Week 3 - What it means to be a woman

Week 3 - True Womanhood

“God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit. She expresses beauty in both…Even speaks something different to the world than Adam. Through her beauty. Beauty is powerful. It may be the most powerful thing on earth. It is dangerous. Because it matters.”
Stasi Eldredge, Captivating

“The hour…has come when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so steep a transformation, women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.”
Pope John Paul II

In the beginning…
1. God created men and women in His image and likeness. God is Love, and we are made to reflect and point to His Love.
2. However, our calling to love one another is often warped by sin
3. Instead of giving, men resort to taking. Instead of receiving the gift of life from a man, many women take relationships into their own hands, fear their own fertility, or not even believe they deserve to be loved
4. Women: we are made for relationships. We possess a great beauty. We have a deep element of mystery.
5. By looking at the way God designed our body and desires, we can learn who we are as women and how we should live

Why do women need TOB?
1. Every fiber of a woman’s being cries out for connection and relationship. (Heck, this is why we can’t even go to the bathroom alone!)
2. Throughout history, women have done whatever they can to obtain relationship with others – altered their body, sacrificed their femininity, and, like Eve, taking things into their own hands
3. However, God’s plan for and design of women is nothing like we’ve ever heard described before
4. Women need TOB to rediscover her “feminine genius”

A Mystery to be Revealed
1. Woman is one of God’s greatest mysteries
2. By our very nature we possess mystery
a. “…her intimate organs are hidden from sight; they are inside her body. What is hidden usually refers to something deep and mysterious: we hide secrets; we hide what is personal and intimate.” Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand
3. In the Bible, the presence of God is often enshrouded in mystery - The Holy of Holies: The Ark of the Covenant
4. The Bible speaks with the same awe about a woman’s body. In Song of Songs the author refers to the woman’s body as an enclosed garden. Read Song of Songs 4:9-10,12
5. The purpose of it being shut is to keep away those who do not have a right to be present
6. A woman’s body, like the Holy of Holies, is not unapproachable, but rather she is opened only to the one who is worthy to enter
7. The Bridegroom should be reminded that God’s permission is required in order for Him to enter into this sacred enclosure, and that he should do so with reverence and gratitude
8. Mysteries are to be revealed, not exposed
9. As JP II says, you must be “the master of your own mystery”
10. The modern culture tells women: “If you body’s so great, show yourself!”
11. We must reply: “Because of my value, I veil myself. If I show too much I’d be distracting you from what matters most. Only a worthy spouse deserves to experience the glory of my unveiled mystery.”
12. “Men are talented at reading women’s body language, and they are not likely to risk being humiliated when a refusal is certain. Perceiving women’s modesty, they would take their cue and, in return approach the female sex with reverence.” Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand

A Mystery to be Pursued
1. There is a reason why girls long for the thrill of being wanted, pursued and cherished. There is a reason why men long to win the heart of a woman
2. While many women want romance and love, they often spend way too much time looking for their “knight in shining armor”
3. Girls: instead of looking for the right man, become the ideal woman and let him look for you. This means spend your precious time building you faith, your confidence, your talents, and in discernment of who God wants you to be
4. How you treat and carry yourself will be how others do the same
5. Know that you are worthy enough to be valued, respected, honored, cherished, and fought for
6. Jesus fought to the death for His bride, and deep down this is what women long for – to be able to trust their fragile and beautiful hearts to a man like they can trust it with Christ.

A woman should hide her heart in God, and a man must go there to find it. A woman should be so hidden in Christ that a man has to see Christ just to see her

Woman: God’s Masterpiece
1. Webster: A masterpiece is “The greatest work made or done by a person or group.”
2. Women, you are the pinnacle of creation, the greatest work of the Trinity
Why?
3. In both the first and second creation accounts humanity is created last, as the crown of creation. However, woman in a very special way culminates creation by becoming the very climax of all creation.
4. ”Jesus, wishing to become incarnate and enter our human history willed to have a Mother, Mary, and thus raised woman to the highest and most wonderful peak of dignity…” JP II April 29, 1979
5. Who is the highest creature in heaven? MARY
6. Who was the most perfect angel ever created? LUCIFER
7. Lucifer means light. Since he was the most perfect creation of the spiritual realm, he was radiant with God’s love.
8. Do you know why Lucifer fell away form the light and love of God? PRIDE and ENVY
9. CCC 391 says that Satan fell into death out of envy. WHY?
10. Satan was envious of the place of humanity, especially women
11. Since angels would eventually serve humans, he knew that a woman would hold a place above him in Heaven for all eternity…MARY! Wow…

