The Glory of Purity 

Anthony Esolen, a contributor to Magnificat, and Br. Henry Stephan, O.P. whose essay "The Great Silent Majority" appeared in Dominicana this past summer, have separately expressed the same intuition, as our country and world, by creeping secular majority, continue to increasingly embrace sexual identity entitlement.

Here is a brief excerpt from Mr. Esolen's writing, [see Magnificat October 2013 for full essay],

"The Glory of Purity"

"We err when we preach abstinence to lads and lasses, rather than purity, the full-blooded virtue that honors the beauty of the body by preserving its cleanness, its youth, for the marriage and the children to which its sexuality is ordained, if God so wills. No one can sing an anthem to a negative. But purity is not a negative; it is like the glory of a flower. It radiates youth and health and a wise innocence; while impurity is old and enfeebled and "knowing" and ignorant... Then instead of telling our young people only what they must not do, we should assist them in the pursuit of purity."

This preaching is not just for young people; it is for the generations still waking up from the hangover of the "sexual revolution". Our prayer group and other men's fellowships around the country are really schools of purity seeking to receive the deep, proper formation missed during early adult years and illiterate times.

The concluding paragraph from Brother Henry's piece:

[in full at http://www.dominicanablog.com/2013/09/03/the-great-silent-majority/:]

"The Christian response to all this must be informed by a renewed commitment to understanding and practicing the truths we profess. The true meaning of marriage must still be defended, in every corner of the public square, using arguments from the natural law. At the same time, we must present the Gospel as the fullest answer to our vexed questions, and our surest means of pursuing happiness. It is all for naught if we cannot both explain and show how our understanding of relationships and sexuality fulfills who we are meant to be as humans and leads to authentic flourishing. Instead of simply repeating that homosexual activity [and lust] is disordered, we should better articulate what we are ordered towards, what our ends truly are."

Let us resolve to advocate purity wherever we go, by living it, with irrefutable joy, with irresistible gentleness, with inarguable serenity, in the indestructible hope that custody of our physical being by the grace of God elevates us to a place nothing else in life, especially addiction, can possibly ever reach.

Holy Spirit help us to give witness to purity, chaste beauty in our comportment, that the world might see Your true and unsurpassed experience of peace and freedom, the gift of serenity which is from God alone.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.