Topic: Catholic Life: Marriage, Laity ...

1. Excellence of virginity.
2. Prodigies of virginity.
3. Virginity Award.
4. Means to preserve virginity.

1. EXCELLENCE OF VIRGINITY. - Those who practice celibacy by virtue are Angels,

because their thoughts always turn to what belongs to God, to keep themselves holy
in body and soul (I Cor VII, 14); and they are promised by Jesus Christ the vision
of God (MATTH. V, 8). Therefore, St. Bernard rightly calls virginity a truly
angelic life (Serm. De Nativ. B. M. V.); and St. Gregory praises it as the most
beautiful of the flowers that adorn the garden of the celestial Spouse (Moral.).
Ven. Bede says that virgins are so called as if to indicate that they are
distinguished by virtue; the etymology of celibate then derives from heaven, as if
it meant celibate, that is man who imitates on earth the life of the citizens of
heaven (Lib. II, de Tabern. c. III). St. Cyprian sees virginity as the sister of
the Angels, the victory of the passions, the queen of virtues, the possession of
all goods; he calls those adorned with them the flower of ecclesiastical order, the
beauty and ornament of spiritual grace, the most illustrious portion of Christ's
flock (Lib. de Virg.). «How enchanting is the grace of virginity, exclaims St.
Ambrose, if he deserved that Jesus chose her to be the corporal temple of God,
having physically inhabited the fullness of divinity! A Virgin gave birth to the
health of the world, a Virgin gave birth to the life of all (De offic. Lib. I) ».
It is indisputable that virginity, celibacy, are much more excellent than marriage.
Because 1 ° the body and the spirit are preserved uncorrupted and incorruptible ...
2 ° There is a high perfection in this ... 3 ° A temperance, a heroic virtue is
required: there is the power of God (Luc, l, 51). St. Fulgentius saw so much and so
sublime virtue in virginity, which makes the name of virgin derive from virtue
(Epist. III, c. IV). St. Adelmo, bishop of the Saxons, says: There are three states
in the Church: virginity, celibacy, marriage. If you want to know and establish the
excellence and merit of each of these states, compare virginity to gold, celibacy
to silver, marriage to iron; virginity to riches, celibacy to wealth, marriage to
poverty. Virginity is peace; celibacy, freedom; marriage, slavery. Virginity is the
sun; celibacy, the moon; marriage, darkness. Virginity is a queen; celibacy, a
gentleman; marriage, a servant (De Laud. Virg. c. IX).
Eight wonderful prerogatives make virginity beautiful and sublime. The first is
that integrity is the portion of the Angels (S. AUGUST. De Virgin. C. XIII), it is
an imitation and emulation of the angelic life, and if marriage populates the
earth, virginity gives inhabitants to the heaven (HIERON. Contra Iovin. l. IV).
Therefore, according to the observation of St. Jerome, as soon as the Son of God
entered the world, he soon created a new family, so that he who was worshiped in
heaven by the Angels, would also have Angels who adored him on earth (Ad Eustoch.
De Custod. Virg.). «Virginity, says St. John Chrysostom, is as much above marriage
as heaven is far away
from the earth, how much the Angels dominate men (Lib. de Virgin. c. XI) ».
«Righteousness, inexhaustible wealth, exclaims St. Athanasius, or virginity,
incorruptible crown, temple of God, domicile of the Holy Spirit, precious gem,
destruction of death, and of hell, life of Angels, wreath of Saints! (Lib. De
Virgin.) ".
The second prerogative of virginity lies in its quality as a holocaust. Therefore
St. Jerome calls this virtue a martyrdom (Contra Iovin.) ... The third prerogative
consists in this, that the virgin contracts a divine marriage with Jesus Christ who
is her husband ... The family that is born from this celestial marriage it is the
numerous crowd of virtues ... The fourth is that virgins are the favorites of Jesus
Christ. The Savior loves them with a very special affection, he loves them with the
love of a bridegroom, because they are his spouses.
