great war between good and evil, we must turn with renewed confidence to Our Lady, asking her for the particular graces of wisdom, prudence, and modesty for our young people. Daily we should invoke her protection against the spirit of the world and the spirit of our ancient adversary. If we do, she will help us see the areas of our lives where we have been deceived. She will help us find a better way, if we respond to her outpouring of graces. Then our children will learn to love more fully. And they will be loved for who they truly are."

Read the entire essay...

More on the Christopher West Theology of the Body Controversy

Christopher West Controversy Fuels Debate about the Problem of Modesty

True love - or lust and contraception: It's your choice.

Since the 1960s we've been in a sexual revolution launched by a wide range of artificial hormones generically described as "the pill." In recent years the drugs have also been delivered via hormone-filled tubes inserted in a woman's upper arm (NORPLANT) or a patch worn underneath her clothing.

What most women don't know is how dangerous these drugs are, particularly the birth control patch which delivers about 60% more estrogen than the pill. Hundreds of women have developed deep vein thrombosis (blood clots) in the legs or pulmonary embolisms (blood clost in the lungs). At least twenty women have died. This is consistent with the experience of the early high-dosage pill which also caused death in women leading to the development of lower-dose alternatives.

Johnson and Johnson, maker of the Ortho Evra birth control patch has settled hundreds of cases to the tune of $68 million in payouts. Unfortunately, most of those have been out-of-court settlments with confidentiality invoked letting the company continue to pretend the drugs have minimal risk.

The world continues to ignore or ridicule Humanae Vitae as the facts upholding its warnings mount. No one who follows Church teaching against the use of contraception will ever suffer like the 25-year-old assistant Volleyball Coach at the University of Cincinnatti, Stefanie Rosenfeld. She died of a heart attack less than a month after starting the patch. And there are dozens of other young women like her, some only teenagers, victims of a culture that encourages uncommitted copulation rather than the true spiritual intimacy and conjugal love of marriage and child-bearing.

Women are the big losers because they bear the most damage from the sexual revolution: physical damage to their bodies, but equally devastating spiritual damage to their souls. Women are naturally inclined toward love and nurturing. A man can more easily separate his sex drive from his soul-center. But for women, it can be shattering. If she gives herself out of a mistaken notion of love, the betrayal is deep and long-lasting. Is that not, perhaps, one explanation for the growing number of lesbians among us?

We need a return to the beautiful virtue of chastity. It's a manly virtue that requires courageous self-control on the part of young men who need to guard their eyes from a continuous barrage of lustful images thrown at them by the culture. It is also a womanly virtue wrapped in modesty that guards and protects true love. Pray the young and remind them that:

True love waits. Pass it on.

Is Chastity the New Cool?

Teens are rebels right? In the culture of death where lust, drugs, body piercings, tattoos, etc. are the norm how's a kid to rebel? Perhaps by embracing chastity. Let's hope it becomes the new cool.

Running Purity Rings around MTV - Chastity enjoys a resurgence among some teen stars.

By L. Brent Bozell III Media Research Center September 12, 2008

Dressing with Dignity

Colleen Hammond on Chastity Issues

Chastity Questions