Does chastity really need God?

It was a question I heard frequently -- alarmingly from junior high and high school students -- when I worked for two years as a full time chastity educator.  So many wanted to know if they could go it alone.  If it's merely abstinence that one is describing, then certainly some amount of willpower is liable to accomplish the task.  

But if one desires chastity -- a virtue, a "yes," a constant growth in authentic love and self-gift and self-mastery, then without receiving from and relying on God, it's an impossible task.

Fr. James Brent, OP, the Director of the Angelic Warfare Confraternity (which itself deserves a separate post), recently wrote about the role of the Holy Spirit and surrender in the life of chastity.

 The Spirit lives in us and gradually plunges us more and more into God. The Spirit opens our eyes to Christ and makes us to trust him more and more. The Spirit turns our attention to God the Father and makes us realize more and more how the Father loves us and knows our needs and cares for us. The Holy Spirit is a mighty wind, a blazing fire, a radiating light. And this Holy Spirit seeks to change us down to the very roots of our being.

It's a good read, and is available here.