Pray for Marriage
The Supreme Court, in an unconstitutional overreach of their powers, are hearing oral arguments this day to decide whether to sustain or abolish marriage. It is doubtful that the High Court would have entertained the case if the fix were not in, and the decision already made to overrule the legislatures of the allegedly sovereign states of our union, to scorn the will of the people, and to trample the alleged common law by which we are allegedly ruled.
How has it come to this?
Considering the miniscule number of people who suffer from the objectively disordered passion of same sex attraction, considering the logical impossibility of living chastely within an oath to pursue unnatural sex acts, considering the absurdity of insisting on a mating ritual for partners who cannot mate, and considering the lack of penalty for divorce of such unions or betrayal of the oath, one is left with no choice but to conclude that there is no human reason for this surprising and surprisingly victorious social movement. It is a supernatural effect, and it does not come from the regions of the unseen order favorable to human life.
Hence, prayer and fasting is the most logical response, and the most effective.
And I am reminded that the first public miracle which initiated Our Lord’s ministry on Earth was at a wedding feast. The Book of Genesis begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve; the Book of the Apocalypse ends with the marriage of the Lamb and His bride, the Holy Church; and all the books between are depictions of the rather rocky marriage between the Lord and His people, our frowardness and adulteries, and His offer of reconciliation.
Our faith begins and ends in marriage: this is not a part of life we can abandon to the corruption, corrosion, filth and rats of moral relativism, or the locusts of political correctness.
Therefore pray.
Those of you too shy to appeal directly to the Divine Majesty for the miracle we need, may call upon the intervention of our brothers and sisters who have departed this sad world, and who, by dint of their conspicuous aid in times past, are known to have achieved the beatific vision.
Today is the feast of Saint Louis de Montfort, famed for fostering devotion to the Our Lady and to her Rosary. He founded the Missionaries of the Company of Mary, and wrote True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
The patron saints of marriage include:
- Saint Joseph
- Saint Monica
- Saint Priscilla
- Saint Rita of Cascia
- Saint Thomas More
- Saint Gengulphus of Burgundy
- Saint Valentine
For those of you who suffer the temptation to answer this ungodly and self destructive social movement with wrath or disdain, I urge to you recollect the authentic and apostolic Christian teaching on the matter, which you can read here: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/promotion-and-defense-of-marriage/church-documents-on-defense-of-marriage.cfm
On Chastity (Catechism, 2238-2345)
- The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.
- 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 and becomes unhappy. “Man’s dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end.”
- Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God’s commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer.
- The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.
- 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.
- Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is “an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society.”
- Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.
Chastity and Homosexuality (Catechism, 2357-2359)
- Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
- The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
- Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
