Love Sex and Relationships Keywords Love a feeling

Love, Sex and Relationships Keywords Love - a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection. Agape - spiritual and selfless love. Eros - romantic love, to love someone as more than a friend. Philia – friendship, loyalty to friends and the community. Storge - natural affection, the love you naturally have for your family Sex – the act of sexual intercourse Marriage – the legal union between two people, in the Catholic faith it is a sacrament in which a man and a woman are made one by God Procreation – having children, reproducing Commitment - the state of being bound emotionally to another person. Celibacy - the state of being unmarried, especially as the result of a religious promise. Chastity - the state of being sexually pure. Four types of love Love is a complicated emotion and we feel different versions of it for different people and things in our lives. Below are four different types of love based on ideas from ancient Greece (you will already be familiar with Aristotle and his levels of happiness – he was from ancient Greece). Agape – this is a spiritual and selfless love. Jesus demonstrated it throughout his life and his willingness to sacrifice himself. However, anyone can feel and demonstrate this type of love in they way they treat others, including strangers. Eros – this is romantic love. The feelings of attraction we feel towards certain people is very different to the feelings we have for our friends. This is the type of love you feel for someone you want to marry and be intimate with. It is easy to confuse it with lust but true love is something deeper and lasts for a long time. Philia – this is the love we feel for our friends and our community (for example, school mates). You feel closer to some people than others and are willing to support them just as you turn to them for support. These are the people you laugh and have fun with. Storge – this is the love we have for our families. The Greeks described this as a natural love – think of the bond that forms between a mother and a newborn baby. Even when our families make us angry, we still feel a level of love and loyalty towards them. Christian teachings about love, sex and relationships. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God and the second greatest was to love your neighbour. He said all the laws and prophets were hung on these two commandments. (Matthew 22: 36 -40) Jesus showed agape love to all people and asked Christians to show this love not just to each other, but everyone. St. Paul wrote about love and this passage is often used at weddings: 1 Corinthians 13: 4 -13 “Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offense. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love. ”

• Christian teaching about love and marriage What’s sex got to do with love and commitment? • Christians believe that love is a life long commitment and therefore we should not allow the media and other influences to misunderstand the difference between love and like. • Christians believe that agape is the highest form of love. 1 Corinthians 6: 19 - Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. Colossians 3: 18 -20 - Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. 1 Thessalonians 4: 3 - It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; • Christians believe that sex and marriage should always go together. • The vows taken during marriage are a promise done not only between the husband wife, but God is also involved in the contract and therefore it should be for life. • “Do not commit adultery” is one of the 10 Commandments • The Catholic Church teaches that sex is for procreation and therefore should only take place within a marriage between a man and woman for the purpose of having a child. Homosexuality: CCC 2358: Homosexual persons do not choose their homosexual condition…They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Marriage- the sacrament by which a man and woman are made one by God so that they can love each other as husband wife. Married love includes all the three Greek ideas about love which is Eros, Philia and Storge of these loves but planted in the heart of them is Agape. The married are couple are attracted to each other and want to have sex (eros). The basis of any successful marriage is the fun, laughter and loyalty that comes with friendship (philia). The couple start a new family together (storge). At the heart of all of this is the deeper unselfish and spiritual element that comes from a union made with God (agape). What has marriage got to do with God? The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is God's doing: "God himself is the author of marriage", which is His way of showing love for those He created. A marriage can never be broken, even if the partners are divorced: as long as they are both alive, the Catholic Church considers them bound together by God. Contraception: Natural = Of God Artificial = Man made. The order of marriage service in church 1. Hymn- to focus minds on God 2 Opening statement- to summarise what marriage is 3 Vows - making a promise to God and others 4 Exchange of rings- symbolising unity and eternity 5 Communion- to symbolise the body and blood of Christ 6 Prayers for the couple- to think of the couple’s future and support them 7 Signing the register- to record that the marriage is legal.