🏔️ This episode of ACW is sponsored by Ascension’s Alto! Signup for Ascension’s Alto here with discount code ASK10
Questions answered this episode:
- We're in our early 40s, and TOB has healed our marriage, our wounds and desires. Raised Catholic, rules protected us, but when they became the center, they created shame and fear. What drew us was not "avoid fun and desire," but "let Christ in it." What saddens us is how often Catholics who know TOB still look anxious and controlled. TOB can still sound more like "avoid danger" than "become free." Why does this instinct survive where the theology's rich, but the tone feels over-cautious and rule-centered? We'd like to witness a Christianity in which the closer Christ comes to our bodies, desires, and ordinary lives, the freer and more fully alive we become.
- My wife and I have been married for 6 months, and were both virgins when we got married. For these past 6 months, she has not experienced a climax during our intimacy. We've tried a few different things including foreplay, different positions, and prolonging my own climax, but nothing seems to be helping. It is hard on her, feeling left out of the marital act, and hard as a man to feel less than adequate to please my wife. Where would you advise a young couple like us to go from here? What are your recommendations for this struggle?
- I'm a cradle Catholic, happily married, 40-year-old mom of three children. My question feels very embarrassing and uncomfortable, but I don't know where else to go with it. I've recently begun going to Eucharistic adoration and have been growing my prayer life and praying for the Holy Spirit to stay close to me. Twice recently while I have been in adoration and deeply in prayer, I feel myself becoming sexually aroused. Eucharistic adoration has always brought about tears while I'm in prayer, but this feeling of arousal is new and feels shameful. Because of the feelings of shame, I've been going to adoration less often to avoid the feeling. Please help me to understand what I'm experiencing and is this sinful?
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Ask Christopher West is a weekly podcast in which Theology of the Body Institute President Christopher West and his beloved wife Wendy share their humor and wisdom, answering questions about marriage, relationships, life, and the Catholic faith, all in light of John Paul II’s beautiful teachings on the Theology of the Body.
📸 Animation by Joshua Masterson, the Catholic Cartoonist. Joshua’s Instagram
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