The celibate, like every one else, must develop an affective sexuality, learning to lว€ peaceful with his or her aloneness and becoming absorbed in the quest for one'ร deepest self in that aloneness. The basic need in a celibate's life shoฬd not be genita sex, but rather growing in intimacy and affirming and fulfilling relationships. Such affective maณrity is "not a state to be achieved, but a process to be lived" (Zullo, 1995)
The Irish Benedictine monk Patrick Hederman wrote,