The Virtue of Temperance

Materialism, Consumerism and Hedonism

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Compendium.. 383. What is

temperance?

Temperance moderates the attraction of pleasures, assures the mastery of the will over instincts and provides balance in the use of created goods.

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Definition

Temperance is the cardinal virtue that regulates the pursuit of pleasure according to right reason (human virtue) or reason enlightened by faith (supernatural virtue).

moderates the pursuit of pleasure in food, drink, and sex.

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Related virtues

Chastity moderates the use of the reproductive power. Modesty, in its stricter sense of propriety, governs other acts that are connected in some way with personal intimacy. Abstinence controls the use of food. Sobriety regulates the use of intoxicating drinks
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Compendium 488. What is chastity?

Chastity means the positive integration of sexuality within the person. Sexuality becomes truly human when it is integrated in a correct way into the relationship of one person to another. Chastity is a moral virtue, a gift of God, a grace, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
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Positive Integration (1)

Right reason discovers that the use of the reproductive power is intrinsically linked to the transmission of life and to personal love. In the human beings, the transmission of life cannot be separated from the education of children. Therefore, the use of sex according to right reason means that it be (1) within monogamous and indissoluble marriage, which is the only way of assuring comprehensive education and personal (conjugal) love (2) open to procreation, that is, without positively and voluntarily excluding it.
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Positive Integration

Body and emotions subject to right reason Conjugal love: mutual total self-giving

Exclusive and indissoluble Open to life

Self-mastery for selfgiving

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Elements of struggle

Fallen nature but not corrupted: Christs heals

Grace Natural Normal Freedom

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Right Reason

Effort

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Joyful affirmation and supernatural sport

Compendium 490. What are the means that aid the living of chastity? There are many means at one's disposal: the grace of God, the help of the sacraments, prayer, self-knowledge, the practice of an asceticism adapted to various situations, the exercise of the moral virtues, especially the virtue of temperance which seeks to have the passions guided by reason.
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Is Purity Possible?

Sexual appetite and emotions have a life of their own wound of concupiscence Control of reason and will can be:

despotic political

Grafting emotions to the rule of reason through positive values

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Remember positive values of chastity

1.Sex is holy, not a plaything. It should never be trivialized. 2.Created in the image of God, I can live by reason, not just by urges (as the animals do). 3.Persons are to be loved, not merely used as objects of enjoyment. 4.I must not treat persons as objects, even in the mind, lest I become a user of persons in practice. 5.Unchaste activity destroys my most precious friendship, that with God, the source of all happiness. 6.Unchaste activity brings pleasure but not happiness.
From Achieving Chastity in a Pornographic World, by Rev. T. G. Morrow
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Compendium 530. What are the

other requirements for purity?

Purity requires modesty which, while protecting the intimate center of the person, expresses the sensitivity of chastity. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their communion. Purity frees one from wide-spread eroticism and avoids those things which foster morbid curiosity. Purity also requires a purification of the social climate by means of a constant struggle against moral permissiveness which is founded on an erroneous conception of human freedom.
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Modesty

Not directly on sexual pleasure Personal intimacy Senses in relation to chastity and dignity Moderate curiosity

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Sins Against Chastity Involve

Temperance (self-mastery) Human Dignity (respect for person) Justice (rights involved) Truth (language of the body)

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Some moral considerations

Always grave matter

Values and persons involved Vehemence

Indirect fight flee

Avoiding the proximate occasions

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Compendium 492. What are the

principal sins against chastity?

Grave sins against chastity differ according to their object: adultery, masturbation, fornication, pornography, prostitution, rape, and homosexual acts. These sins are expressions of the vice of lust. These kinds of acts committed against the physical and moral integrity of minors become even more grave.

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SCHEMATIC CHART OF SINS AGAINST CHASTITY IN GENERAL

Involving Self Alone Masturbation: fallacy of natural

Illicit Sexual Gratification

Consummated: Fornication (PMS), Adultery, Sodomy Non-consummated: voluntary arousal of sexual passions as in passionate kissing, touches, pornography, conversations., etc
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Involving Others

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Sobriety

Sobriety: virtue that regulates the desire and use of intoxicating drinks

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Compendium.474. What duty do we

have toward our body?

We must take reasonable care of our own physical health and that of others but avoid the cult of the body and every kind of excess. Also to be avoided are the use of drugs which cause very serious damage to human health and life, as well as the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco and medicine.

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Aspects of Self-Mastery: Abstinence and Fasting

Abstinence is the moral virtue that inclines man to moderate the use of food according to the dictates of right reason. Fasting means taking less food than what natural abstinence would recommend, for ascetical reasons.
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Abstinence and Fasting: Church Practice

Compulsory fasting only on two days:

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. 18 to 60 are bound to fast. Does not apply in cases in which fasting would cause a serious harm Taking only one full meal on that day (other meals partial)

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Abstinence and Fasting: Church Practice

Compulsory abstinence forbids the eating of meat on all Fridays of the year.

In the Philippines, this practice can be commuted for works of penance, charity, or devotion. Above 14 years are bound to observe abstinence, with the same exceptions as fasting.

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THE END

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