Prayers for chastity

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flick427

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While I already know the rosary is a wonderful prayer for the intention of the virtue of chastity I am looking for more.
I wanted to find prayers that an individual can pray for for themselves and for others as well, or perhaps different saints along with with the Virgin Mary who are good to ask for assistance togther, possibly to say at the end of a rosary or just individually.
Of course it helps for myself to pray for this, but then what about prayers for other people that I know. Whether it be a friend or just me seeing a beautiful girl I don’t know but want to askl Jesus to take care of them by recommending the individual to Mary for prayers to protect/guard/or promote their purity/chastity whatever state they may be in currently…I suppose this would be sort of “consencrating someone” in this way to Jesus through Mary?"
Chastity is something much needed these days and always and an infinetly beautiful thing…the more chaste a person is perhaps the more open they can become to God.
 
Chastity holds the key to Scripture wherein all the divine mysteries are revealed by an ‘apprenticeship in self-mastery’ that leads to ultimate freedom from enslavement to bodily passions.

Chasity is, however, a ‘long and exacting work’ which 'integrates our fragmented multiplicity" to a divine union with God, much as a glass prism reunites a multicolored spectrum into a single beam of pure white light.

Chastity has laws of growth which progress through definite stages to ultimately regenerate the soul so graced to ‘imitate the purity of Christ.’ That day will come when one can say along with St Paul, 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ within me."
The old ego-centered self dies daily to make room for a new person of magnanimous spirit who ‘tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.’

Chastity reaches out, therefore, in its sublimation of love to embrace and express friendship with one’s neighbor. It thus promotes charity in betterment of the human race, and leads to spiritual communion in the assembly of the Faithful. All the baptized are called to chastity, and are pledged to ‘put on Christ’ at the baptismal font.

‘Chastity is a promise of immortality’. Personally I have consecrated myself to chaste celibacy for the last two decades and have thereby slowly gained brief foretastes of heaven. I have struggled with God’s help to an integrated state of soul that can sometimes see forever. Daily contemplation lifts my heart as an eagle in flight so that I often gain a high perspective on human affairs. However, divine union is a fragile state. Sanctifying grace requires constant vigilance against the spiritual pride of comparison with others, — a pitfall only the Holy Spirit can safely negotiate.

Chastity gifts the soul with the steady conviction that ’ even if my body die, I shall live forever’. Neither fornication nor masturbation, pornography nor lust, homosexuality nor prostitution can any longer entice the soul so graced. A sanctified man who has put away the things of children cannot be tempted to trade his airplane for a paper kite. All we Christians are called to chastity. By virtue of chastity’s self-mastery that leads to inner freedom from carnal lusts, we can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection. “For ye must be perfect, even as your heavely Father is perfect.”

Chastity is the keystone of Church doctrine without which the whole edifice comes tumbling down. To the many, it is a stumbling block, a topic of ridicule, an exquisite piece of folly. To the few who are desperate to cross the roaring abyss, it is a welcome stepping stone that gives the whole arch of the Roman bridge its strength.

re:CCC2337-2359
 
That’s cool what you say, yet a bit over my head…
We should all strive to be chaste like Jesus…but I must admit I am looking mostly for prayers and stuff…

Who/how do you ask for assistance in living a chaste life?
Is there any particular prayers you love to use or saints that you tend to ask for assistance/prayers?
 
I just have my children say 3 Hail Mary’s at bedtime for chastity. We started out with the “Now I lay me down to sleep prayer.” But once they hit middle school switched to the 3 Hail Mary’s. So by the time my daughter entered college, she had 7 yrs of this prayer to fortify her.
 
Assuming you undertand and accept the essential importance of chastity for spiritual growth, the next step is reprograming your suconcious mind. Only by God’s grace have you reached this stage of acceptance, for perpetual chastity is a supernatural yearning that is not observed in the lower life forms.

Comes now the struggle for implementation. One must thoroughly understand the way the human mind works. You should approach your subconcious mind as if you were trying to reprogram your computer (at the DOS level) by going deeply into the line commands that govern all it does. Unless you accomplish this “rewrite”, no changes can be expected in either the computer’s or your behavior.

Champion athletes use repetitive imagery at certain times of the day to accomplish amazing changes in their performance. The conscious mind maintains a ‘censor’ at the portal to your subconcious that blocks any attempts to alter the deeper line commands resident there. Understandably, these line commands are critically important, etched there by your parents, society, and direct experience since conception. They govern everything you do. So a censor is there to protect them.

However, in the twilight zone five minutes before you fall asleep and during that arousal five minutes before fully awake, the censor is not fully ‘on the job’. Use this to your advantage. Carefully construct a brief image and accompanying statement( eg.,a saintly portrait and a ‘Hail Mary’) that effectively portrays and defines your goal. Implant a positive affirmation for at least six weeks, that period of time necessary to change the deepest of bad habits. Fornication and masturbation are the toughest of all sins to correct. Gluttony and alcoholism are close seconds. Picture yourself avoiding situations that induce such sins (behavioral errors), along with affirmations for self-mastery that imitate the holiness of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary…

Prayerful repetition prenatal and in early childhood, such as described in an earlier post, is good because a child is just ‘waking up’, sort of speak, to adulthood, before his or her mental censor is fully employed. We can assume that applies to old age on the death bed, as well, when some well-known, tougher conversions to Catholicism have occurred.

Perseverance is critical and depends on your confidence (faith) in this methodology for changing human conduct. If the habit begins to return, be quick to reimplement the method described, until it goes into remission. Use it as a booster shot whenever needed.

Expect residual remembrances that prompt to sin. Learn to control such rebellious thoughts through practicing deep contemplation. We hunger and thirst for God alone but our flesh tempts us otherwise . Learn to listen to the quenching silence that St Theresa de Avilla wrote about in ‘Interior Castle’.
‘Open Heart, Open Mind’, by Rev. Thomas Keating ,OSB, is a good primer for learning how to do this. Several Catholic contemplation societies are available, eg., Thomas Merton, Contemplative Outreach, etc.

Our goal is self-mastery of thought, word and deed, always in full dependence on the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. “I will send you an Advocate who will comfort you and teach you all things.” We must all constantly wage war on our insubordinate flesh to regain the throne of our divine inheritance, because “The flesh wars against the spirit.” As Christ promised those who fight the good fight, and persevere to the end, our reward will be the crown of eternal life.
 
Mother Mary, please help all of your children to live holy, chaste lives. May we imitate you in your purity and chastity and be living temples of the Holy Spirit. May we pray ceaselessly, rejoice in the Lord, and give thanks in all circumstances.

Hail Mary…

Amen.
 
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