Category: Chastity
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Glorify God in your body
In today’s second reading, we’re admonished by St. Paul to glorify God in our bodies. What does this mean? For me, as a man with same-sex attractions, it means living a life of chastity by abstaining from sexual sin. It means giving up illicit sexual pleasures that I will never find happiness in and striving…
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Today has been a bit more difficult than the past few days. The reason why is because my sexual temptations are increasing. As the temptations grow, I feel a growing amount of tension that I am usually prone to release through masturbation. But I will not be doing that anymore, Lord. I want to be…
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A Prayer of Repentance
Lord God, I am sorry for falling into unchastity today. I’m sorry for not being prayerful enough during times of temptation. I’m sorry for entertaining sexual fantasies about other men and lusting after them. I know this is wrong. These men are my brothers in Christ, not potential lovers. I know that you’ve called me…
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Moving Forward With Discernment
Lately I’ve felt drawn to two different vocations: marriage and the priesthood. My attraction to both of these vocations has only grown as I have healed from same-sex attraction and as I have grown in my relationship with the Lord. At the same time, I’ve been wondering when it would be appropriate, given my history…
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Unbound: Freedom in Christ
I recently attended the Unbound Conference that was given by Neal and Janet Lozano (pictured). The conference was all about overcoming sins that have a hold over our lives. It was a really powerful experience. During the conference I came to see that I believe a lot of lies about myself, namely that I am…
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A New Start in My Spiritual Journey
Yesterday, I started meeting with my new spiritual director for the first time. I recently decided to stop seeing my former spiritual director because I was having some doubts as to whether I could trust him anymore. It was a bit sad and a hard decision to make, but I think it worked out for…
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Scandal in San Francisco
I recently learned that there is a very serious scandal in a parish in San Francisco called Most Holy Redeemer. Unfortunately, it appears that this scandal has been going on for some time now. For those of you who may not be aware, Most Holy Redeemer is located in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco,…
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Jesus Never Gives Up–and Neither Should I
I was really struck by the Gospel reading from last Sunday, Feb. 7. In this reading from chapter 5 of the Gopsel According to St. Luke, we hear the familiar story about how Simon Peter and several other fishermen have been out on the lake all night but have caught nothing. When Jesus tells Simon…
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Joy
Earlier this week, the chaplain of my Courage chapter gave a talk about joy. Joy is not an emotion that I have been feeling much of lately, unfortunately. For several weeks now, I’ve been feeling rather lonely and starved for friendship. Whenever I feel like that, it becomes very difficult for me to remain chaste…
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Some Interesting Stories From This Week
I saw a couple of interesting stories in the media this week that I thought I should blog about. The first one was a story from Britain’s Times Online and it had a very provocative title: “The Day I Decided to Stop Being Gay.” Seeing this in Google News the other day, I felt like I…