1. Freedom to Love
The Theology of the Body
Applied to Our Lives
OLOP|YA
Our Lady of Peace
Young Adult Group
2. Table of Contents
A Brief Overview of the Theology of the Body
1. Sex and the Meaning of Existence
2. Understanding the Body as a “Theology”
3. God‟s Mystery & the Spousal Analogy
4. Unmasking the Counterfeits
For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free
1. What is Freedom
2. The Dependence of Freedom on Truth
3. How Do We Know the Truth?
4. The Freedom for Which Christ Set Us Free
5. The Holy Spirit is the Source of Freedom
Love as I Have Loved You
1. What is Love?
2. Chastity & the Integration of Love
3. Love & the “Unrepeatability” of the Person
Living the Redemption of Sexuality
1. Sex, Lies, & Redemption
2. The “Great Divorce”
3. Integration in Christ
4. Some Practical Points
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4. The MOAB: Mother of All Bouillon Cubes
2c. “The body, and in fact, it alone, is capable of making
visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was
created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the
mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to
be a sign of it” (TB, 76).
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6. Love is Integration
When we
Thou lust we live
Shalt shattered
Not Use. lives
When we love,
Thou Shall we experience
Love. integration.
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7. Integration of Love
Integration of Love
• Attractions
• Emotion
• Will
Chastity is the virtue
(Super Power) that
enables this
integration
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8. Authentic Love Wills the Good
For love to take root, authentic love, above all we
must firmly set our will on what is good for the
other person. And, it is never good to use the other
person for a means to our selfish end.
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9. Chastity Frees Love from Selfishness
quot;Chastity can only be thought of in association with
the virtue of love. The function of chastity is to free
love from the utilitarian attitude. And, that utilitarian
attitude is the desire to use the other person for my
pleasure.”
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10. Chastity Affirms Our Dignity
quot;The essence of chastity consists in quickness to
affirm the value of the human person in every
situation. And, in raising to the personal level all of
our reactions to that person's body and sexuality.
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11. Redemption of Sexual Desire
Desire
• Indulge
• Repress
• Redeem
• This implies an inner transformation in the
way we experience sexual desire.
“It is not a matter of annihilating our
attraction to the body and sexuality or
pushing reactions to them into our
subconscious, rather it is a matter of
sustained and long term integration, so
that our attraction to a person's body and
sex is grounded and integrated in the
value of the person
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12. Danger of Explosion
quot;Chastity is not a blind
inhibition of physical
impulses, such that
they are pushed down
into the subconscious
where they await an
opportunity to
explode. If chastity is
practiced only in this
way it does, indeed,
create the danger of
such explosions.quot;
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13. The Integration of Love
An integration takes place, deep within our hearts,
where sexual attraction actually becomes an
attraction and a desire to uphold the other
person's good.
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15. Super Power Summary
Chastity Teaches Us How To:
• Integrate the will, emotions, and attractions.
• Long for the others‟ good, before our own.
• See the unrepeatability of the person.
Redeem our sexual attraction. Instead of desiring to use
•
or acquire, we desire to genuflect.
• View each person as a mystery. Not a commodity or a
combination of attributes and qualities that exist to aid in
our “pleasure”, “satisfaction” or “good”.
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16. Getting Out of the Boat
Christ brought us new wine.
Breathed life back into the dust of our humanity.
Redeems and transforms our lustful desires and
inclinations.
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17. To The Stars
Realizing that we are called to
use sexual attraction to propel
us to the stars and beyond in
order to uphold the dignity of
the “beloved” is essential.
Sexual Desire is the atomic
energy of our souls. It is
meant for a great good.
We must stop stuffing it, and
allow it to be redeemed in
order to propel us to Heaven.
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18. The Value of the Person
quot;The essence of chastity consists in quickness to
affirm the value of the human person in every
situation. And, in raising to the personal level all of
our reactions to that person's body and sexuality.
… rather it is a matter of sustained and long term
integration, so that our attraction to a person's
body and sex is grounded and integrated in the
value of the person.”
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19. Not By Flight Alone
“.. Temptations are very profitable to man,
troublesome and grievous though they may be, for
in them a man is humbles, purified and instructed ..
Many seek to flee temptations, and fall worse into
them. We cannot conquer by flight alone, but by
patience and true humility we become stronger than
all our enemies. He who only declines them
outwardly and does not pluck out their root, will
profit little. Temptations will sooner return and he
will find himself in a worse condition.”
– Imitation of Christ
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20. Apprenticeship in Self-mastery
“Chastity includes an
apprenticeship in self-mastery
which is a training in human
freedom. The alternative is
clear: either man governs his
passions and finds peace, or he
lets himself be dominated by
them..
Self-mastery is a long and
exacting work. One can never
consider it acquired once and for
all. It presupposes renewed
effort at all stages of life.”
CCC 2342
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21. Actuals of Grace
“Lord, Jesus Christ, through your death
and resurrection you have redeemed
man and breathed new life into the
dust of his humanity. Take my lustful
desires and wash them clean by the
Blood and Water which flows from
Your Sacred Heart.
Make my heart all pure. Allow me to
desire to genuflect to this man or this
woman. Grant me the grace to refuse
to view them as a “good” for myself.
O Blood and water which gushed forth
from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of
Mercy for us, I trust in You.”
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22. Need for Eradication
“Chastity has a law of growth which progresses
through stages marked by imperfection and too
often by sin. „Man…day by day builds himself up
through his many free decisions; and so he knows,
loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of
growth”. CCC 2343
Refuse the Dumpster
• Books, music, movies, television, that devalue the dignity
of men or women and all pornography must be first
eradicated from our lives.
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24. Mature Love
Love reaches maturity when it turns from how the
other person makes me feel, to who the other
person is.
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25. The Unrepeatability of the Person
Every person on the planet is totally unique and
unrepeatable.
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26. The Subject of Your Affection
The Person
+ Attributes
+ Qualities
+ Unrepeatability
You do not love a LIST of qualities. You love a
PERSON.
• Every person is a great and complex mystery.
• They are more than their attributes and qualities.
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27. Qualities are Transitional
Qualities and attributes of
a person, if your love
stops there, offer
absolutely no permanent
foundation. These things
are transitional, and they
are repeatable. But, they
are there to be cherished
and appreciated and
recognized.
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28. Danger of Disillusionment
“Only the value of the
person can sustain a stable
relationship. The other
values of sexuality are
wasted away by time, and
are exposed to the danger
of disillusionment. But, this
is not the case for the
value of the person which
is stable, and in some way
infinite. When love
develops and reaches the
person, then it is forever.”
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29. Shadow of Doubt and Benefit of Love
“If the person I love is only
an instrument for my own
pleasure then he or she can
easily be replaced in such a
function: a fact which casts
a permanent shadow of
doubt over the entire
relationship…”
Lust eliminates the
possibility of the “benefit of
love” ever being given.
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30. Authentic Love
“The case is different when love reaches the
person. Then, the other is loved not for the quality
that he or she has, and which one can lose, or
which others can have in a higher degree, but the
person is loved for his or her own sake. Only then
is their living together something more than the
joining of two selfish individuals, and capable of
achieving a real, personal, unity.”
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31. The Decision
We have before us a banquet and a dumpster.
• Choose the banquet.
• It is the only thing that will satisfy.
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32. OLOP|YA Website
www.olopyoungadults.blogspot.com
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33. Pope John Paul the Great
pray for us
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