Christian contemplation in reality is inseparably the contemplation of the uncreated Trinity and of Jesus, God and man; the humanity of Christ – that humanity which belongs to the second divine Person, and all of whose properties are therefore also attributes of this divine Person Himself – is always present in it in a manifest or hidden manner, and cannot be detached from it. That to which the Christian contemplative has his eyes constantly attached is, at the same time as the one and triune God, a man perfectly chaste, born of the most chaste of Virgins, and who Himself is God. How would the Christian who aspires to contemplation not feel himself drawn also to a life of continence or of chastity [of the body as well as of the soul] – not, I emphasize, as to a necessary condition (except, for some, because of the religious state), but as to something which simply better accords with his desires?
Jacques Maritain (1882–1973)