Dear Amanda, I am very glad that what I wrote was helpful to you. And I am also very pleased to see that you did put my suggestions into practice and noticed the difference. Before I come to answer your specific questions, let me expand a bit on some of the things that were only implicit in my last letter to you. They will help us understand what went wrong on that night you mention. Did you ever wonder why it is that we wear clothes to begin with? To protect our bodies from cold and wind and sun, right? Yes, but we also wear them when the weather is perfect and we do not need to protect ourselves from it. Why do you think that is? It is because there is another important reason, which is actually the first reason: clothing safeguards modesty. Modesty (from the Latin word modus which means due order based on who we are) is a virtue that dictates a certain way of dress and deportment which implements propriety by maintaining a due order in all things. Modesty is meant to safeguard this pearl of great price which is purity, that is to say, the virtue of chastity. Clothing therefore protects and helps us maintain modesty, which in turn protects chastity and thereby allows behaviour to be in conformity with the true dignity of a human being made in the image and likeness of God. But, of course, there are various kinds of clothing that cover more or less of the body. How does one know how much to cover? Why don’t we just cover the bare minimum, those parts that distinguish us as male and female, and which every human instinctively hides from others? Remember how we spoke of the unity of body and soul? Well, this essential concept underpins all the guidelines of Christian modesty. If you come to grasp the fundamental reason for human frailty, you will then more clearly understand what happened at that party you attended and why you felt so bad. In a nutshell it 24 May 2023 Mary Help of Christians What is it all for? If they only knew what eternity is. St Jacinta Marto of Fatima, age 9, on seeing immodest and fashionably dressed women 27
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