Courageous Love #1 - Reflection
Program 1: The Good News about Chaste Love (on Formed.org)
It is interesting to listen to these very real people, who are part of Courage, share their story on their own personal experience of same sex attractions.
Sexual attractions can easily grow into "using" for our own self pleasures.
"I realized that the people I used to idolized turned to being sexualized instead."
One interesting thing one of the members shared was, "Doing it (sex) was a distraction from the guilt that I was doing." As the readings these past few days has been pointing out, sin begets sin. Although we know the goodness of the Lord, yet we still very much sin in ways of the flesh. St. Paul wrote
Striving for a purity of heart means taking some very hard but much needed steps. As it is said, "The road to holiness is the road to struggles." To get to holiness, we first need to go through struggles. I personally have gotten a whack in the head when I read this question during one of the recent reflections: do I love myself more than God or is it the other way around? Because if it is, and if I truly love Someone, I would do anything for Him.
This statement really hit me. "Looking beyond emotions is important to find spiritual peace." Truly not everything revolves around just my emotions, what I want, and what I think I need. By following that road of thought, it will eventually lead to a crossroad that demands a choice between an indulgent lifestyle or choosing to stay chaste which will lead to authentic love with a pure heart.
"When one truly strives to live a chaste life, a transformation begins. One has new life. It's not an award program. It is individual freedom, something that is interior, a joy that comes from within."
It is interesting to listen to these very real people, who are part of Courage, share their story on their own personal experience of same sex attractions.
Sexual attractions can easily grow into "using" for our own self pleasures.
"I realized that the people I used to idolized turned to being sexualized instead."
One interesting thing one of the members shared was, "Doing it (sex) was a distraction from the guilt that I was doing." As the readings these past few days has been pointing out, sin begets sin. Although we know the goodness of the Lord, yet we still very much sin in ways of the flesh. St. Paul wrote
"In my inmost self I dearly love God’s Law, but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body." (Rom 7:22-23)Indeed, the temptations to give in to the pleasure of the world allows us to have instant gratification but as one other member shared, "(it is) a lot of external, a very materialistic outlook of life." Another looked back on his life and said, "I was happy, cocktail happy, but it wasn't a deep joy happiness. Very different."
Striving for a purity of heart means taking some very hard but much needed steps. As it is said, "The road to holiness is the road to struggles." To get to holiness, we first need to go through struggles. I personally have gotten a whack in the head when I read this question during one of the recent reflections: do I love myself more than God or is it the other way around? Because if it is, and if I truly love Someone, I would do anything for Him.
This statement really hit me. "Looking beyond emotions is important to find spiritual peace." Truly not everything revolves around just my emotions, what I want, and what I think I need. By following that road of thought, it will eventually lead to a crossroad that demands a choice between an indulgent lifestyle or choosing to stay chaste which will lead to authentic love with a pure heart.
"When one truly strives to live a chaste life, a transformation begins. One has new life. It's not an award program. It is individual freedom, something that is interior, a joy that comes from within."
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