When we look around the world, we see unending beauty. From snowy mountain peaks to crystal-blue waters to breathtaking natural landscapes and more, we are surrounded by the beauty given to us by our creator. But the most beautiful thing we have is our ability to love others. To truly love others. This is a gift that we should not only cherish but also foster and protect. It is this gift that is nurtured in a program called LoveEd.
LoveEd is more than a Catholic sex education program. It is a beautiful way for parents and children to comfortably discuss sexuality in the context of Church teaching. As the website explains, it “is a Catholic book/video resource that assists parents in teaching their children about God’s plan for life, love, sexuality, relationships, and purity.”
This is so needed today, as we live in a world that regularly invites organizations such as Planned Parenthood into classrooms and that teaches kids to do whatever makes them happy or feel good. This harmful attitude corrupts children, encourages them to see sexuality as a fun pastime rather than as something beautiful and self-giving, and gets them hooked on birth control.
Then, when that fails, it often leads to abortion. These offenses against the dignity of the person result in the devaluing of others, which is antithetical to self-giving love.
Thus, it’s crucial to teach kids from the time they are young that their bodies are special and unique, that they are valuable, and that giving themselves to someone to use (or using someone) for pleasure may result in momentary happiness, but it can never lead to true happiness. In fact, it will eventually result in emptiness.
A program for families
Created by Coleen Kelly Mast, LoveEd encompasses both Catholic teaching and accurate science, and it beautifully teaches pre-adolescents and adolescents how their bodies function, that God loves all His children, and that every person has value. It strives to create strong children who can grow to create strong, faith-filled families.
Mast, no stranger to teaching kids the beauty and importance of chastity, is a family life and chastity expert who has spent most of her adult career teaching these subjects to adolescents, authoring books, and even debating Planned Parenthood. She knows how to reach children.
In a phone interview, Coleen shared that she wrote LoveEd at the request of her bishop and is now partnering with the John Paul II Renewal Center to make the program more widely available.
LoveEd is a six-week program that is usually hosted by a church or school. It begins with a parent meeting to acquaint them with what they will be discussing with their children. All parents receive an instruction book plus a book geared toward their child’s age and sex. The program contains four books: two for each sex, ages 9-11 and 12-14, so kids can grow with the program. After that first meeting, parents and their same-sex child read the text together at home and then attend the remaining six meetings together to watch and discuss the videos.
Coleen explained that LoveEd “empowers the relationship” between the parent and child, which is why it’s important for a father to participate in the program with his son and a mother to participate in the program with her daughter.
Theology of the body
One of the most beautiful things about this program is that it’s based on St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. From September 1979 through November 1984, the Holy Father gave his Wednesday talks on subjects such as marriage as a sacrament, the gift of the human body, adultery, celibacy, contraception, motherhood, the difference between love and lust, and more, and they were compiled into a completed work now known as Theology of the Body.
Rooted in John Paul’s words, LoveEd “combines the beautiful teachings of the Catholic Church with scientific truth to teach children what they need to know at appropriate age levels” with a goal of raising children who are “strong, smart, and pure.”
Coleen stated that the program aims to keep children “innocent but not ignorant,” in that it teaches them age-appropriate information without presenting too much too soon. It does so with beautiful language and delicate illustrations meant to build the child up and give him or her confidence in these teachings. The program teaches that our purpose in life is to bring God’s love into the world. Examples include proper terms and scientific information about the ways our bodies work, why marriage should be between one man and one woman, and that the sexual act, referred to as the “marriage act” because it belongs in the marriage, is both unitive and procreative.
As the parent book states, “Love is the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the good of others. Love is not simply a feeling. The feeling of romance can lead to love, but it is not love itself.” When kids understand this, they are more likely to live this as they grow and build their own families.
Additionally, the children’s books foster communication between the parent and the child through real-life scenarios and thoughtful questions to discuss. Coleen explained, “Having these private conversations initiated by the video and the book gives the parent that power for the child to respond to it in their own unique way but yet gives them the guidance they need that’s directly from the Church.”
LoveEd truly puts the love into Catholic sex education as it teaches authentic love and seeks to form children into adults who understand their bodies and who understand the great gift of self in our relationship with others and with our spouse. It teaches that truth in a profoundly beautiful way that will stay with children for years to come and that will build the foundation they need to combat a world that views sex as merely an extracurricular activity.