The fifth prerogative is noted by St. Cyprian who makes virgins the most elected
portion of the Church (De Virg.). Therefore St. Athanasius teaches that virginity
is a sure character, a sure sign of the true religion and the true Church; because
the true religion advises virginity and celibacy, he admits them and exalts them;
infidelity and heresy reject and despise them (Lib. De Virg.). And why do infidels
and heretics do this? asks S. Ambrogio; because, zealous defenders of wrongdoing,
they want to prevent the pursuit and practice of virtue (De Virtutis). Infidels and
heretics neither are nor can they be virgins, because without the grace of God,
whose principle is faith, it is impossible that in the midst of so many tickles of
the flesh, so many temptations, so many lusts, they can be preserved for a long
time virginity. And St. Athanasius already observed that this holy and celestial
advice is not happily fulfilled in any other religion, by any other people, if not
in religion and among the Christian people (In Apolog. Ad Constantin. Imper.). And
how much does the value of virginity not increase by making counsel a precept, an
obligation by virtue of a voluntary, considered, sacred and perpetual vow! Here is
the sublime of virtue!
The sixth prerogative results from what, as Saints Jerome and Cyprian say,
virginity populates the sky (De Discip. Et habitu virg.). "Virgins, writes St.
Basil, anticipate the glory of the resurrection (De Virg. C. LXXIX)". And Jesus
Christ does not himself tell us that in the resurrection state men will no longer
have women, nor will women have husbands; but what will those and these as are the
Angels of God in heaven? (MATTH. XXII, 30). The virgins therefore represent the
heaven, the Angels on earth ... The seventh is that the virgins will have a more
splendid crown in heaven. Only virgins follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and sing a
hymn before the throne which is reserved for virgins only and which no one else can
sing (Apoc. XIV, 3-4).
The eighth prerogative is that virginity makes those who cultivate it similar to
the Church, to the Angels, to the Immaculate Virgin, to Jesus Christ, to God, to
the SS. Trinity ... "Being a virgin or an angel is the same thing, says St.
Gregory: these two things make it one" (De Virgin.); and if there is any difference
between them, says St. Bernard (Epist. XLII), this consists in happiness, not in
virtue: the chastity of the Angel is happier, that of man is more heroic.
«Virginity, says St. Ambrose, went to look in heaven for the model to be imitated
on earth. Rising above the clouds, the firmament and the Angels, he went to God,
and found the eternal Word of God nor the very bosom of the Father (Lib. De
Institut. Virg. C. XV) ". Therefore the virgins were seen by St. John the
Evangelist, not on an ordinary mountain, but on Mount Zion, that is, in the sky. He
saw them before the throne of God, who were making a procession and a crown to him
and singing a hymn reserved for them alone (Apoc. XIV, 1-4). St. Basil calls the
living virgin vessel of Jesus Christ; and virginity, a virtue superior to the laws
of nature. He asserts that it makes man very similar to God; strips our life of
corruption and leads it to glory (De Laud. Virg.).
«The virginal integrity, writes St. Augustine, is the part of the Angels; and it
is, in a corruptible flesh, the preparation for the possession of eternal
incorruptibility, which is God: therefore virgins are terrestrial Angels and
celestial men (De Virgin. ch. XIII) ». St. Gregory calls virginity the emulation of
angelic glory (In Laud. Virg.), With some advantage for part of that, since,
according to the observation of St. Jerome, being an angel is a fortune, but being
a virgin is a merit acquired with virtue, because the virgin strives to obtain with
grace what the angel possesses by nature (De Virg.). Who will not then say with St.
Cyril: Virginity is an odoriferous rose, a splendid lily for whiteness; and at the
same time flower and fruit. O magnetic virtue of virginity! O divinely magnetized
virtue, which draws nature to itself! O marvelous sapphire that drives the flesh,
the world, the demons to flight! O dazzling and ever emerald green, inviolable
virginity, which never suffers the fetid corruption of voluptuousness!
(Catech.) ... Virginity and eternal glory are sisters: one deserves, the other
rewards ... Virgins enjoy the familiarity of God; God enlightens them and blesses
them in a very extraordinary way; of lotus is precisely that saying of the Bride of
Songs: «My beloved belongs to me, and I to him; he grazes among the lilies "(Cant.
II, 16). The virgin imitates the Son of the Virgin, the husband of virgins, a
virgin himself and united with a virgin Church, says St. Bonaventure (In Speculo).
