What is "chastity according to your state of life"?

[MrsHall]

My 11-year-old daughter and I are going to be enrolled in the brown scapular. In addition to wearing it and praying the rosary daily, the other requirement is “chastity, according to your state of life.” What exactly does this mean for me, a married woman, and my daughter, a young girl?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Chastity is defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as:

Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man’s belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.

To be chaste “according to one’s state in life” is a delicate way of saying that married people must observe the rules of sexuality within marriage (e.g., no romantic relationship with anyone not one’s spouse, remaining open to the possibility of new life during marital relations), while single people must observe the rules of sexuality outside of marriage (e.g., not engaging in sexual relations, not putting oneself in a near occasion of sexual sin). To explain this to your daughter, you might share with her the story of St. Maria Goretti, using the booklet linked below.

Recommended reading:

Goretti by Samer Naoum
Beyond the Birds and the Bees by Gregory K. Popcak