The Most Important Question for Women…
1. What does it mean to be a woman?
2. Men, too, have a lot to learn from this question (!) because masculinity and femininity are complimentary. Thus, man cannot fully and truly understand his masculinity until he understands the vocation of femininity.
3. So, let us ask this question! And let us dive deeper into the Truth 

Archetype of Humanity
1. Pope John Paul II beautifully defined the gift and dignity of womanhood by saying: “…woman is the representative and the archetype of the whole human race: she represents the humanity which belongs to all human beings, both men and women.”
2. Do you know what this means? Women have something very distinct to teach all mankind about what it means to be human!
3. What is an archetype? A Model/Blueprint
4. This is why women are God’s masterpiece – they are a model, a plan for all humanity
What is it that women teach all of humanity?
5. Women teach all of humanity that God’s plan it to marry us and that all of mankind is called to become the bride of Christ!
6. WOMEN, YOU LITERALLY EMBODY THE PLAN OF GOD!
7. This is your great dignity! A woman’s body was created to remind us all that we are called to receive the love of God
8. This is why the Church is called the Bride of Christ
9. Again, women’s bodies speak volumes about the meaning of life because in and through the body we see God’s plan for humanity. This is why JPII said: “the meaning of the body is the fundamental element of human existence in the world…” which is to receive the love of God and then conceive its fruit in our lives
10. A woman’s body was created to remind us of this call.
11. And this is exactly why Satan hates women… :(

Satan’s ongoing attack against women
1. If you were an enemy of God and wanted to twist and distort His plan for salvation, where would you go?
2. Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity (hostility) between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
3. Satan hates women because his goal is to prevent humanity from receiving divine life.
4. Women are a physical reminder for God’s plan of salvation – to get us to Heaven, which is the last place Satan wants us to go
5. How is his attack focused on women?
6. Satan’s temptation caused Eve to doubt God’s love, to deny her dignity and calling as a woman 7. They both saw that Eve was biologically created to receive the gift of a bridegroom, however Satan convinced her that this was not a gift but a curse and that if she ever wanted to get anywhere she needed to deny her receptivity and take for herself.
8. After Adam and Eve ate of the tree, their consequences began to unfold…

9. First effect: SHAME. Woman covered her body because she was uncomfortable and ashamed.
a. There is now a false glorification and objectification of the female body
b. Pornography, contraception, and competition among women are major culprits because through these women feel like objects
c. The devil wants you to think you are not beautiful or, if he can’t convince you of this, he will tempt her to make an idol out of her beauty

10. Second effect: “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing.” Genesis 3:16
a. The very beauty and dignity of a woman’s specific gift has become her “curse” because her calling to bring new life into the world is filled with pain
b. Look at the world around you: are children and the act of birth valued?

11. Third effect: “Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall be your master.” Genesis 3:16
a. Women, as they should, have longed to be loved (they have an innate desire to receive) since the beginning of time – but society doesn’t like “receptivity”
b. This has resulted in the abuse and domination of women throughout time
c. Women are also taught to pursue men and toss aside her mysterious nature – her special genius (receptivity to the gift) is seen as “less than”
d. Girls often use their bodies to receive affirmation
e. Satan urges women to make relationships the essence of her life – the guy replaces God

12. Women have suffered greatly from original sin…
13. A body that was created in the image of God has been so tainted that it has almost been ruined
14. But, death will never prevail and there is hope through the receptivity of one woman, the handmaid of the Lord, the Mother of God, the eternal Bride, the highest of all creation, the queen of Heaven and earth…

The New Eve: Restoring Womanhood in Mary
1. Mary is the eternal bride of the Holy Trinity through her YES in being receptive to God’s love – a Love that was born of her womb
2. Lucifer fell out of pride. Mary was raised out of humility.
3. Mary refused to doubt the love of God and she believed with complete faith in her role to be open and receptive to His plan.

”Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to thy word.” Luke 1:38

4. PRAISE GOD for Mary’s acceptance of motherhood! Through her yes she literally received the love of God and conceived life to the entire world.
5. Mary is the new Eve:
a. Mary and Eve were both virgins, filled with grace, were without sin, and were approached by an angel with a message
b. However, Mary responded very differently than Eve did, regarding her call to be receptive to God’s love regarding her call to be a mother and a wife

Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosened by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin of Eve bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened through faith.”
St. Irenaeus, 180 AD

6. Mary restored the gift of womanhood through her faith in God. She believed that God did love her and opened herself fully to RECEIVE that love.
What happened when Mary received the love of God as she was called to?
7. She bore life to the entire world!!! Where Eve brought death, Mary brought life!

“The fullness of grace that was granted to Mary signifies the fullness of perfection of what is characteristic of woman, of what is feminine. Here we find ourselves at t culminating point of the personal dignity of women.” John Paul II

The Power of Beauty
1. “Beauty will save the world…”
2. More than ever, the world needs a renewal of women who understand the power of their beauty and who will use it to draw the hearts of men toward God. God created women beautiful to remind others of the beauty of Heaven!

“The beauty of the soul reflects itself onto the face”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

3. As a woman opens herself to receiving the love of God, she will be more able to receive love as she deserves
4. Women, you deserve to be revered! You deserve to be pursued!
5. Imagine how a world would be transformed if women, like Mary, embraced their calling from God…The mystery of His intimate love would shine through his beautiful daughters…

“Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful…You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes…”
Song of Songs

Week 2 - The Entrance of the Fig Leaves

Week 2 - The Entrance of the Fig Leaves

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

“Man can full discover himself only in a sincere giving of himself.” GS 24

“Love is our origin, our vocation, our end.” Christopher West


The Bad News…and the Good News:
1. Bad news = falling from grace, and experiencing bad relationships
2. Good News = Christ
a. “Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins.” CCC 2336
b. Christ came to re-inflate our tires!
3. History, in this sense, begins with the entrance of the fig leaves – that is, the dawn of sin.

A Closer Look at Original Sin
1. Original sin has dramatically influenced our experience of sexuality.
2. Original sin was more than Adam and Eve eating an apple, it was their questioning of God’s gift.
3. Human sexuality, as we soon will see, played a crucial part in the attack and fall of humanity. In fact, Satan’s primary target in an attempt to lead humanity away from the love of God was and is the body.
4. The serpent subtly appears in Genesis 3:1 as the most cunning of all the animals. The term arum for cunning means subtle and is a play on the word arom or naked.
5. This play on words indicates Satan’s “subtle” plan was to attack their nakedness.
Why would Satan’s first attack on humanity be against their nakedness?
6. Because the naked body reveals our call to love
7. Our bodies reveal who God is!
8. Satan attacked the naked body for the same reason terrorists attacked the WTC and the Coalition forces attacked Saddam’s Palaces. Each target was a clear sign/symbol of something greater.
9. Satan’s plan was to attack Adam and Eve’s nakedness because nakedness revealed so much about them as persons, primarily their reason and purpose for existence – LOVE
10. Love, above all else, is what Satan hates most – the love between God and humanity and between man and woman.

The Sneaky Little Devil…
1. The deepest yearning we have is to share in the life and love of God, in other words, to be “like God”
2. From the beginning God gave man and woman a share in his life and love as a free gift.
a. God initiated the gift of himself as “bridegroom” and humanity (male and female) were open to receive the gift as “bride.”
b. Man and woman were able to re-image this same ¬¬exchange of Love through their own marital giving and receiving and experience the awesome results
3. In response to this free gift of himself to humanity, God asked that they not eat from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” If they were to eat of it, they would cut themselves off from the gift of life and love – they would die
Genesis 2:16-17
4. Enter the deceiver!
5. First, Satan places doubt in Eve’s head by asking her “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” Genesis 3:1
6. Satan is the father of lies, and shortly after placing doubt in the woman’s head he tells his first lie, a lie that would separate all of mankind from God: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, who knows what is good and what is bad.” Genesis 3:4
7. Note: the two different kinds of deaths God and Satan were referring to:
a. God: spiritual death
b. Satan: physical death
8. Satan causes Adam and Eve to doubt the Fatherhood of God and the gifts He has given to them. Satan says that “you will not die,” but you will become ¬like God. He’s selling them something they already have! They are already made in the image and likeness of God! They are already like Him.
9. Satan is saying that God doesn’t love you, He’s holding out on you, He doesn’t want you to be like Him, He’s not your Father…
10. Satan causes Adam and Eve to think that since God is holding out on them, they have to take for themselves what will bring them happiness.

