{"id":10381,"date":"2016-07-06T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T07:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=10381"},"modified":"2016-07-06T12:10:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T11:10:29","slug":"chastity-the-joyful-virtue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2016\/07\/chastity-the-joyful-virtue\/","title":{"rendered":"Castitatem amare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MG_Brovelli.jpg\"<\/a>It is fitting on this feast of Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr, to offer some random thoughts on chastity, the joyful virtue.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

Chastity leads to hope and to joy;
\nunchastity leads to despair and sadness.
\nChastity delights God;
\nunchastity delights the devil.
\nChastity opens the soul to God;
\nunchastity opens the soul to the devil.
\nTherefore, as Saint Benedict says, Castitatem amare<\/em>,
\n“Love Chastity.”<\/p>\n

Chastity facilitates growth in all the other virtues;
\nunchastity stunts growth in all the virtues
\nand, if unchecked, will contaminate and destroy them.
\nChastity opens the door to Divine intimacy;
\nunchastity closes the door to Divine intimacy,
\nattracts evil spirits,
\nand provides ground for familiarity with them.<\/p>\n

Chastity confers spiritual authority
\nand causes the soul to radiate a supernatural peace.
\nUnchastity destroys spiritual authority
\nand causes the soul to emit a sense of disquiet, trouble, and sadness.<\/p>\n

Chastity is its own reward
\nin that it disposes the soul for familiar and continuous communion with God.
\nUnchastity is its own punishment
\nin that it makes the soul heavy and insensible to spiritual joys.<\/p>\n

Unchastity infects the will with weakness,
\npollutes the memory,
\nand darkens the imagination.
\nEven the body is affected adversely by unchastity;
\nit gives rise to psychosomatic complaints, fatigue, and restlessness.
\nIt weakens the body’s resistance to illness
\nby strengthening the soul’s collusion with sin.
\nUltimately, unchastity foments unbelief, despair, and hatred of God.<\/p>\n

To set out on the path of chastity
\nis to set out on the path of joy
\nthat leads to the ineffable sweetness of union with God.
\nThe soul is created for Truth.
\nThe soul yearns for Truth
\nand recognizes Truth when she encounters it.<\/p>\n

The soul that feeds upon Truth
\ngrows strong in goodness
\nand radiates a supernatural beauty.
\nUnchastity blinds the soul to Truth.
\nThe chaste soul holds fast to Our Lord’s words,
\n“The truth shall set you free.”
\nUnchastity produces, in the worst cases,
\nan aversion to the Truth
\nand a contempt for Truth that causes the soul to repulse it.<\/p>\n

Chastity flourishes in the light
\nand turns to it like the sunflower to the sun.
\nUnchastity darkens the mind
\nand causes the soul to prefer the cover of darkness to the light of Truth.
\nThis is why unchastity always goes hand-in-hand with the vice of lying.
\nUnchastity finds it necessary to spin a web of lies around itself;
\nit thrives in the climate provided by error, lying, and deceit.<\/p>\n

Chastity goes hand-in-hand with love for Truth.
\nIt delights in what is beautiful
\nand pursues what is good.
\nIt generates a climate of joy
\nin which the other fruits of the Holy Ghost
\nthrive and abound.
\nIf you would be happy, be chaste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is fitting on this feast of Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr, to offer some random thoughts on chastity, the joyful virtue. Chastity leads to hope and to joy; unchastity leads to despair and sadness. Chastity delights God; unchastity delights the devil. Chastity opens the soul to God; unchastity opens the soul to the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,73,8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-musings","category-rule-of-saint-benedict","category-saints","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2Hr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10386,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions\/10386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}