{"podcast":{"title":"Ask Christopher West","slug":"ask-christopher-west-240572","podcast_index_feed_id":240572,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/10343b5d0/podcast/rss","website_url":"http://askchristopherwest.com","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/43397364/43397364-1769628946857-91bb7fb83372e.jpg","author":"Theology of the Body Institute","episode_count":394,"summary":"Since the early 90's, author and speaker Christopher West has devoted his life to spreading John Paul II's revolutionary teaching on human life, love, and sexuality: The Theology of the Body. His beloved wife Wendy, mother of their five children, has served as his confidante, friend, and support through these long years of ministry. In this podcast, Christopher and Wendy combine their wisdom to tackle the toughest questions dealing with vocation, sexuality, marriage, and the Catholic faith.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T16:20:14.046390+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-christopher-west-240572"},"episode":{"title":"Spontaneous prayer with your boyfriend, The raw truth about fornication, and What to do when making love hurts. | ACW392","slug":"spontaneous-prayer-with-your-boyfriend-the-raw-truth-about-fornication-and-what-to-do-when-making-love-hurts-acw392","published_at":"2026-07-06T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-christopher-west-240572/spontaneous-prayer-with-your-boyfriend-the-raw-truth-about-fornication-and-what-to-do-when-making-love-hurts-acw392","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-christopher-west-240572","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/juan-arregun5/episodes/Spontaneous-prayer-with-your-boyfriend--The-raw-truth-about-fornication--and-What-to-do-when-making-love-hurts---ACW392-e3lak12","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1526036802.mp3","summary":"Questions answered this episode: I'm currently dating a good Catholic man. I feel we may be called to marriage, and a deepening of our prayer life together may help us better discern that call. We pray the rosary together every night, which has been a tremendous blessing. But I feel the need to expose my heart in prayer with him in a way that the rosary does not fully allow. I was not raised in a family that prayed aloud, so I'm not sure how to start this practice with him. What are some practical ways dating Catholic couples can deepen their prayer life together? Body is self, inseparable from soul because we are a body-soul composite. Fornication is a real bodily union, which must mean total union of persons. Doesn't union mean self-gift? But I thought real self-gift can only happen in marriage. I thought for a while in fornication it was less of a gift of the body and more like giving access to the body, but that would seem too little in light of 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 16: "Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, the two will become one flesh." I converted two years ago after listening to your episode, and I've now been married for two months to a wonderful Catholic man. We focused on second virginity, and at first, everything about our marital union was incredible. Then it became difficult for me to reach climax at the same time as him. Even though afterward he tries to help me, I'm not able to, and I end up feeling upset and in pain. It has been very draining and sometimes makes me not want to have sexual relations at all, thinking about the emotional toil and potential pain. Do you have any encouragement for this frustrated wife? TOB2: Into the Deep Course on August 2-7 2026 Course Sch…","meta_description":"Questions answered this episode: I'm currently dating a good Catholic man. I feel we may be called to marriage, and a deepening of our prayer life togethe…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3542,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ask-christopher-west-240572/episodes/spontaneous-prayer-with-your-boyfriend-the-raw-truth-about-fornication-and-what-to-do-when-making-love-hurts-acw392/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-christopher-west-240572/spontaneous-prayer-with-your-boyfriend-the-raw-truth-about-fornication-and-what-to-do-when-making-love-hurts-acw392.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}