Description
We all ask questions about love, intimacy, and the sexual sphere which are foundational for the happiness and wholeness of our lives, for unlocking the deep meaning both of our bodies and of the innate longing we bear within us for relationships of deep belonging and profound gift of self. And in responding to these questions, it is profoundly significant that the Church offers not fearful “oughts” and “ought nots” but a vision of beauty and affirmation, a journey of integration in true love and the freedom born of it. This book seeks to aid in some small measure in this task, presenting an understanding of sexuality bathed in the light of the God who is Trinity and in the lustrous unity and beauty of the whole teaching of the Church. And in addition to the many words of explanation and contemplation, this book also presents an evangelization through image: offering works of art and photography that can truly help educate in a way of profound and loving seeing, a seeing bathed in the manner of God’s own vision and beholding the person radiant in the light of his creative intentions for them in this life and the next.
The images and words of this book are intended to help facilitate the path of healing and integration into authentic purity for persons who have been affected by either of the extremes of our culture: that of an over-sexualized and pornified vision and that of sexual repression and fearful rigidity. But they can also be of service to all who simply wish to contemplate this great mystery of God present in human heart, life, and flesh. They thus aim to evangelize the heart of any who desire to see and reverence the beauty of God manifest in the human body.
Many persons in our world, in fact, are affected by both of these extremes simultaneously, to differing degrees and in different ways. Considering the statistics of early and almost universal exposure to pornographic material, it is no longer possible to seek purity merely in “not seeing.” Rather, the wound is inflicted precisely through a seeing that is improper, a seeing that is forced upon us or seduces us – not only in pornographic images themselves, but in the very climate of our culture as a whole – and in doing so subtly twists our own capacity to see and to receive the “word” that the human body speaks in all of its beauty and sacredness, without fear or repressive projection, but rather with deep receptivity, childlike wonder, and awe.
The text of this book includes that of Loving in the Light of Eternity (without the poetry) and a few other additional reflections related to anatomy and art, and also contains many images added to accompany the text throughout. It also includes some sections on anatomical structure and meaning and on the beauty of the human body. These latter sections contain a great deal of art as well as explicit photographs, which are to be viewed with discretion and reverence and yet without fear, as they are given precisely in order to educate in authentic seeing
