WHAT IS CHASTITY? Why is it important?
Chastity, within the context of periodic abstinence, is self-mastery for the sake of self-gift. It is not celibacy. You are invited to discover God’s plan for your marriage and experience authentic, chaste love—the ability to give of yourself and receive love from your spouse. The marital act of “sexual intercourse that makes a husband and wife ‘one flesh’ and is ordered to bringing new human persons into our world is a great good” (Olmsted, 2018, number 54). “Refuse to allow pornography, contraception, or any fantasy mentality to turn this act into an experience of using each other, rather than loving each other” (Olmsted, 2018, number 55).
- Bishop Olmsted’s Complete my Joy text: https://family.dphx.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2018-Complete-My-Joy-Apostolic-Exhortation-English.pdf
- “Video Message from Bishop Olmsted, Complete My Joy” https://dphx.org/complete-my-joy/
