Chastity in our Church means protecting and defending our greatest treasure, love. It defends love from the consequences of selfishness and aggression. To be chaste is to safeguard a most precious gift we have received, the gift of love.

Father Eustáquio, in one of his writings, invites us to live chastely, just as Our Lady did. For this, we need our personal effort as well as our experience within the Church.

Read the text he wrote in its entirety:

The Blessed Virgin Mary spoke little, and what little she did spoke was done with great deliberation.

The most chaste virgin was troubled when the Archangel appeared to her in the Chamber. Do you wish to overcome vice and preserve chastity amidst the many snares and bonds that are set for you in this age? Mortify your senses; especially guard your gaze, through modesty of sight; avoid frivolous and illicit intimacies, particularly with persons of the opposite sex, and grow in the holy fear and love of God.

But this is not enough: the congregant, a lover of purity, entrusts himself to a good spiritual director. By resorting to weekly or bi-weekly confession, he confesses his sins, and speaks with weakness and simplicity, like a sick person revealing his wounds, and in all scruples of conscience, he submits resolutely and serenely to the guidance of his confessor.

Finally, to preserve the purity of the soul, frequent Communion is supremely necessary. And that pure and holy, immaculate host unites God with us; it binds us, with the sweetest ties, to the author of all purity and holiness. Here Jesus comes to communicate to us true fruits of life; here He wants to cleanse our soul; to purify it, to set it ablaze, and to transform it entirely into the fire of divine love and into hatred of impure love.

“Yes,” says Saint Francis de Sales, “here too you will become wholly beautiful, good, pure, and chaste.”

Daughters of Mary Most Holy, you already know how much Our Lady esteems holy purity and chastity; you know the effective means to preserve it. It remains for you to instinctively ask Heaven for a great love for this virtue.

In all temptations, turn to the Immaculate Virgin, fight confidently under her powerful protection, and you will conquer, for she will lead you to victory and the crown of eternal life. Amen!