From the very time of the Gospel some members of the Church have led lives of consecrated celibacy. Our Lord Himself speaks of this life, saying that some renounce marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:12). The life of celibacy is not about suppressing our natural desires for love and intimacy, but rather about focusing or re-directing them. A life dedicated to the service of God requires great purity of heart, and the religious desires to concentrate her powers of loving as much as possible on God Himself, so as to serve Him with an undivided heart. She foregoes a human relationship of intimacy and fruitfulness in marriage for the sake of a deeper union with God which includes this intimacy and fruitfulness, though in a different manner. By genuinely and faithfully living out her vow of chastity, the nun finds the fulfillment of her natural need to be known and loved in her relationship with God, although always in and through the experience of the Cross. This love, a spousal love which truly makes her a bride of Christ, radiates outward onto the persons which whom she interacts and for whom she prays, as loving them becomes for her another way of loving Him. Her natural desires are not erased or suppressed, although to some extent they must be sacrificed and renounced, and the life she lives is one filled with love.