Wojtyla begins by reminding us of the cardinal virtue which St. Thomas Aquinas called temperantia -- to moderate the promptings of concupiscence -- as the chaste man is the self-controlled man. "The dignity of the person demands control of concupiscence. If the person does not exercise such control it jeopardizes its natural perfectibility, allows an inferior and dependent part of itself to enjoy freedom of action, and indeed subjects itself to this lesser self." Yet he continues, "Control of concupiscence has as its objective not only the perfection of the person who attempts to achieve it, but also the realization of love in the world of persons, and especially in relations between persons of different sex."

Both sensual excitability and sentimental susceptibility are natural to man, "fundamentally consonant with his nature" and do not contradict the realization of love between a man and a woman. By moderation, we mean the ability to find the 'mean' in the control of sensual excitability and sentimental susceptibility so to avoid danger of exploitation.

The Pope then speaks of "those well-known interior crises in which the person undergoes something like an invasion." He writes, "The person feels the need, natural to a reasonable being, to defend itself against the forces of sensuality and concupiscence, above all because their invasion threatens its natural power of self-determination." Kevin remarked that day to day, we can often feel subjected to images and harsh portrayals, and while we can 'get used to it,' somewhere deep in our minds this strikes us as invasive. Kelly added that it is all about educating your conscience, cultivating your spirit. The true test is what you do when you're faced with it. Sylvia commented that sexually explicit billboards, for example, exploit our natural potential for weakness, our vulnerability.

Virtue can only come from spiritual strength, says Wojtyla. We see the real truth when we put the value of the person, and love, above the values of sex and above the enjoyment associated with them.

Continence is not an end in itself. And 'blind' self-restraint alone is not enough. Peter remarked that John Paul II is reshaping our understanding of the Church's teachings by defining according to what we are 'for' rather than what we are 'against'. Wojtyla continues, there is no valid continence without recognition of the objective order of values: the value of the person is higher than the value of sex. "Therefore," he writes, "the value of the person must 'take command' so to speak of all that happens in a man. When it does, continence is no longer blind. It goes beyond mere self-restraint and interdiction and permits the mind and the will to 'open up' to a value which is both genuine and superior.

Thus, objectivization is closely connected with sublimation." By objectivization Wojtyla means keeping the objective truth of the person in the forefront. The 'why not?' 'because I must not' train of logic is not enough. Only when this value (of the person) takes possession of the mind and the will does the will become calm and free itself from a characteristic sense of loss.

Kevin commented on the theme of puritanism -- the higher class of America tends to be rooted in Anglicanism/puritanism, stemming back to the British aristocracy, Victorian puritanism of 100 years ago where anything sexual was chastised and concealed. Yet the descendents of this same culture are the ones putting up the sexually explicit billboards of today, the ones pushing abortion on the poor. The great grandchildren of the puritans became the sexual revolutionaries, because puritanism was based on a false truth, it was moralistic instead of moral, and this led to its own demise. Sylvia characterized it as a reaction to extremism, feeling repressed vs. freely choosing. Sean referenced the Albigensian heresy, where flesh was considered evil and the spirit good. Here, there was a grotesquery, with no value to the dignity of the human body. Alberto added that the Albigensians tended to view the body and soul separately, a false dichotomy.

Wojtyla then returns to the subject of sentimental desire, which he differentiates from sensual and carnal enjoyment. Sentimental desire is much more about a desire to be close to someone of the other sex. Sean reminded us how earlier in the book Wojtyla explained that sentimentality is not extremely better than sensuality, because sentimentality can be self-reflective, looking for someone to fill a need for your, rather than looking past yourself to the other, for objective good and truth to build a healthy relationship. And yet, Wojtyla says, sentiment may play an important auxiliary role in the whole process of sublimation. He writes:

"The ability to react spontaneously to the value 'human being of the other sex', to 'femininity' or 'masculinity', coupled with a tendency to idealize those values, combine fairly easily in one's reactions with the concept of the person, so that what was a spontaneous process of emotional idealization may cease to centre on the values 'femininity' and 'masculinity' and centre instead on the value of the person, awareness of which simultaneously ripens in the mind as the result of conscious thought. In this way, the virtue of chastity also finds some support in the emotional sphere."

Wojtyla ends on the thought of using the energy latent in sensuality and sentiments to remind you of the value of the person, to shape but not repress your reactions. Alberto remarked that this is what Wojtyla is getting at when he speaks of sublimation: taking energy which could be directed to good or evil, and directing it to something good.