{"id":22269,"date":"2012-08-31T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=22269"},"modified":"2012-08-30T23:12:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T04:12:35","slug":"thrive-adult-education-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/thrive-adult-education-nights\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrive – Adult Education Nights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite seemingly endless debates and legislation on sex education, teenage pregnancy rates and the spread of STDs doesn\u2019t seem to be getting any better.\u00a0 As a society, this is causing us to completely freak out about the future of the individual lives of these students as well as the future of our society as a whole \u2013 something must be done<\/em> and it must be done now<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not going to argue that the problem isn\u2019t urgent.\u00a0 It is.\u00a0 However, essentially panicking in a way not dissimilar to if our child was running out into traffic isn\u2019t helping us to adequately address this problem.\u00a0 We have to stop and really consider how we need to talk about this topic. What we\u2019re doing now isn\u2019t working, and for good reason.<\/p>\n

We grossly underestimate teenagers.\u00a0 We underestimate their capacity to understand what love is and to act on it.\u00a0 If you\u2019re wondering why this has anything to do with sex education, then you\u2019ve touched on the very disconnect that is feeding our society\u2019s understanding of sex. \u00a0And that\u2019s the same disconnect being handed to adolescents.<\/p>\n

We are all made in the image and likeness of God.\u00a0 We see this in part through our capacity to reason and our free will.\u00a0 Both of these aspects are essential to a life of chastity.\u00a0 And yes, teenagers also have this ability.\u00a0 Are we helping them to form it?<\/p>\n

Having been made in the image and likeness of God means that we have been made by Love for love.\u00a0 Is there any deeper desire of the human heart?\u00a0 How are we helping teenagers to cultivate this desire, to learn to love the way that God loves, passionately and selflessly?<\/p>\n

Sex is a gift from God, an extraordinary expression of passionate, self-giving love.\u00a0 I think that we inherently know its greatness.\u00a0 So much so that we fear we will never be able to love in such an all-encompassing way, so instead we debase sex to only its biological function and pleasure, rather than elevate it to the total expression of love that it is meant to be.\u00a0 And then we encourage teenagers to do the same.<\/p>\n

\"\"But what do we really want for teenagers?\u00a0 Blessed John Paul II said that, \u201conly the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love\u201d (Love and Responsibility<\/em>).\u00a0 Who are we to deny anyone the chance at true love?\u00a0 I believe this is exactly what we do when we offer nothing but the statistical data on STDs and then implore students to either be abstinent or practice \u201csafe\u201d sex.\u00a0 It is far better to prepare teenagers for the most extraordinary adventure of their lives, that begins with a radical, complete, nothing held back gift of self through marriage or celibacy for the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Thrive!, a new ministry of the Diocese of Austin and partnering organization, aims to do exactly that, and we\u2019re starting with those who have the greatest impact on the formation of teenagers, their parents and other adults who work with them every day.\u00a0 To learn more, visit www.thrivetexas.org<\/a>, www.facebook.com\/thrivetexas<\/a> and join us for our Adult Education Nights on September 4 and 5<\/strong>.\u00a0 See you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite seemingly endless debates and legislation on sex education, teenage pregnancy rates and the spread of STDs doesn\u2019t seem to be getting any better.\u00a0 As a society, this is causing us to completely freak out about the future of the individual lives of these students as well as the future of our society as a… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[90,89],"tags":[990,486,53,165,993,992,766,991,167],"class_list":{"0":"post-22269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faith-blog","7":"category-family","8":"tag-adolescent","9":"tag-chastity","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-parenting","12":"tag-purity","13":"tag-safe","14":"tag-sex","15":"tag-talk","16":"tag-teens","17":"entry","18":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1923,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/1923\/","url_meta":{"origin":22269,"position":0},"title":"Have You Prayed For Your Future Son Or Daughter-In-Law Today?","author":"Jason Elizondo","date":"June 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's post was inspired by a pair of very unlikely sources. The first being MTV's massively popular show \"16 and\u00a0Pregnant\" and a personal favoriate podcast of mine called \"The Catholic Laboratory\". \u00a0Now you may be asking yourself what could these two shows possibly have in common that would inspired a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Albrecht_Betende_Hands-205x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16470,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/holiness-the-problem-with-catholic-virgins\/","url_meta":{"origin":22269,"position":1},"title":"Holiness: The \u201cProblem\u201d with Catholic Virgins","author":"Rita Suva","date":"May 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have bad allergies. Really bad. 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I'm not foolish enough to think that the problem of porn addiction is going to quietly disappear from our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Porn kills love. But it can't kill hope.\" \u2014Marcel LeJeune, \"Cleansed\" at ATXCatholic.com.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/atxcatholic_cleansed-550x366.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/atxcatholic_cleansed-550x366.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/atxcatholic_cleansed-550x366.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38066,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/how-to-support-sb-521-put-sexual-education-back-into-parents-hands\/","url_meta":{"origin":22269,"position":3},"title":"How to Support SB 521: Put Sexual Education Back into Parents\u2019 Hands","author":"Martina","date":"February 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE The House hearing for HB 1057 will be on Tuesday, April 2 at 2:00 p.m. or upon adjournment of the House. This means it could be later than 2 pm. The hearing could go late in the evening. \u00a0 After reading an article about new senate bill 521, the\u00a0Texas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25513,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/10\/who-is-she-to-you-mary-as-educator-of-the-masculine-feminine-soul\/","url_meta":{"origin":22269,"position":4},"title":"Who is she to you? Mary as Educator of the Masculine & Feminine Soul","author":"Rachel","date":"October 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Who is she to you? Who is Mary to you? How do you relate to her? Perhaps the first relationship that popped into your head was Mother. But have you ever considered her a Teacher? What about as someone who can teach us about gender? 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