Celibacy vs. Chastity

Victoria's Secret and Mabelline Model, Adriana Lima, made Foxnews.com headlines this week in an article that describes her as "inspiring an emerging movement toward celibacy."

Well, sort of.

A UCLA student clarifies the terminology in her quote: "Thanks to Adriana, all my friends and I are advocating chastity."

Just for the record, I'd like to take a moment to clarify the difference between celibacy and chastity.

First of all, chastity is a virtue that we're all called to cultivate. Single people, dating people, married people, and those who have taken religious vows. Chastity Is for Everyone. To strive for a chaste life means that one is striving for purity of heart.

Now some people take vows of celibacy. The two most obvious types of people are those who are ordained as Catholic priests and those who takes vows as a Catholic nun. Those that are celibate completely abstain from sexual relations as part of their special vocation as a "religious."

The article notes, "Last year, Lima confessed to men’s mag GQ that she planned to stay away from bedroom buddies until her wedding night..."

Since Lima seems to intend on being married, it is doubtful that she is promoting celibacy per se.
Rather, she is promoting one of the sub-notions of a chaste life that includes waiting until you can fully give yourself in someone, thus waiting until marriage for sexual relations.

* * * And even then, true chastity must transcend the absence of the actual sex act and permeate every area of one's life. The pursuit of purity implies that one is also careful of how one presents oneself to the world and others. Models who bare-almost-it-all walk a glamorous road, but must beware of where the road leads.* * *

Plan B in CT

My good friend Maggie in Florida called me yesterday and was more than a little upset about Catholic Hospitals in Connecticut approving distribution of Plan B to rape victims.

The usual red flags have been raised in my first perusal of the ABC news article.

The article states, “Plan B can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. The drug works by stopping ovulation and has no effect on an existing pregnancy.”

#1. What is a “risk of pregnancy?” If conception occurs inside of a woman’s body, everything is in working order. Pregnancy when seen as a risk- like the “risk of cancer”- paints all occurrence of conception in the same grey light. When encountering someone who is pregnant one is now apt to ponder whether or not it was “on purpose.”

#2. It is incorrect to state that the “drug…has no effect on an existing pregnancy.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration website states, “If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation).” If there is a fertilized egg then a new human life has begun.

In the article Plan B is also referred to as “medicine.” This is false. Medicine is something that helps heal or at best, manage something going on with the body that is negative. Plan B’s specific purpose is to inhibit a perfectly healthy occurrence~ that of new life.

Further in the article it is stated, “Roman Catholics believe that life begins at conception.”

Actually, the whole planet believes life begins at conception. Well, at least the scientific and medical community does. One of the only major entities that hasn’t gotten the message is apparently the people writing quick news articles for ABC.

What I Learned This Week...

5. There are no coincidences. Only Godincidences. Can’t elaborate on this blog, just trust me, or rather, trust Him.

4. If you don’t feel well, ask yourself, “Am I sleeping well? Eating well? Exercising? Praying?” If you can’t say yes to all of these, start there. You’ll feel better pretty soon.

3. At 7:34am a certain light turns green at a certain intersection. Knowing and experiencing this each morning is strangely reassuring.

2. If you admit to teenagers that you wrote the main points of your talk on your hand, they won’t think you’re a slacker, rather they will be right there with you.

1. Humans are: Relational. Emotional. Communal. If we can understand this principal and allow it to transcend how we relate to others then lives will change in ways previously believed impossible.

Pic from Kellenberg

Wow, my hand looks like it was moving really fast.

Kellenberg High School Wednesday!

It's Kellenberg time.

I'm giving a 15 minute talk tomorrow evening at this high schools XLT.

Ten Ways to Lead a Chaste Life in an Un-Chaste World

I should go come up with that list...

Colbie Caillat (rhymes with ballet)

After a totally frustrating search due to my inability to spell her name, I finally found some sites on Colbie Caillat.

I was ready to jump into my radio to figure out more about this artist.

Altar-ation

At some point it speeds up and looks really cool.

Rise of the TOB Recommends...

Rise of the TOB emailed me and said,

"I started reading "Unprotected" by Miriam Grossman. OH MY GOSH, if you haven't already picked this up please do it. In fact I will buy you a copy if you don't already own one! It's written by a medical doctor who is now a campus psych. at UCLA. The book is her revelation about the effects of the politically correct agenda in her field as it applies to sexuality. Ton's of great medical based information on why the promiscuity of young people today and the latex/pill/pro-choice movement is literally killing off young people, especially women.

At any rate, ya gotta read it!"

