The Maronite
Servants of Christ the Light hosted the monthly MYO meeting for the teens of
Our Lady of Purgatory Parish on Friday evening, September 26, 2014, at the
Mother of Light Convent presenting the topic of the Christian virtue of chastity
and Jesus’ cross of love.
A short excerpt
of the movie, “Seventeen Again”, was shown to kick-start our discussion on the
Christian values surrounding chastity. The protagonist of the movie, played by
famous Hollywood actor Zac Efron, is standing up for saying “no” to pre-marital
relations, and is going against the tide of his fellow teen classmates.
Sr. Therese
Maria explained that in today’s modern culture and media, we are often
bombarded with assaults against the virtue of chastity, it being portrayed as
“old-fashioned” or “puritanical”. However, Sr. Therese Maria explained that
chastity is much more than abstaining from pre-marital relations. Chastity is
respecting the dignity of all people by not reducing them to an object to be
used for one’s selfish pleasure, because this is not true love. True love seeks
the good of the other, and sacrifices for the other. Chastity is therefore a
virtue that paves the path for true (sacrificial) love to flourish. The kind of
love we see Jesus demonstrate on the Cross for all of us.
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| Teens competing in a messy game challenge. |
This discussion
on true love was a beautiful segway into the Feast of the Exaltation of the
Glorious Cross, celebrated liturgically in our Maronite Church for seven weeks
after Pentecost. The Feast of the Glorious Cross is a beautiful reminder all of
Jesus’ enduring and infinite love for us, demonstrated in his words and
actions. In the prayer service that
followed, the teens were presented with a cross styled wristband to remind them
of Jesus’ love for them and their call to witness.