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To Candace and James on their engagement
Candace and James
On Your Engagement
James
In the heading you see I put Candace’s name first. This is because right now you are still singles with responsibilities as individuals toward the marriage you wish to make later. For the time being Candace remains as she is. We still haven’t met but you have to realize that I have no choice but to address you on familiar terms according to what I know of myself and in keeping with the needs of the situation. I believe it totally makes sense for me not to project as that would be an insincerity. That’s just how it is. I think the phrase for the situation is “ready made” and I trust we can adjust to this together as this is where it is. And anyway how else would we get to know one another otherwise? These sharings or notes now are with a view to your getting married and therefore they address matters proper to the “preparations”.
I am told she got you to commit to Catholic marriage and bringing up children in the Catholic faith, sacraments, creed and so forth. I am very moved by this but I must remind you the dispensation is not on a word “say-so” from the parish priest, it is a commitment you make with the Archbishop which he declares in writing. I trust I will be given the chance to see it. Also I have to say, Freemasonry is excluded. It produces null sacrament. You can not be trying to shrug it off for a lifetime at the same time being married. You can not lead children into or along with it and it is direct affront to bringing up children in the Catholic faith. We have to be clear that there is no “righteous secrecy” that absolves it.
Candace says she assesses you as someone she can trust by which she means you have demonstrated a) reliability with regard to her happiness and confidence in you and b) capability with regard to your mutual support or livelihood. Very shortly, you will hear what else I am telling her on that. As it is I am relying on her best judgment and from what I know of that, you are coming as well recommended indeed. You will notice that what I raise for her consideration is taken seriously by her. Among other positives that could be said about that, it is rooted in her home background. Candace grew up in a great home with dependable parents giving her a lot of love. She was treated as unique and cherished. She prayed to have a brother. Her environment was always well-ordered and lively with a lot of coming and going, relatives and friends and outings and what not. You will have been experiencing her personality just like that. At the same time the home was secure and she had a strong focus on studies, she always could apply herself to her education and typically and naturally excelled. She developed a strong sense of faith. Home was a natural place for her and many good-natured sayings piqued her like “all the right things in all the right places”. Candace was able to bring unique strengths to bear of her own in trying times in university and establishing work.
The point from that I wish to stress to you is that you must understand that in the home she will be making, she will be drawing from her history. Not that we expect her to replicate or impose “our ways” on you; she will be fully adapting the best she got to her own circumstances and your relationship and I hope you will be ever attentive to her energetic and determined yet creative capacity and style. I imagine for example she will wish to maintain viable contacts with this side of the hemisphere, so you will be sure to join the dynamic that necessarily flows with it! She is not only accustomed to her many circles, she also loves them dearly and her partner sharing there would be like a perfection. The same thing could be said for your togetherness in the Christian faith.
page 2
Candace
What I would stress from the faith perspective is that sacramental marriage is loving the other person selflessly and for life in Christ. So therefore it is much more than just your happiness. Or we say that the happiness is your own unfailing commitment to the spouse. Until death. Sacramental marriage has to do with IDENTITY between you in Christ from which the children find their own identity. When you go before the altar for the vows you are making an unconditional commitment for life for the bringing and raising of children and serving your spouse for love of Christ. You are the wife to this identity and mother of its children’s identity. The source of unity. Of planning. Of consolation. Of conciliation. Of love. Of leading. Of leading too of Christian faith. Of harmonization. I want to give a sort of a everyday tip. You have to live by and demand 360 degrees visage on the family and on the home and of yourself. The spouses must have this between them and the children must always be within its encirclement.
You are the pivot point center of the circle. Sometimes you might take on an additional standpoint. You know Scripture says to reconcile with each other before the end of the day, whenever there was a disagreement, not to leave things unsettled for another day. Very good advice. We can add to that to make sure to have completed the 360 with one another before the day has ended. Now they like to say that there are two sides to every story but this is not it, don’t settle with that it is not the 360 – and by the way it is deficient anyway! The 360 is past, present and future and anything pending, all accounted for; they are memorialized and celebrated, they are engaged together as they happen, they are anticipated with steadiness and sufficiency due.
And the 360 allows you to build in all the generous extras in right time, that matter to the case.
God bless you two
Well Candace and James, congratulations again on your engagement and marriage preparation. I am happy to find your meeting to have been fortuitous even providential please God and your relationship has a sound grounding; and I pray that God will guide you in His good way, may He bless you and keep you sure and loving. God guide you.