November 8, 2014: Beautiful Bride
‘Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person…’(CCC 2337)
When Jesus first looked upon His Samaritan ‘bride’, He saw a disintegrated woman, both sexually and spiritually. She was neither united in her worship of the true and living God, nor was she chaste. Many gods and lovers had fractured her integrity as a person.
Jesus saw her as she was but also what she could be. His gift of living water promised to quench her deepest thirst, to dissolve falsehood, and to unite her with the true source of her beauty, Jesus Christ.
Spiritual and sexual purity make us beautiful. You cannot separate them. The one is a sign of the other. Who one worships in Spirit and truth will be manifested in his or her sexual integrity. I will not soon forget a beautiful woman I witnessed worshipping the Lord with deep, sustained devotion. I soon discovered that she was a key leader of a ministry aimed at restoring sexual purity in the Church. She embodied that purity: fragrant, not seductive, she drew people to Jesus through her integrity of Spirit and flesh.
The opposite is true too. Mark Sanford, the notorious state governor now congressman, claims to be a conservative Christian and champion of traditional marriage. His claims matter little since he left his wife and kids for a young woman. He announced his engagement to her at a press conference where his 8-year-old son was caught on camera; the boy’s look of painful disorientation said it all. One person’s disintegration leads to another’s.
Icons cracked and chaste: we do well to focus on Jesus’ beauty in uniting willing hearts with His purposes for the body. I marvel at our young intern Andrew Franklin and wife Jordyn whom Jesus redeemed from some fairly profound disintegration. His healing work and their chastity was evident in the way that the couple handled their first child’s difficult birth; they did so with a faith, humility, and discipline that revealed the best of man and woman together. Their son Will has parents united for his well-being.
Jesus offered Himself as a beautiful gift for a broken Samaritan woman. When we like her welcome His gift, we receive the foundation for a chaste life that frees us to become good gifts for each other. In turn, our gift-giving becomes a window through which others might catch a glimpse of His beauty.
‘The saint is the one who is so fascinated by the beauty of God and by His perfect truth that he is progressively transformed by it.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict
Please join us as we pray for:
Pacific Southwest Region, Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Don Sciortino – Coordinator: For strength and vision for Don Sciortino as well as existing groups in region.
Torrents de Vie (LW France): For the Lord to continue to strengthen and protect the leaders Werner & Charlotte and their team and for more male leaders to be raised up.
Courage International – Alberto, European Coordinator, Mili -Paris Coordinator: For good connections and strategies.
“Courage for Pope Francis, that he would ensure that the Church becomes a clear fountain of transformation for persons with same-sex attraction!”
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