(Photo credit is unknown. 
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I see this saved draft in my blogsite, and decided to publish it. I guess I forgot to jot down the source!! But it’s still priceless.
The man on the right is John Paul the Second, a Pope who promoted a deeper and clearer understanding of sexuality’s proper practice in marriage, in single life, and in all vocations. His most famous work was his lectures on the “Theology of the Body,” now published as a massive book. Those quotes above him are paraphrases of what he said about man’s and woman’s vocation to each other when it comes to sexuality and dignifying it.
Sexuality is so tricky! It makes us do wonderful things, or it can destroy our life and the life of others if its misused and squandered on lust. The sad thing about the issue is that it’s normally not discussed in pop culture in a meaningful way. See what is at the bottom of the pyramid? Friendship. Who would have thought that’s where it all starts with all that we see in movies and TV drama. It’s more like, “Boy meets girl, he teases her, goes through some short time with getting to know her, and she’s immediately in love with him and they have sex after a few dates.”
But God asks us to take it to another level. It’s the journey we need to enjoy, not the result. In fact, according to this diagram, the enjoyment of the journey will make the explosion of deep intimate sex be even more meaningful, even more powerful to change life and deepen each person’s commitment to the other.
What do I know? As I reflect on my own previous relationships, I realize to my chagrin that I have NEVER followed this process. Hmm. So it follows that my singleness may have been the product of not misfortune, but of immaturity.
Okay, God. I’m ready to grow up now. Help me be a better…..friend first, then lover.
Related articles
- Sexuality ! (woundedbirdnomore.wordpress.com)
- Christopher West is a huge author that summarizes and makes sense of Catholic sexuality. http://www.christopherwest.com/
Theology In Brief 
“…This eternal truth about the human being, man and woman – a truth which is immutably fixed in human experience – at the same time constitutes the mystery which only in “the Incarnate Word takes on light… (since) Christ fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear”, as the Council teaches.12 In this “revealing of man to himself”, do we not need to find a special place for that “woman” who was the Mother of Christ? Cannot the “message” of Christ, contained in the Gospel, which has as its background the whole of Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament, say much to the Church and to humanity about the dignity of women and their vocation?
This is precisely what is meant to be the common thread running throughout the present document, which fits into the broader context of the Marian Year, as we approach the end of the second millennium after Christ’s birth and the beginning of the third. And it seems to me that the best thing is to give this text the style and character of a meditation…” (ON THE DIGNITY AND VOCATION OF WOMEN by JP2. Excerpt from Section 2: The Marian Year. )
Task to us all: meditate on this to deepen respect for dignity and vocation of women and men.
access online here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_15081988_mulieris-dignitatem_en.html