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.
"As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers"
St Augustine
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"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?"
Thomas á Kempis
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"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri
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