“So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Genesis 3:6

Attacking the Bride
1. Why did Satan choose to attack Eve first? Is this some ploy by the biblical author to say that women are “bad?” NO!!!
2. Eve, as woman, physically embodies the call that humanity has to receive God’s love and bear fruit, to bring “life” into the world
3. Satan approaches the one who represents all of us as being the “Bride” of Christ in our receptivity to God’s gift – women
Where was Adam?
4. Adam’s job was to protect the garden, to protect his bride
5. Song of Songs 4:12 “You are an enclosed garden, my sister, my bride, an enclosed garden…”
6. Just as Eve initially doubted God’s love, Adam failed to live up to call to lay down his life to protect what was entrusted to him
7. Think with the mind of Satan: if you wanted to prevent people from receiving God’s love, where would you go?
8. Wouldn’t your perfect attack be to devalue, shame, disgrace, twist, corrupt, and demean the body and the sexual union of a husband and a wife because it is the fundamental revelation of God?
9. Satan’s attack isn’t murder and death – it’s even scarier. It’s a degradation of life and love. His attack comes through Cosmo, Playboy, sexual jokes, contraception, prostitution abortion, and the games men and women play with each other

The Result of Sin
1. Shame. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” Genesis 3:7
2. Here we find the first result of sin: shame.
3. Why were they ashamed? Adam and Eve died spiritually.
4. By rejecting the love of God, the Spirit He breathed into them at their creation, the spirit in them died. Without the love of God in their hearts they are unable to love as God loves…you can’t give what you don’t have
5. Their sexual desires (along with their thinking) became inverted
6. Lust now controls their desires…Lust = the absence of love
7. “Man is ashamed of his body because of lust. In fact, he is ashamed not so much of his body as precisely of lust.” May 28, 1980
8. They no longer sought to make a gift of themselves to each other, but rather sought personal gratification through the use of the opposite sex

“Therefore, God handed them over to impurity, through the lust of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie…therefore, God handed them over to their degrading passions.”
Romans 1:24-26

9. Man and woman now use each other for their own selfish desires.
a. Men’s fallen desire is physical – men use “love” to get sex
b. Women’s fallen desire is emotional – women use sex to get “love”
c. Where do we see this?

The Fall: What Happens Next?
1. Women: Genesis 3:16
2. Men: Genesis 3:17-19
3. From the fall of man to our current age, the “battle of the sexes” has been the greatest war waged
4. The enemy of God does not want us to be in communion with one another! He wants us to use each other for sexual and emotional reasons, to play dramatic games with each other, to be pitted against each other, to think the other has ulterior motives…
5. “Love is a battlefield…”

From Tree to Shining Tree
1. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” Genesis 3:16
2. We know that Satan’s attack did not win in the end, because Good Friday is not the end of our Holy Week celebrations.
3. Christianity would not exist if it were not for the victory over death culminated on the first Easter Sunday.
“And if Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty too your faith.” 1 Corinthians 15:14
4. Jesus Christ has won for us new life! Redemption!
“Just as through one transgression condemnation came to all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all.” Romans 5:18
5. Jesus came to breathe on humanity the breath of life lost in original sin.
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” John 20:22
6. This breath of life, the Holy Spirit, re-inspires us as persons restoring the relations between God and one another by restoring our ability to love.
7. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have received a perfect education in love – we are once again fully capable of reaching our fullest potential through the love he has given and exemplified…all he asks of us is this:

“This is my commandment; love one another as I love you.” John 15:12



The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes our own mistakes – to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you…This is a danger for all of us. And so sad, because it is completely the opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you. Not only that He loves you, but even more – He longs for you. He misses you when you don’t come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy. When not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes, He is the one who always accepts you. Only believe – you are precious to Him. Bring all you are suffering to His feet – only open your heart to be loved by Him as you are. He will do the rest.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta


It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.
Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day, Rome 2000

Week 1 - God's Original Plan for the Body and Sex

WEEK 1 - God's Original Plan for the Body and Sex

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

“The man and his wife were naked, yet they felt no shame.” Genesis 2:25

“Love is our origin, our vocation, our end.” Christopher West


Why do we need TOB?
• Our world is hurting. Our friends are hurting. We are so connected by technology, yet we are so alone.

