Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
(9) Self-Esteem
Compulsive masturbation can often be linked to a lack of self-esteem –the individual somehow feels
more ‘sexual’ and mature this way. Working to feel more content about oneself in other aspects of
life can help build a self-esteem that is not just the hollow myth vainly fostered by pop psychologists.
(10) Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin -Last but certainly not least!
Prayer helps us grow in our love of God and grow in our sense of being satisfied by his love for us.
Loving God helps direct our desires to their ultimate and all-integrating end. A pure love for God only
has affections for people (and things) in as much as such affections are part of our pure love.
The Blessed Sacrament is the earthly physical focus for our love of God, and it is our earthly physical
focus for directing our devotions to counter disorder in our physical passions.
The Blessed Virgin is she who loved and loves purely, and can help us to do the same.
A daily half-hour of mental prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is a pivotal aid in purity.
Chastity –the Allied Virtues that we need cultivate:
c.f. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
(1) Temperance –chastity is part of temperance (temperance is also called ‘moderation’).
Learning moderation and self-mastery in other pleasures will help us in our self-mastery in purity.
E.g. food, alcohol, conversation (don’t always engage in conversation for the sake of your own
pleasure, but speak so as to listen and help others).
Regular (but moderate) fasting is a very important part of this.
(6) Abstinence vs. gluttony. The virtue of refraining –a virtue we can then apply to sex.
Asceticism in food and drink leads to self-mastery, leads to knowledge of how to LICITLY use
pleasures.
(7) Purity –meaning chastity in its outwards signs of kisses, embraces, touches, looks.
If we are not pure in these things then chastity in the heart will be impossible. This calls for
prudence, self-knowledge, reflection, and an awareness of what is appropriate in different contexts.
(9) Charity, a theological virtue, is directly infused in us by God. We can enable it to increase by removing
the obstacles to it. CCC 2347: the virtue of chastity blossoms in friendships, a pure focus for love, and spiritual communion, whether male or
female (but note the obvious question of prudence in intimate friendships with members of the opposite sex, e.g. it’d be unusual for a man to seek
an intimate friendship with a woman who was someone else’s wife).
WOMEN too. Unchastity is often preached about as if it only affected men, but it affects women too. Do not be
overly embarrassed to confess it, to examine your conscience about it: examine your thoughts, affections, flirtations
etc.
Note also: GUARDING YOUR HEART. Unchaste affections for someone you are not free to date is a form of
unchastity.