Alrighty then. I guess I will read it.

Thought...

I've been thinking...

What if we were to create a culture wherein places that perform abortions just go out of business?

Very, very good video

For the first few seconds I was like, "what?" but then I was completely enthralled.

(I know I've been posting a lot of videos. The year got crazy-busy, but I promise I've been writing in real, paper notebooks and will soon convert some of it into a blog or two.)

The Awkward Song

"Awkward moment in the life of the students at Franciscan University."

"Everyone knows that if they catch you talking, you're getting married."

"Your teeth are like stars, they come out at night."

"What's your favorite disease?"

"It's love sickness."

Matthew Kelly

JPII We Love You!

" . . . do not be afraid to be the saints of the new millennium!"

Pope JPII, Rome 2000, WYD

Where to Buy Stuff?

Ever wonder where to buy pro-life stuff?

Click here for what I think is one of the top places.

Prenatal Surgery

Prenatal surgery is pretty great.

First of all, you're not even born yet.

But what do you know, modern medicine can intervene on your behalf!

I've always been a big fan of pointing out to people that to have surgery you need to be recognized as having some level of personhood, afterall, you're now a patient.

How can you be a patient without personhood recognized?

In Madrid a baby had surgery on her spine so that she'd be born without spinibifida.

So there you go. Surgery before birth.

Blob of tissue, wah?

This is just Awesome

Okay, what on earth is the baby's brother watching? He doesn't seem to notice anything!

Children in the Pro-Life Movement

(I originally posted this on Catholicmom.com)

Melissa and I sat in the student dining hall between classes. She was writing a paper on abortion for a sociology class. As president of the Students for Life group, I was used to being interviewed during lunch.

In between bites, Melissa asked, “What about families who bring their kids to pro-life marches and rallies?”

I thought for moment. In my mind’s eye I saw a picture of a family at the March for Life. The children held “Choose Life” signs as their parents walked along.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Do you think that it’s right for children to be involved in protests on this issue?”

I’d never really thought about it and to be honest, my parents were not involved in the pro-life movement at all. It was something I’d come to later in life.

“Yeah, I think its okay for children to be involved.” I responded.

We sat for a few moments eating in silence. That’s when I realized I couldn’t think of one other thing that is legal that we can’t explain to children. I brought it up as a point to ponder.

“What else is legal that we hesitate to tell children about?

Melissa sat quietly. She couldn’t come up with anything.

She agreed, “I never thought of it that way.”

“Perhaps any law that we can’t explain to a child we should really question.”

Melissa zeroed in on the point, “So you think children should know about abortion?”

“Truthfully, yes. If the Supreme Court thinks it’s a so-called ‘right’ and it supposedly empowers women, why stop and question it now? Let’s tell the children exactly what is legal.”

I’ve continued to think about the issue of children participating in the pro-life movement long after that lunch interview. I believe that parents are a child’s first line of education. Parents have the right to decide when and to what extent children are exposed to different things that occur in today’s world, including abortion. If parents don’t want to tell their children about abortion because they believe it’s not age appropriate, that is their right. On the other hand, parents who bring their children to the March for Life and other rallies also have the right to expose their children to what is legal in our country.

Let’s consider that we teach children about other topics that have been equally controversial and graphic. We are thorough in teaching that slavery was once legal in the United States. We’re quick to follow up with, “Oh! But now it’s illegal! Aren’t we a great country!? We saw that slavery was wrong so we changed it!”

Explaining abortion means explaining something that is currently legal. We feel the tug in our heart to follow up the conversation by telling our children what we’re doing to make the situation better. For parents who are not doing anything about it, surely this could be a challenge. When asked with wide expectant eyes, “Mom, what are we doing to help?” let’s make sure we have a good answer.

Whitney Houston "Miracle"

This video is probably the best I've seen.

It's really somethin' else.

I have decided...

Listen people, I have decided that if you're not checking out this blog then you probably need to get your head examined.

My New Favorite Blog

Mom2my6pack

Bill O'Reilly: Speechless

www.jillstanek.com

CatholicMom.com

I'm writing a column for Catholicmom.com!

Check out the first piece Children in the Pro-Life Movement.

How About...Never?

A comment on how to end a date:

"I saw a New Yorker cartoon which had a man in the office looking at his calendar saying, "No Thursday isn't good. How about Never? Does never work for you?"

- Fr. Luke Sweeney
Director of Vocations, Archdiocese of New York

Modesty: It's Everywhere You Want To Be

Catholic Underground

Catholic Underground tonight.