A former “Miss Universe” has allowed a naked photograph of herself to appear on a magazine cover.

She now tells reporters she did it to raise money for the Butterfly Foundation which helps people with eating disorders.

The idea being that even beautiful people have “flaws”, as in this photo, which makes the lady look a bit tubby.

She says the whole performance was done with “a good intention to promote healthy eating and lifestyle”.

OK. It is not for this blog or its readers to brood unduly on what her intentions were.

The point about saving people from obsessively striving for a “perfect” body is, however, a valid one.

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When the young Mary MacKillop started teaching in the first school set up by Father Woods in 1866, she and the other recruits started wearing plain black dresses. They soon switched to brown alpaca cloth, mainly because that was cheaper.

When Father Woods wrote the “Rule” of the newly-formed Josephite Order, he gave instructions that the Sisters wear clothes “of poor material . . . for the poor must endure the consequences of poverty.”

Dressing like the poor people was an important principle.

So was modesty. Mary MacKillop remembered the words of Saint Paul in the Bible, “I wish women to be decently dressed, adorning themselves with modesty.”

When starting a youth group in Adelaide, Mary made it a requirement that those attending “must dress with simplicity, modesty and neatness.”  

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There is a balance to be struck when deciding what to wear and what kind of a “body image” to seek. The key word to keep in mind is “decent”.

Try to keep yourself looking decent. Nothing more. Nothing less.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with being beautiful — there are no prizes for looking repulsive — but for a girl, beauty is a great responsibility.

She must decide what to do with her beauty. Her beauty is going to draw attention to her at the physical level — not easy to handle without falling into pride and taking pleasure in one’s ability to manipulate lust-prone males.

A beautiful female has a special need to keep close to God — to avoid temptations herself, and to avoid putting temptations into the minds of those around her.

God obliges you to use whatever beauty you have, the same way you must use everything else you have — you must use it for the glory of God and to show God that you love him.