Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. The word chastity derives from the chastening orrebuking of concupiscence. By such chastening, chastising orcurbing, passion is held in control, and is kept in alignment withright reason. Chastity, therefore, is a virtue inasmuch as itsteadily tends to keep human conduct under the control ofreason.
2. And chastity is a special virtue for it concerns aspecial aspect of good, that is, the controlling, the keepingreasonable, of the tendencies of sex.
3. Chastity is not the same as the virtue of abstinence.For chastity is concerned with the control of sex pleasures,whereas abstinence is directly concerned with the control of thepleasures of the palate.
4. The words purity and chastity are sometimes usedinterchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms. Chastitydirectly regards the sexual union. Purity refers to allthat is in any way associated with this union. Thus aperson is unchaste if he indulges in unlawful coition. Buta person is impure by reason of thoughts, imaginings,words, desires, and actions that have an unlawful sexual reference.Unchastity involves impurity, but impurity can exist withoutunchastity.
"Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers"
St Augustine
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"It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it."
St Philip Neri
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