Chastity Office 307
Step # 1 in Celibacy: “I accept that there is power within me”.
What does that even mean?
Gandhi and Bill Wilson both believed that the misuse of sex leads you to disease.
Bill Wilson codified it and said that because of the nature of the disease that he studied that, once you were an alcoholic, you needed God to heal you from that particular illness.
But, suppose you started by not losing God in the first place through the misuse of sex?
Would that mean you wouldn’t have separated yourself from God?
Would it mean that God was within you in the first place as Augustine believed?
If so, could you accept that?
Step # 1 in Celibacy: “I accept that there is power within me”.
Chastity Office 308
“Religion without sacrifice means nothing”
Gandhi
Surrendering a broken relationship to God is one thing.
But, how about surrendering the possibility of a healthy relationship with an emotionally available, spiritual developed, physically-fit woman?
Would you surrender that possibility for the gifts of Chastity?
What gifts does a healthy relationship bring?
Someone to love
Someone to love you
Someone to share your life with
Sex
Shared wealth
Someone to cuddle with
Someone to share meals with
Someone to share holidays with
On the other hand, these are gifts of Chastity:
Efficient perceptions of reality
Comfortable acceptance of self and others
Spontaneity
Task centering
Autonomy
Continued freshness of appreciation
Fellowship with humanity
Profound interpersonal relationships
Comfort with solitude
Non-hostile sense of humor
Peak experiences
Clarity , intuition, personal power in relationships, resilience and visions…
On the other hand a relationship can bring you children…that’s pretty darn hard to top.
On the other hand Celibacy Promises:
We will be more available to our children
We will be more present and productive at work.
We will become stronger and more supple.
Our financial situations will clear up.
Our artistic and “spiritual” aspirations will be realized.
Self-draining sexual/romantic relationships will suddenly wither and die
We will have more clarity, intuition and personal power.
We will have more fun.
We will finally...relax
Socrates said “ Let a man choose marriage or Chastity…he will be sure to repent”. I never get tired of laughing at that.
Both choices have gifts. Both have costs.
With periods of finite Chastity…you can have both.
Chastity Office 309
God,
If I am honest, doing things my way has led to alcoholism, sex addiction and being fat.
I don’t like the way those things make me feel about myself, which I feel sure is a gift from you, to guide me back from the disease of addiction.
Since you love me and want what is healthiest for me, it seems that being sober, chaste and thin is pretty much your idea of what’s best for me. It’s your will.
Help me do your will, just for today, three hours at a time.
Amen