I am Attracted to Virgins

I am attracted to virgins.

Coming from a priest-to-be, a now deacon who has promised celibacy this statement sounds rather alarming, and it indeed should be.  However, this attraction isn't that of the lustful jock or Don Juan sexual conqueror.

I am attracted to virgins, like Mary the Mother of God, St. Cecilia, St. Maria Goretti, St. Therése of Liseuix, and most recently (as of today that is) Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha, whose memorial we celebrate today.  As I was reading her short biography as I prepared for Office of Readings this morning I could not help but be attracted to this woman.  Three years a Christian and she achieved extraordinary sanctity, suffering rejection from her family, she left home and lived her last three years in a foreign land, only to die at the age of 24.  She loved Christ so much, she consecrated herself as a virgin.

Why am I attracted to virgins?  (I have great friends in the St. Cecilia and St. Therese)  As I said before, it is certainly not for the impure desire to strip them of that great gift which attracts me, but rather, their lives gift me life.  Their living as spouse of Christ is an extraordinary witness to me.  They do not have a husband to be intimate with or children to birth, feed, and care for, at least physically.  Instead, they are brides of Christ and are fully and wholly intimate with Him, giving all that is theirs to Him.  In their lifetime and after earthly life, they have all born spiritual children, fed them with the food of their Spouse, and cared for them beyond the potency of physical cares by showing them the fullness of Christ, their Spouse.

Satan takes this beautiful gift of the witness of virgins and our attraction to such women and perverts it into that unique form of lust I mentioned earlier.  He does not want their witness to shine forth, so he influences those good desires for evil, by trying to rob the virgin of her beauty, de-flowering her.  This is why the witness of St. Maria Goretti is so strong.  Even unto death, should would not let this perversion persist.  She loved her attacker to much to let him fulfill that perverted desire.

You can see, in young especially, they are attracted to virgins, religious women.  They are mystifying to them.  They want to be around them, get to know them.  This is really an attraction to what they represent by their virginity, an attraction to heaven, total union with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Virgins become a lens into heaven by the life they lead.

I am attracted to virgins.  Who are you attracted to?