From Catholic sexual ethics to biology to foreplay to positions, Catholic Intimacy’s articles are a reference point for all your Catholic sexual queries.
Articles
The Importance of Novelty
Think about when you’re sick and you haven’t left the house or a specific room for days and you start to feel stir crazy. This is your mental health telling you it needs a squash or a pumpkin to keep up engagement.
Safeguarding Your Marriage
We talk about how God is pure. And we’re made in His image. Well if we’re made in His image, then we should be pure throughout marriage and what does that look like to safeguard it?
Marital Lubricants: Morality and Efficacy
Please forgive the click bait title. It has come to my attention that some people think that artificial marital lubrication (sex lube) is somehow or other intrinsically evil or is only meant for immoral practices. Hopefully this article will set the record straight and set pious minds at ease.
Back Story
As is now public knowledge, we struggle with infertility. That has led to lots of time talking with Megan’s OB/GYN. One of the things that we quickly learned was that for couples like us, lubes may be medically recommended, but that not all lubes are created equal. A lube that seems safe (non-spermicidal) might be so thick that sperm can hardly swim in it. That has led to lots of research on this topic and was one of the reasons that we were inspired to launch Catholic Intimacy. We would rather spare other young Catholic couples the frustration of trying to be open to life and yet inadvertently self-sabotaging.
Decompression & Reconnection
Is the difficulty of your day hindering your relationship with your spouse? Are you often zoned out, gone to play video games, or distracted? Let’s talk about two scenarios people might fall into and what you can do about it to build intimacy with your spouse.
The Ends of Marriage & Graces
Catholic Intimacy is partially a response to the plethora of erroneous marriage resources claiming to be Catholic. On one side we have Jansenists, who think that they are traditional, and on the other we have liberals who are pure hedonists. Catholic theology on marriage falls well between these two extremes, unfortunately the Church’s teachings on the matter can be rather difficult to find, unless you read Latin and have access to old theological manuals. Fortunately for us, I do read Latin, I do have a collection of reputable manuals in my library, and I have over ten years of formation to know how to read them and explain them for you.
Family Prayers: Spiritual Intimacy
We all know that daily prayer is essential for a healthy spiritual life, but how are we doing on this front? How much and how often should we strive to pray as a family? The short answer is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Some families might have the time and resources to go to daily Mass, weekly adoration, daily Rosary, etc. Other families might not realistically be able to do all that.
Intimacy Amidst Infertility
Of course he wanted to jump in and rescue me from myself, and assure me I shouldn’t feel that way, but I needed to give it to God. James’s reassurance was a band-aid to a much deeper issue that I felt like I should be in charge of my own timeline and I didn’t trust that the Lord would fulfill his promises to me.
Dating Your Spouse
Knowing every single thing about the other person isn’t the goal. The goal is committing to continue to learn about this person for the rest of your life.
Spoons and Scales: Tools for more than just the kitchen
Every person brings their own experience, beliefs, and perspectives to the table for every single interaction. These expectations drive emotions and can either create or destroy intimacy, depending on how they’re handled.
Three Hour Conversations
When was the last time you and your beloved had a three hour conversation? And I don’t mean three hours of smalltalk over the course of a date night. I mean a heart-to-heart, one-on-one dialogue. This website is the fruit of one such conversation. Moving to Saint Louis from Nashville was the fruit of another. Our marriage was the fruit of another. Our first date came of yet another.
Can sex be meritorious?
When sex comes up in Catholic circles it is usually as something immoral (fornication, adultery, etc.) or as that fun thing that married couples do to make babies. It is much rarer to hear anyone say that sex can be meritorious. It’s as though most Catholics believe that even within the bonds of marriage sex is morally tolerated, i.e. a fault or morally indifferent, but not something that is pleasing to God. Let’s look more closely at what makes an act meritorious or sinful to better understand the marital act and what that means for our moral lives.