O rich gem! Exclaims St. Athanasius, happy who possesses you; lucky who, through
patience, constantly sticks to you, because at the end of his work he will find
immense rewards in you! (Lib. De Virg.), Since, as the Holy Spirit says, “right are
the actions of a heart without blemish; and whoever loves purity of heart will have
the king of heaven as a friend "(Prov. XXI, 8), (Id. XXII, 11).
When God promises virgins the best place and the most beautiful name, he prefers
them to the Angels. And with reason, because virginity in the Angels is not a
virtue; they cannot be but virgins; virgins instead, being such by their own
choice, by heroism of will, in this sense they win over the Angels ... Then they
get a more splendid name; because virginity embellishes, adorns and ennobles man
better than any other even excellent virtue ... Says St. Bernard: There is nothing
more splendid than that light, nothing more glorious than that testimony whose
truth shines in the soul, and in which the soul is seen.But what is this light,
what is this testimony? It is virginity, pure, modest, timid, circumspect, which
admits nothing of stain, which is the glory of conscience, which does not have, nor
can it have remorse, which does not fear the gaze of God. Here is what is truly
beautiful, and which rejoices the eyes of God more than anything else. This
splendor of the virgin soul penetrates the whole body with its celestial rays, it
spreads through all the members and all the senses, so much so that the actions,
the words, the gazes, the bearing, the laughter, if by chance there must be, are
mixed with gravity, they breathe honest candor; the movements, the gestures, the
features are serious, pure, reserved, free of any slightest lightness, insolence,
immodesty, neglect; they are holy and informed of the most fervent piety. Happy is
the soul who is dressed in this precious garment of white innocence, for which she
has a glorious conformity not with the world, but with the Word, which is the
Dazzling whiteness of eternal life, the mirror without neo of the divine Majesty
(Serm. LXXXV, in Cant.).
The sacred virgin, says St. Basil, in her dress, her bearing, her trait, shows
herself to be such that whoever meets her, seeing in her the living copy of God,
bows out of respect, all amazed at the great holiness that she gives she sweats;
and from an internal admonished impulse of her virtues, he portrays her desire to
imitate her. Full of admiration and respect for what he has seen, he returns to his
house, himself more respectable. The virgin bride of the Lord, knowing that she
cannot escape either the ear, the eye, or the presence of her divine husband,
behaves in everything as if she were standing before him, as if she were seen and
understood. from Jesus Christ; because whatever she says she, the Christian virgin,
even though she is alone, she says in the ears of her husband; whatever she does
she, although she alone, she looks intently at the divine spouse; whatever you
think, she feels that her heavenly husband understands everything. She therefore
respects first herself and her conscience, although alone and entirely hidden, then
she respects her guardian Angel; finally, and above all others, God. She knows it
is the tabernacle of Jesus Christ. To such souls God assigns a place and a superior
name to the Angels themselves (De vera Virgin.). St. Augustine thinks that this
name means the special glory that distinguishes virgins from other Saints, as
people are distinguished by their proper names. This name means the glory and the
joy of virgins, which is to rejoice in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, through
Jesus Christ, behind Jesus Christ (Lib. De vera Virgin.).
Christian virgins are the spouses of Jesus Christ, according to that saying of the
Apostle to the Corinthians: "I have betrothed you to one husband, Jesus Christ, so
that you may be presented to him as pure virgins" (II Cor XI, 2). Now this divine
marriage with Jesus Christ cannot be sterile, but it is fruitful. The family that
is born of this celestial marriage is entirely spiritual; and this family are the
works of piety, of devotion, the practice of virtues, almsgiving and other acts of
charity, to which the virgin consecrates herself. St. Bernard writing to his
sister, who was a virgin, on the way to live well, said to her: Do not say, my
dear, sister in Jesus Christ, do not say: I am a dry wood, a fruitless tree:
because if you love Jesus Christ your spouse and you fear him as is your duty, you
have seven children: 1 / modesty; 2 ° patience; 3 ° sobriety; 4 ° temperance; 5 °
charity; 6 ° humility; 7 ° chastity. Therefore, by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you bear seven children to Jesus Christ painlessly and from an incorruptible womb,
to fulfill in you those words of Scripture: She who was barren bore seven children.
