Praying away the... you know...

St. John the Much-Suffering (Feast Day - July 18)

Lust.

Some saints did it.  Remember the story of St. Francis who threw himself into the thorn bush and rolled around in his effort to resist temptations against chastity?

Many today mock the very idea of praying and fasting and doing violence to oneself to drive away any sort of disordered passion. 

I found the story of another extraordinary saint who resisted temptations to lust to a heroic degree...

Venerable John the Much-Suffering pursued asceticism at the Kiev Caves Lavra, accepting many sorrows for the sake of virginity.

The ascetic recalled that from the time of his youth he had suffered much, tormented by fleshly lust, and nothing could deliver him from it, neither hunger nor thirst nor heavy chains. He then went into the cave where the relics of St Anthony rested, and he fervently prayed to the holy Abba. After a day and a night the much-suffering John heard a voice: “John! It is necessary for you to become a recluse, in order to weaken the vexation by silence and seclusion, and the Lord shall help you by the prayers of His monastic saints.” The saint settled into the cave from that time, and only after thirty years did he conquer the fleshly passions.

Tense and fierce was the struggle upon the thorny way on which the monk went to victory. Sometimes the desire took hold of him to forsake his seclusion, but then he resolved on still greater effort. The holy warrior of Christ dug out a pit and with the onset of Great Lent he climbed into it, and he covered himself up to the shoulders with earth. He spent the whole of Lent in such a position, but the burning of his former passions did not leave him. - Finish reading here.

St. John the Much-Suffering came through his struggles successfully.  However, today spiritual directors would naturally warn people against becoming too 'tense' or too 'fierce' in their struggle against vice, no one wants to be discomforted or sad of course, but sometimes we really do need to 'do violence' to ourselves to avoid sin.  Especially in the summer.

Pray it away.  You can do it.

Apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:5

Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. - Matthew 19: 11

The celibate's reward.

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I attended the noon Mass at the Cathedral today; opening the Bible I found in the pew, my eye fell upon this passage:

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For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off. - Isaiah 56: 4-5

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On virginity.

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"Virginity is in no sense a denial of the spousal meaning of the body, as though the body were evil, but is rather an affirmation of that spousal meaning in the way it will exist in Heaven. In terms of this earth, however, it must be looked upon as exceptional, a recommendation of Christ: "Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it" (Mt. 19:11-12). Consecrated virginity involves a renunciation of marriage, but not of the value of marriage nor of the spousal meaning of the body. "If someone chooses marriage, he must choose it exactly as it was instituted by the Creator 'from the beginning,'" Pope John Paul teaches. "If on the other hand someone decides to follow continence for the kingdom of heaven, he must seek in it the values proper to such a vocation." Again, this teaching reflects common Church doctrine: "Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of virginity" (Catechism, #1620; quoting John Chrysostom, De virg., 10,1)." - Source

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Ask and you will receive.

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[The Cathedral of St. Paul has purchased Ignatius Press RSV Bibles, 4 to a pew, for parishioners and visitors to use while stopping in to pray. That is incredibly generous. The Cathedral took on new life at the installation of Fr. Johnson as Rector - he has brought a very vibrant spirituality to the parish.]