!!!!

Fr Landry said, “Why is this message of chastity … so seldom heard? Some priests seem reluctant to preach the message because, sadly, either they’re not living chastely themselves or they erroneously understand and experience chastity as a deprivation from which they desire to spare others.”

He has hit the nail on the head. At best such priests can teach only the “rules” of chastity, but they would not be able to speak about chastity as something beautiful and attractive, joyful and freeing, because chastity would be a pain and a burden to them. This is because for them chastity is something external. Of course, external chastity is better than unchastity, but there’s no joy in it, and can lead one to resent Jesus Christ and his Church, and in the end simply give it up as something unrealistic and impossible.

Authentic chastity in the heart is a miracle of grace that actually transforms the person’s whole being inside and out so completely that one loses all interest in unchastity, which becomes utterly repulsive. This is how miraculous the grace of chastity is. How on earth does one pass this on to another? Those who have received this grace will understand. Those who have not, will find it hard to believe that such a transformation is possible this side of the eschaton. Why some receive this grace and others don’t, is a mystery. Perhaps only the weakest and most helpless are given this grace?

– agnesgoh