"I don't understand, Father."
"Well it's really quite simple, Sister. You have been here in the convent for nearly three years and are about to take your final vows. You know that you are giving up all worldly possessions for your vow of poverty; you have learned to obey Mother Superior here for your vow of obedience; but you really don't know what you are giving up when you take your vow of Chastity."
"I know that I am forsaking all the pleasures of the flesh, Father, and that I will never be married to anyone but Our Lord."
"Now that's exactly what I mean. What exactly are "the pleasures of the flesh?"
The young novitiate's head was spinning. She had been invited to have dinner with Father and with Mother Superior as she knew was tradition in this convent in the weeks leading up to her final vows. She had enjoyed a lovely three course meal, far richer than the ones she had got used to over the last few years. Father had even poured her a large glass of very smooth, rich red wine. She didn't know anything about wine but it tasted divine and Father made sure her glass was topped up each time she took a sip; funnily enough, neither Mother Superior nor Father seemed to be taking much from their crystal glasses. But it wasn't the wine that was making her head spin.
How could she possibly put into words the little she knew about sins of the body which she had always guarded herself against? How could she say those words to the two most holy and respected people in her tiny world? Even before she had joined the convent just after her sixteenth birthday, she had never allowed any of the rough boys from her school to even so much as kiss her. Her mother had always told her that boys were bad and dirty; she was to have nothing to do with them. So, now, when Father asked her these questions, she just didn't have the words.
She bowed her head and whispered, "I don't know, Father."