Bishop Sheen: A Meditation on Our Blessed Mother, Purity, and Sex

"A man teaches a woman pleasure; a woman teaches a man continence. Man is the raging torrent of the cascading river; woman is the bank which keeps it within limits. Pleasure is the bait God induces creatures to fulfill their heavenly infused instincts - pleasure in eating for the sake of the preservation of the individual - pleasure in mating for the sake of the of the preservation of the species... Since the abandonment of the Christian concept of marriage, both man and woman have forgotten their mission..."

"Since woman today has failed to restrain man, we must look to THE WOMAN to restore purity. The Church proclaims two dogmas of purity for THE WOMAN: one, the purity of soul in the Immaculate Conception, the other, the purity of body in the Assumption. Purity is not glorified as ignorance; for when the Virgin Birth was announced to Mary, she said, "I know not man." This meant that not only was she untaught by pleasures; it also implied that she had so brought her soul to focus on inwardness that she was a Virgin, not only because of the absence of man, but through the Presence of God. No greater inspiration to purity has the world ever known than THE WOMAN, whose own life was so pure that God chose her as His Mother. But she also understands human frailty and is so prepared to lift souls out of the mire into peace, as at the Cross she chose as her companion the converted sinner Magdalene. Through all the centuries, to those who marry to be loved, Mary teaches them that they should marry to love. To the unwed, she bids them all keep the secret of purity until an Annunciation when God will send them a partner; to those who, in carnal love, allow the body to swallow the soul, she bids that the soul envelop the body."

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, The World's First Love

Comments

Blog Archive

Show more

Popular posts from this blog

The Spirituality and Miracles of St. Clare of Assisi

Saint Michael de Sanctis: Patron of Cancer Patients

Saint Gerard of Brogne: Patron of Abbots