So there you are, a twenty-something college Religious Studies graduate running a high school youth group in the suburbs, in a room filled with 100+ teenagers who are collectively angry at whatever it is you, as an old man, have to say about sex and relationships. You clear your throat and begin...
BUT WAIT! Don't make the same mistakes that I've made in my rookie days as an anstinence-pledge-card-bearer. Here are 3 simple things you can do when giving a chastity talk to have a wider impact on the hearts and minds of your students that can create lasting change.
If there was one essential point to the Theology of the Body that Pope John Paul II gave in his Wednesday Audiences over the period of five or so years, that I could distill out and give to you today, it would be this: the whole human person, soul and body, is caught up in the beautiful drama of love and life.Love is more than just feelings, than a stirring of the senses and the thrill of physical touch. It is so much more than that, but it sure wouldn’t be the same without all that! God did not create us to be angels, but man, male and female. We have bodies, with goose-bumpy skin, responsive nerve endings, and hormone tidal waves that could overwhelm a giant.
I mean, sheesh, there are a lot of Christian writers out there who will tell you that love is not about emotion, but commitment; that sensuality only clouds knowledge; and that your hormones are best to be suppressed by cold showers and a part-time job after school.
But not Pope John Paul II, a man who never knew the marriage bed. He tells us the truth.
But not Pope John Paul II, a man who never knew the marriage bed. He tells us the truth.