Sex and the Spiritual Life: Reclaiming Integrity, Wholeness, and Intimacy

Winner of a third-place award in the morality, ethics, Christology, Mariology, and redemption category from the Catholic Media Association.

Are sexuality and spirituality opposed to each other? To anyone who has struggled to align their sexual desires with the call to be holy these might seem in opposition, but they don’t have to be.

Sex and the Spiritual Life will help you understand that you can experience fulfillment through sexual integrity—a way of life that affirms the presence of God and the sacred in our sexual feelings and expressions. You’ll hear from a selection of Catholic men and women—married, clergy, religious, and single—whose stories will inspire and equip you to reclaim the joy and wholeness of sexual integrity.

Addressing sexuality across a wide range of vocations, challenges, and experiences, each of the contributors to Sex and the Spiritual Life reflects upon living out the Church’s teachings about human sexuality with integrity as a means to achieving spiritual maturity. All those who want to experience the benefits of sexual integrity will be inspired by their witness, and benefit from their practical advice. Contributors include Patricia Cooney Hathaway; Timothy P. O’Malley; Deacon James Keating; Susan Muto; Eve Tushnet; Fr. John Riccardo; and Sr. Sarah Fairbanks, O.P.; as well as clinical specialists in addictions and marriage and family life.

In this groundbreaking book, you will find insights into the following topics:

• the relationship between sexual integrity and spiritual growth
• how the wounds of sexual abuse and addiction can be healed
• the link between sexual and spiritual intimacy in marriage
• how young adults can receive the formation they need to discover their vocations, navigate the complexities of being single, and live in community
• how spiritual friendship informs faithful living within the homosexual community
• the role of sexual desire in the lives of clergy and religious

This is a much-needed book for thoughtful Catholics to help them reclaim sexuality as a positive, joyful component of the human experience and to present a path of healing and hope for those who need to chart a new course.