• Everyone has the desire to be loved. It is written on our hearts. And we are searching for love everywhere

• According to Christopher West, there are 3 “gospels” out there that propose to satisfy this ache for love we have:
o Starvation gospel: repress desire, follow rules, and do it because God and our parents say so.
o Fast Food gospel: “Supersize Me” example: just feed yourself as much as you want whenever you want and you’ll be satisfied. This is the gospel our culture offers
o Banquet gospel: The Good News that Jesus offers through His Word, His Church, and through TOB. Think about it: God knows we HUNGER for love. So what did He do? He made it so we actually consume LOVE when we receive Him in the Eucharist!

What is TOB?
1. Pope John Paul II’s explanation for the real meaning of love, sex, and God’s plan for human relationship
2. TOB is the working title of 129 short talks. This was the first major teaching of his pontificate…hmmm…interesting
3. It is a biblical reflection on the meaning of the body, sexual desire, and love. It is an understanding of our sexuality in a way you’ve never heard before.
4. In a nutshell: the physical human body has a specific meaning and is capable of revealing answers regarding fundamental questions about us and our lives:
• What is the meaning of life?
• Is there a real purpose to life and if so, what is it?
• Why were we created male and female? Does it really matter?
• Why did God give us desires for love?
• What is the purpose of the married and celibate vocations?
• What exactly is "Love"?
• What does chastity really mean and is it truly possible to be pure of heart?
• What is God’s plan for my life?
5. Over the course of our time together you will discover the beauty and purpose of your sexuality
6. Despite what you may have heard, the Catholic Church teaches and believes that human sexuality is good, beautiful, and really important. The Church teaches that our sexuality points us to heaven!
7. In TOB you will learn what Jesus’ love on the cross and sexual love have in common
8. You will learn about how to get to heaven and have a taste of it on earth, how to love as God calls, and that we will be set free by living God’s plan for our lives

When we see the truth about our bodies and the truth about sex, we change our lives not as a result of persuasion, guilt, fear of pregnancy or disease, or because we have to, but because God’s view of love is everything the human heart longs for.
Jason Evert

Why is the Body a “Theology?”
1. What is the MOST IMPORTANT question you could ask yourself? Answer: What is the meaning of life?
2. God has given us profound clue, stamped in our very bodies.
3. Many people grow up thinking that spirit = good, body = bad. This is sooo wrong!
4. JP II says that God created the physical body as a “sign” of his own divine mystery!
5. The word theology means a “study of God”
6. Theology of the Body is a “study of God” through the body!

The Body and the Spiritual Battle
1. How many slang terms can you come up with to describe your knee?
2. Now, how many slang terms can you come up with to describe those things that make you different from the person of the opposite sex?
3. If God created the body and sexual union to proclaim his own eternal mystery of love, why don’t we typically see them in this profound way?
4. Ponder this for a moment: If the body and sex are meant to proclaim our union with God, and if there’s an enemy who wants to separate us form God, what do you think he’s going to attack?
5. If we want to know what is most sacred in the world, all we need to do is look for what is most profaned.
6. It is not that society’s answer to sex and our bodies reveals too much, it is that it doesn’t reveal enough!

The Bible: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told
1. What are some of the analogies or parables that the Bible uses to express God’s love for us?
2. From beginning to end, the Bible itself is a story about marriage. How?
3. It begins with the Book of Genesis and the marriage of Adam and Eve
4. It ends in the Book of Revelation with the “wedding of the Lamb” – which is the marriage of Christ and the Church
5. Throughout the Old Testament, God’s love for his people is described as the love of a husband for his bride. Hosea: “I have betrothed myself to you forever…”
6. Read the Song of Songs…juicy stuff!!
7. Using these books of the Bible as two bookends to interpret everything else that’s in between, what is God’s ultimate plan?
To marry us!
8. How did God reveal this eternal plan to us in a way that we couldn’t miss?
In our bodies!

