prone to be treated with less dignity or respect by men than men by women. As St Peter says, they are “the weaker vessel” (1 Pet 3:7), who can easily become the prey of man, and therefore an occasion of sin for him. Modest dress does much to overcome this. So, Amanda, hopefully you can now understand a little of why human beings struggle with immoderation in almost all areas that pertain to the flesh. So this now brings us to a further, more general consideration, that of Chastity. Modesty the Guardian of Chastity Chastity is part of the cardinal virtue of temperance. As St Thomas points out following Aristotle, the word itself takes its name from the fact that reason “chastises” concupiscence, which, like a child, needs to be disciplined.11 Chastity is a “moral virtue which leads us to abstain from disordered desire or disordered use of the sexual faculties”.12 Indeed, human sexuality is God-given. Through it, God gives parents to take part in the act of creation itself, an act which only God can perform. This is why we call it “procreation”, a word which alludes to the great mystery of human sexuality and its purpose in God’s plan, which is to populate Heaven with human beings. Chastity is precisely the virtue that allows us to approach with serenity the mystery of our sexuality and to ensure that in its practice we are led by reason, not impulse. The sex urge being, along with the instinct of preservation, the most 33
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