Thursday, September 17, 2015

Elizabeth Scalia: "Dawn's book was an eye-opener for me ..."

This week's Our Sunday Visitor features a beautiful review of the new Catholic edition of The Thrill of the Chaste by Elizabeth Scalia (The Anchoress).

I am especially grateful for Scalia's accentuating that the new Thrill is a whole new book, written for all adults—men, women, single, married:

Dawn’s book was an eye-opener for me, and the impetus for many days of lectio divina spent exploring what “virtue” means beyond the realm of sexual continence, or integrity, or even a conscious choice not to engage in gossip.

Through this book, I came to understand how the practice of the virtue of chastity is, in its fullest form, a logical consequence of living within an intentional pursuit of agape love. ...

Eden’s first embrace of Christianity (and her first iteration of the book) had her living as a sign of contradiction against easy — and worldly — consent, even as she sought the husband she was certain God had for her

In this new Catholic edition of “The Thrill of the Chaste,” Eden is still living as a sign of contradiction — the world, after all, still misunderstands chastity as being little more than a dreary and joyless island of “no” — but she also has become a rather paradoxical witness to the world of “yes,” and how the power of that word, directed first to God, before any human, creates a chaste place for the Holy Spirit, and providence, to work in our lives.
Read the rest at OSV.com.