On Virginity, On Virginity

On Virginity

• On Virginity On Virginity.1 — The holy look of virginity is precious indeed in the judgment of all who make purity the test of beauty; but it belongs to those alone whose struggles to gain this object of a noble love are favoured and helped by…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.2 — Deep indeed will be the thought necessary to understand the surpassing excellence of this grace. It is comprehended in the idea of the Father incorrupt; and here at the outset is a paradox, viz. that virginity is…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.3 — Would indeed that some profit might come to myself from this effort! I should have undertaken this labour with the greater readiness, if I could have hope of sharing, according to the Scripture, in the fruits of the…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.4 — But we need no longer show in this narrow way the drawback of this life, as if the number of its ills was limited to adulteries, dissensions, and plots. I think we should take the higher and truer view, and say at…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.5 — Now we declare that Virginity is man’s “fellow-worker” and helper in achieving the aim of this lofty passion. In other sciences men have devised certain practical methods for cultivating the particular subject; and…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.6 — This, I believe, makes the greatness of the prophet Elias, and of him who afterwards appeared in the spirit and power of Elias, than whom “of those that are born of women there was none greater.” If their history…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.7 — An illustration will make our teaching on this subject clearer. Imagine a stream flowing from a spring and dividing itself off into a number of accidental channels. As long as it proceeds so, it will be useless for…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.8 — Let no one think however that herein we depreciate marriage as an institution. We are well aware that it is not a stranger to God’s blessing. But since the common instincts of mankind can plead sufficiently on its…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.9 — Custom is indeed in everything hard to resist. It possesses an enormous power of attracting and seducing the soul. In the cases where a man has got into a fixed state of sentiment, a certain imagination of the good…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.10 — What words indeed could possibly express the greatness of that loss in falling away from the possession of real goodness? What consummate power of thought would have to be employed! Who could produce even in outline…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.11 — Now those who take a superficial and unreflecting view of things observe the outward appearance of anything they meet, e.g. of a man, and then trouble themselves no more about him. The view they have taken of the…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.12 — This reasoning and intelligent creature, man, at once the work and the likeness of the Divine and Imperishable Mind (for so in the Creation it is written of him that “God made man in His image”), this creature, I…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.13 — But seeing that Paradise is the home of living spirits, and will not admit those who are dead in sin, and that we on the other hand are fleshly, subject to death, and sold under sin, how is it possible that one who…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.14 — But if we apprehend at last the perfection of this grace, we must understand as well what necessarily follows from it; namely that it is not a single achievement, ending in the subjugation of the body, but that in…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.15 — XV. But the ways in our life which turn aside towards sin are innumerable; and their number is told by Scripture in divers manners. “Many are they that trouble me and persecute,” and “Many are they that fight against…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.16 — There is only one right path. It is narrow and contracted. It has no turnings either on the one side or the other. No matter how we leave it, there is the same danger of straying hopelessly away. This being so, the…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.17 — Let that which was then said by our Lord be the general maxim for every life; especially let it be the maxim for those who are coming nearer God through the gateway of virginity, that they should never in watching…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.18 — If any one supposes that this want of mutual harmony between his life and a single one of its circumstances is quite unimportant, let him be taught the meaning of our maxim by looking at the management of a house.…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.19 — But besides other things the action of Miriam the prophetess also gives rise to these surmisings of ours. Directly the sea was crossed she took in her hand a dry and sounding timbrel and conducted the women’s dance.…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.20 — Now it is impossible, as far as manual exercise goes, to ply two arts at once; for instance, husbandry and sailing, or tinkering and carpentering. If one is to be honestly taken in hand, the other must be left alone.…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.21 — It is perfectly clear that no one can come near the purity of the Divine Being who has not first himself become such; he must therefore place between himself and the pleasures of the senses a high strong wall of…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.22 — We see how the husbandmen have a method for separating the chaff, which is united with the wheat, with a view to employ each for its proper purpose, the one for the sustenance of man, the other for burning and the…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.23 — Now the details of the life of him who has chosen to live in such a philosophy as this, the things to be avoided, the exercises to be engaged in, the rules of temperance, the whole method of the training, and all the…vatican.va
• On Virginity On Virginity.24 — It would therefore be to their profit, for the young to refrain from laying down for themselves their future course in this profession; and indeed, examples of holy lives for them to follow are not wanting in the…vatican.va