Saints LightThe Sixth Commandment: Chastity and Faithful Love
Sex is a holy gift meant for faithful, life-giving marriage, and every person is called to chastity, the freedom to love instead of use. When we fall, God's mercy in Confession heals and restores.
What this lesson teaches
- Sexuality is God's good gift, meant for the faithful, fruitful love of husband and wife.
- Every person, married or single, is called to chastity, which is self-mastery for the sake of love.
- Lust, pornography, sex outside marriage and adultery are offenses against this commandment.
- The Church recognizes that habit and other factors can lessen guilt, and calls for respect and compassion toward all.
Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites
- CCC 2331-2336
- CCC 2337-2347
- CCC 2351-2359
- CCC 2370
- CCC 2380-2391
CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.
Scripture read in this lesson: Matthew 5:27-28; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
A sample question from this lesson
What does the Church mean by chastity?
- Never having any sexual feelings
- A rule only for priests and religious
- The integration of sexuality into the whole person, freeing us to love rather than use
- Avoiding marriage
Show the answer
The integration of sexuality into the whole person, freeing us to love rather than use. Chastity is the healthy integration of sexuality within the person, lived differently by married and single people (CCC 2337).
The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.
Words to know
- Chastity
- The virtue that integrates sexuality into the whole person, so that we can love freely and truly.
- Continence
- Refraining from sexual activity, as single people and, at times, married couples do.
More terms in the Catholic glossary. More passages in the Scripture index.
Read the full lesson in the app
"The Sixth Commandment: Chastity and Faithful Love" is lesson 7 of The Ten Commandments. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.
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