In the Beginning…
1. When some Pharisees questioned Jesus about the meaning of marriage, they recalled to Him that Moses allowed divorce.
2. Jesus’ reply provides one of the keys to understanding the Gospel: “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” Matthew 19:8
3. If we are to understand God’s purpose for our sexuality and the meaning of the “one flesh” union, according to Christ, we have to go back to the beginning, before sin entered the picture
4. In the beginning God created Adam and Eve to be pure and holy
5. They didn’t have relationship problems like we do today and their relationship was filled with pure love, pure generosity, and pure passion
6. They were truly naked without shame
7. There was no need to cover themselves because they had no fear of being used
8. They saw in their naked bodies the call to be a gift to each other, and they knew how to live that out
9. If we are to understand God’s purpose for our sexuality and the meaning of the “one flesh” union, according to Christ, we have to go back to the beginning, before sin entered the picture
10. According to John Paul II, three experiences in particular define the human person in the original state of innocence and purity: solitude, unity, and nakedness.
11. Genesis: The Lover, not the optometrist
a. Rather than looking abstractly at God’s original plan, we need to consider the first man and woman’s experiences of the body and sexuality.
b. Symbolism is the most fitting way to convey deep spiritual truths – this is what Genesis does (My ways are not your ways, says the Lord…)

In the Image of God He Created Them…
1. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” Genesis 1:26
2. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Genesis 1:27-28
3. “The body, in fact, and it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine.”
4. The complimentarity of the sexes images God.
5. If we want to understand how we image God we must first understand who God is
Who is God?
6. “God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” CCC 221
7. This key statement summarizes the ultimate mystery of God and the meaning of human existence: LOVE
8. Whoever is without love does not know God for God is love IJohn 4:8
What is God’s love?
9. Free, Total, Faithful, Fruitful…where have we seen these before?
10. Because we are created male and female in the image of God, we too are called to a life giving communion of persons
11. Sexual union, the two becoming “one flesh” makes visible the invisible mystery of God…this is huge!

God created the union of man and woman to image the union of the Trinity. God created the union of man and woman to foreshadow our union with Him in Heaven. WHOA!

Original Solitude: The First Discovery of “Personhood”
1. “Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:18
2. The most obvious meaning of this “solitude” is that the man is alone without woman. But there is a deeper meaning from this verse.
3. This creation account doesn’t even distinguish between male and female until after Adam’s “deep sleep.” Here, Adam represents humanity
4. Genesis 2:20: Adam differs from the animals. How? His Freedom.
a. Adam isn’t determined by bodily instinct
b. Unlike the animals, he has the “breath of life” inspiring his body Gn 2:7 and he is invited to enter a “covenant of love” with God himself
5. Man is “alone” because he’s the only bodily creature made in God’s image and likeness.
6. Why is it not good for man to be alone?
a. Man must have someone else to be able to fulfill the call to love as God loves, as a communion of persons.
7. Why was Adam given freedom?
a. Adam was called to love, and without freedom, love is impossible
b. In his solitude, Adam realizes that love is his origin, his vocation, his destiny
c. Freedom is given for love. It can lead to destruction and division, but it’s intended to give us life and unity. It is our choice.

Original Unity: The Communion of Persons
1. “So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.” Genesis 2:21-22
2. The Hebrew word for rib is a play on the word “life”
3. Woman comes from the same life as man, therefore she is equal in dignity
4. Notice that the woman comes from the side of Adam. What does this mean?
5. Since woman is equal, she shares the same humanity and life of man – she also shares the same call to LOVE
6. “When he brought her to the man, the man said: ‘This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh…” Genesis 2:23
7. Adam finally found his “complement.” He found the one he could love and with whom he could image God and be a gift (remember, sin has not entered into the world yet)

