Catholic ping!
A remarkable thing about purity in this sordid age is the social power it gives a person. In politics and other public lifestyles there is nothing true to attack the person with or for. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (or the School Board) becomes possible.
Of the sins that tempt us, we are told to resist them all except idolatry and sexual temptation. Those we are told to flee, and not fight (1 Corinthians 6:18, 1 Timothy 2:22).
Good thread, Pyro7480!
BTTT
A few months earlier I was participating in a small ultraconservative forum (it now closed, or I'd give a link) and someone there had a section on celibacy and chastity. The section was run by a Buddhist, and his interest was, characteristically for Buddhists, self centered on a certain kind of personal growth. He was considered an oddity, the rest of the forum was filled with quite a boisterous crowd. Well, I read his celibacy advice with somewhat detached interest (I am married), and then someone started posting there his story, which was that he was a man who came to a realizaton that he could not enter a marriage because of some character flaws and so that the only honest path for him was celibacy. Again, there was no trace of any particular Catholic conviction in him, just an honest look at himself.
One of them, however, remarked that with long abstinence he began to see people's auras. This is a known phenomenon -- the saints are depicted with auras for a reason. I thought it would be fun to post some stuff from Aquinas on the aureoles, -- the so called crowds (Question 96. The aureoles. So we had a little Aquinas seminar going.
Which brings me to this point: everyone, Catholic or not, married or not, has an innate need for chastity and purity. And who is the patron and source of all purity? Our Lady. So her power to convert the Ecumen is not only connected to her motherhood, but also to her virginity.