Education in Human Love

Theology

The study of God.

Theology of the Body

The study of God and the purpose of our existence as revealed through our bodies.

Sacrament

Makes a spiritual reality visible to us.

Sign

Points to a reality beyond itself and makes a reality present to us.

Sacramentality of the Body

The body's ability to act as a visible sign of God’s invisible love.

Communion of Persons

When two or more persons give themselves to one another in love.

Conjugal Love

Involves a totality where all elements of the person enter, aiming at a deeply personal unity.

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 13

Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter–appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, the unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul. 

Foreshadowing Heaven

• The love between man and woman is a sign that points to something beyond itself.

• The desire for sexual union is an expression of a deep spiritual desire for union with God

Original Sin

This disconnect of spirituality and sexuality is a result of original sin 

Concupiscence

A tendency toward sin as a result of original sin. 

Tertullian

“Satan seeks to counteract God’s plan in plagiarizing the sacraments” 

Satan’s counters to God’s Plan

Attacking our view of the body, sexual union and marriage is the most effective way to draw us away from that original plan. 

Lust

Disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.

Love

Willing the good of another person, an act of the will preferring the good of another to oneself.

Pope John Paul II

“Love is not merely a feeling, but an act of the will, preferring the good of another to the good of oneself. Love is not easy.”

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

“Because true happiness, dear friends, does not consist in the pleasures of the world or in earthly things, but in peace of conscience, which we have only if we are pure in heart and mind.” 

Bishop Robert Barron

Your sexuality is meant to become love, a vehicle of love, conformed unto love. 

Human Sexuality

Humanity is in an Education crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Human Sexuality and the Mystery of Love

Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his/her body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others. CCC, 2332. 

Nuptial Meaning of the Body

The body's capacity to express love and fulfill the meaning of being and existence.

The Person and Love (Love and Responsiblity)

The person is good towards which the only proper and adequate attitude is love. The value of the person is always greater than the value of pleasure. 

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

Love as an Attraction

Feelings arise spontaneously the attraction which one person feels towards another often begins suddenly and unexpectedly but this reaction is in effect blind. 

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

Love as a Desire

Desire too belongs to the very essence of the love which springs up between man and woman. This results from the fact that the human person is a limited being, not self sufficient and therefore putting it in the most objective way needs other beings.

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

Love as a Goodwill

Love is the fullest realization of the possibilities inherent in man. A genuine love is one in which the true essence of love is realized, a love which is directed to a genuine (not merely an apparent) good.

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

The Problem of Reciprocity

Love is not just something in the man and something in the woman for in that case there would properly speaking be two loves but is something common to them. Love is by its very nature not unilateral but bilateral, something between two persons, something shared. 

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

From Sympathy to Friendship

Sympathy is a manifestation of experience rather than of activity: people succumb to it in ways which they sometimes find incomprehensible themselves, and the will is captured by the pull of emotions and sensations which bring two people closer together regardless of whether one of them has consciously chosen the other.

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

From Sympathy to Friendship

Friendship brings out the element of benevolentia or goodwill (I want what is good for you), and also the characteristic doubling of the subject, the doubling of the “I”: my “I” and your “I” form a moral unity, for the will is equally well inclined to both of them. 

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

Betrothed Love

Love is not just an aspiration, but rather a coming together, a unification of persons. This love’s decisive character is the giving of one‘s own person (to another). 

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

Betrothed Love

The essence of this love is self-giving, the surrender of one‘s “I”. When betrothed love enters into this interpersonal relationship something more than friendship results: two people give themselves to each other. 

Chastity as a virtue

The virtue that calls us to use our sexuality in a reasonable, responsible, and faithful manner, defined as purity of the mind and heart.

Chastity in all status of life

Every person, whether married or single, is called to live a chaste life. Like any virtue, chastity must be developed and practiced because our sexual attractions and feelings are so strong and intense, often overpowering. Chastity is defined as the purity of the mind and the heart. 

Chastity in all status of life (2)

Chastity is a deep respect and admiration for the person and for the gifts of sexuality and sex.

St. John Paul II on Chastity

Chastity is the readiness to affirm and love the person in every situation. You know what you are saying NO to by living chastely, but what are you saying YES to?

Abstinence

The lack of sexual activity, not a virtue in itself but simply abstaining from action.

Importance of the Body for Christians

The body is considered important as humans are made in the image of God, and it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, capable of making visible the invisible.

Genesis 1:27

We are made in the image of God

1 Cor 6:13, Rm 12:1

Glorify god with our body 

1 Cor 6:18-20

Our body is the temple of the holy spirit

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF MARRIAGE

Free

Through personal consent

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF MARRIAGE

Faithful

A promise of exclusively

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF MARRIAGE

Total

Holding nothing back

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF MARRIAGE

Fruitful

Open to the gift of new life

Elements of Marriage

Free, faithful, total, and fruitful - characterized by personal consent, exclusivity, holding nothing back, and openness to new life.

Modesty

Dressing attractively without dressing to attract, closely related to mystery and purity, believed to be more attractive, dignified, and classy.

Ephesians 6 

“Husbands love your brides as Christ loved the church.”

Pope John Paul about Women

God has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman.”

A Dump Him List for Girls

Signs to end a relationship include repeated warnings, need to fix the partner, involvement in harmful behaviors, disrespect, manipulation, and control.

Pornography

Trains the mind to seek constant sexual availability and perfection, based on lies, manipulation, and profit, leading to destructive effects on marriages and individuals.

Living a Pure Life

Chastity leads to happiness, love, and a stable foundation for marriage, promoting integration, gratitude, joy, self-respect, clear conscience, and the development of virtues.

Final Exhortation

Encouragement to embrace saintliness, answering Christ's call, with the belief of the Church and the Pope in the potential for greatness in the new millennium.

Pope John Paul II

“The body, in fact, and 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 of God, and thus be a sign of it.”

God’s Original Plan

Being made male and female (human sexuality) points to our call to love one another.

God’s Original Plan (2)

Sexual union between man and woman is meant to point to our union with God in heaven.

God is Love (1 John 4:8)

We’re made in the image and likeness of LOVE itself

Trinity

It is an eternal exchange of love. We are called to share in this external exchange.

Saint Augustine

Wherever there is love, there is a trinity: a lover, a beloved, and a foundation of love.

Main is a Communion of Persons

Humans were created to participate in the Trinitarian life. We reflect the external exchange of the Trinity in and through our sexuality.