Love: With or Without Sex?

Times have changed. Gone are the days of widespread "child marriage". In those days, boys and girls wake up to their sexuality as married couples. Today, people marry as young adults, that is, when they had already ripened for relationship. This means that they are learning or had already learnt the difference between intimacy and genitality. This learning is a precarious process and Fr. Cornelius Okeke offers his thoughts as guideline for sailing through the troubles of this period of life. I am able to pick out three basic ideas from the book: first, that love, even that described in literature as erotic love, is divine; second, that chastity is the key to an enriching intimacy, and third, that relationship demands great maturity. It is my earnest hope that all will reap abundantly the fruits grown in this book.

Rev. Fr. Dr. Lawrence Nwankwo
Secretary, Bishop of Awka Diocese

Father Okeke's gift to us, in this small book, is to help us understand all of the pitfalls and possibilities inherent in romantic relationship. When we truly understand a choice we make, it is easier to turn that choice into a commitment that we can keep.

Susan Chae, from the Foreword

As an educator of middle school students, I recommend this work as a basis for directed lessons dealing with the many aspects of love students at this age are experiencing.

Wanda Edie
Retired Educationist, Algonac, Michigan

In this work, a major issue in the evangelization of the youth and the family is treated. Here, Fr. Cornelius rescues romantic love or Eros from misrepresentation, and remarkably proposes how its tides and deep yearnings could be connected to, purified and transformed by our moral and religious values for the ultimate fulfillment of love and life, that is, in God. He restores faith in the meaning of human love, thereby affirming the basis for Christian friendship, courtship, fruitful marriage, celibate love, and indeed sound spirituality.
Very Rev. Msgr. Jerome Madueke
Director, Fides Communications, Okpuno