God has made [our] fantasies … so preposterously unrewarding that we are forced to turn to him for help and for mercy. We seek wealth and find we've accumulated worthless pieces of paper. We seek security and find we've acquired the means to blow ourselves and our little earth to smithereens. We seek carnal indulgence only to find ourselves involved in the prevailing erotomania.

—Malcolm ...

When researchers at the University of Texas at Austin asked 2,000 people why they have sex, there were plenty of answers—237, to be precise. The most popular answer given by those surveyed was that they felt an attraction for the other person. Others said sex was a chief way to feel closer to someone else or to show someone how much they are loved. Many simply said they had sex because "it feels ...

Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine," and contemporary research seems to underscore this truth.

"Bob Hope made it to his 100th birthday, and so did George Burns. Coincidence? Maybe not, says Michael Irwin of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and former adviser for the federally funded National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. "Laughter releases endorphins—those ...

In October of 2006, Newsweek reported the results of a survey conducted by Beliefnet.com that indicated a link between sex and spirituality. According to those results, a majority of religious people do not see sex as guilt-inducing or sinful, but rather a divine blessing. The magazine reported that counselors and sex therapists view the understanding of sex in spiritual terms as something helpful ...

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.

—Actor Jim Carrey

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

C. S. Lewis, from the sermon "The Weight of Glory"

There's a wonderful story by Isak Dinesen called Babette's Feast, about a strict, dour, fundamentalist community in Denmark. Babette works as a cook for two elderly sisters who have no idea that she once was a chef to nobility back in her native France. Babette's dream is to return to her beloved home city of Paris, so every year she buys a lottery ticket in hopes of winning enough money to return. ...

Recently I took my sons, 12-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old Ryan, to my parents' house for an afternoon visit. They spent some time playing and socializing with their grandparents. When we were ready to leave, my dad said to Matthew, "You made my day."

Matthew replied, "God made your day; we just put the icing on it."

Married people have better sex lives than single people. Indeed, married people are far more likely to have sex lives in the first place. Married people are about twice as likely as unmarried people to make love at least two or three times a week.

And that's not all: Married sex is more fun. Certainly, at least, for men: Forty-eight percent of husbands say sex with their partners is extremely satisfying, ...