Original Nakedness: Key to Understanding God’s Original Plan
1. “The man and his wife were naked and felt no shame.” Genesis 2:25
2. Why are humans the only creatures that experience shame?
3. Shame is self-defense from being looked at or treated like an object
4. Adam and Eve were created by God as something very good in their nakedness.
5. Did you know that Pope John Paul II ordered that all the painted over loin cloths be removed from the Sistine Chapel?
6. Sadly, many people harbor a deep hatred for their own bodies. How is this manifested? Eating disorders, cutting, steroid use, doing anything to get those six-pack abs, and exploitation
8. The reason both Adam and Eve were naked without shame is because they experienced sexual desire only as the desire to love in God’s image. There is no shame, or fear, in pure love. “Perfect love casts out all fear.” 1John 4:18
9. They saw in each other the nuptial meaning of their bodies – that their bodies were created to be a gift to one another in their union
How do they do this?
10. Because their bodies are complimentary: they go together!
11. Because they reveal the communion of God
12. “The body and it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine.” February 20, 1980
13. Adam gazed upon his wife, and she upon him, as they each experienced the revelation of the body.
14. “The fact that ‘they were not ashamed’ means that the woman was not an object for the man nor he for her.” February 20, 1980
15. Freedom allowed this to happen…“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

A Re-cap…The Nuptial Meaning of the Body
1. The nuptial meaning of the body reveals that man and woman are called to image God through bestowing the gift of themselves on each other, thus forming a life giving communion of persons.
2. “The human body…includes right from the beginning a nuptial attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love. The love that precisely in which the person becomes a gift and – by means of this gift – fulfills the very meaning of his very being and existence.” January 16, 1980
3. “Man can fully discover himself only in a sincere giving of himself.” GS, n.24
4. We can only discover who we are by loving as God loves.
5. Christ’s new commandment is “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jn 15:12
6. How did Christ love us? “This is my body which is given for you.” Luke 22:19
7. Love is spiritual, but Christ demonstrates that it is expressed and realized in the body
8. God wanted this to be so near to us that He “stamped” this call to love (to be a gift) in our bodies. We call this the “nuptial meaning of the body.”
9. A man and a woman’s body do not make sense on their own, but together they make sense that they are called to be a gift to one another
10. Not only that, but their mutual gift can even lead to a third!
11. “Adam knew his wife and she conceived.”
12. Genesis 1:28: God’s first commandment
13. Sexual love becomes an earthly icon of the Trinity, and it points us to Heaven! (I bet you’ve never heard of sex like this before!)

Theology of the Body 2010 Schedule

**Note: unless indicated, nights will be at St. Charles in the Parish Center. Our night goes from 6:30-8:15pm.

March:
21 – True Manhood
28 – The Language of the Body

April:
4 – No Youth Group! (Happy Easter)
11 – Fun Night in the Gym (Spring Break)
18 – Dating and What Chastity really means
25 – Purity of Heart Part I – Tackling the Tough Issues

May:
2 – Purity of Heart Part II (held at St. Patrick’s in the Parish Center across from Church)
9 – No Youth Group! (Happy Mother’s Day!)
16 – Marriage, Celibacy, and Redemption of the Body
23 – The Eucharist – where it all comes together!
30 – No Youth Group! (Happy Memorial Day!)


June:
6 – End of the Year Party!

Theology of the Body

Hey everyone! I am finally getting around to posting the outlines from our Theology of the Body 2010 study. Sorry about the delay! You can find the schedule for the remainder of our study in the next post.

March 4 Life

If you are interested in attending the March 4 Life - a rally on the capital steps in Olympia to show support for the unborn - please contact Kristine at kmauss@stcharlesb.org no later than Wednesday January 13th. The march is on January 19th and we will be leaving around 10am and returning around 3pm. A permission slip will be required, as it is a school day!

Upcoming Schedule

Here is the schedule and topic outline for the rest of the year!
We meet on Sunday nights from 6:30-8:15pm in the Parish Center (unless otherwise noted). Hope to see you there!


January:
17 – Fun Night in the GYM
24 – The Sacrament of Baptism
31 – The Sacrament of Confession

February:
7 –Confirmation and Anointing of Sick
14 – No Youth Group
21 – Prayer
28 – What is the Theology of the Body?

March:
7 – The Entrance of the Fig Leaves ***Held at St. Patrick’s Parish
14 – True Womanhood
21 – True Manhood
28 – The Language of the Body

April:
4 – No Youth Group!
11 – No Youth Group!
18 – Chastity and Dating
25 – Purity of Heart Part I

May:
2 – Purity of Heart Part II ***Held at St. Patrick’s Parish
9 – No Youth Group!
16 – Marriage, Celibacy, and Redemption
23 – The Eucharist – where it all comes together!
30 – No Youth Group!

June:
6 – End of the Year Party!