And these children you gave birth to Jesus Christ, you must nourish, warm, clothe,
nurture, govern, fortify and correct (De modo bene viv., Ch. XXII). St. Cyprian
assures us that the Church rejoices and rejoices in the virgins, and through them
the glorious fruitfulness of this tender mother increases and wonderfully extends;
the greater their number; and the joy of the Church increases (De habit. Virg.).
“If the Catholic Church is a virgin, observes St. Augustine; if, as the Apostle
says, she is the bride of Jesus Christ, of what honor are those of her not worthy
among her members who keep in their flesh what she keeps in faith? In fact, the
Church is also a mother and a virgin (De vera Virgin.) ».

2. PRODIGS OF VIRGINITY. - The blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, mother, model
and sister of virgins and virgins, generated a noble and large family, the family
of the Virgins of Jesus Christ. «From a virgin Jesus Christ was born, writes S.
Gregario. O you women, honor and practice virginity, so that you may be mothers of
Jesus Christ (Orat. XXXVIII, de Nativ.) ». Is it not of virginity that it is said:
"I am the flower of the fields, and the lily of the valleys"? (Cant. II, l) Virgins
form the ornament of the court of God, the splendor of the celestial palace, the
nobility of the Church ... mashed potato.
So powerful and miraculous did God's protection always appear over virgins, that in
the midst of the fury and violence of all kinds, of the wicked and tyrants, they
always supported themselves immaculate, escaped unscathed, and preserved themselves
unharmed. Here, among others, is a memorable example in S. Teofila, martyred under
the emperor Maximian. Condemned to be translated into a brothel, the virgin prayed
like this: My Jesus, my love, my light and my spirit, keeper of my purity and my
life, look at what your poor wife is exposed to; run to my aid, so that these
wolves do not devour your sheep; my husband; keep your bride unharmed. O fount of
all purity, keep mine untouched. She thus arrived at the infamous place, but as
soon as an insolent person prepared to outrage her, an Angel appeared and lay him
dead; he steps forward a second, and is struck with blindness; others are tried,
and all are immediately struck by various punishments, so that no one dares to
approach any more, and they cry out with one voice: Who is similar to the God of
Christians? We also find similar examples in the life of S. Agnese, S. Cecilia, S.
Lucia. It is announced to S. Chiara that her monastery is attacked by a mob of
furious soldiers; she mounts on the bulwarks and from there she cries to God: "O
Lord, do not want to abandon the souls who trust in you to the beasts" (Psalm.
LXXIII, 19). That said, she turns her gaze around her, and she no longer sees
anyone; God has put the soldiers to flight and the monastery and the city are safe.
For the protection of God, no virgin never unwittingly gave her modesty, despite
the promises, the threats, the terrors, the solicitations, the violence, the
torments of the tyrants. O miracle of the miracles of grace, which is found only in
the Catholic, apostolic, Roman religion! ... O virginity, exclaims St. Anatolius,
you are not conquered by death and saved from eternal death! ... St. Casimir, king
of Poland, he preferred death to the loss of virginity; and to all the doctors'
requests he replied: I want to die a virgin. - I lived a virgin, I will die a
virgin; I want to live virgin with virgin Jesus, and for his sake I gladly choose
to die a virgin (In Vita).

3. VIRGINITY AWARD. - "Incorruptibility brings us closer to God" (Wis. VI, 20), the
Savio had said; and this sentence of his finds explanation and fulfillment in that
other of Jesus Christ: "Blessed are the clean hearts for they will see God" (MATTH.
V, 8). The Psalmist assures us that the Lord takes into account the days of the
pure and immaculate man; that his inheritance will be eternal; that he will not be
confused on the bad day; that he will be satisfied with goods (Psalm. XXXVI, 18-19)
... Virginity fills the sky ... Families according to the flesh are lost, die,
disappear; the family of virgins will live eternally ...
St. Augustine says that joy, happiness, peace are the children of virginity, which
if it has no children according to the flesh, but generates others, which are worth
better than these, and are the peace of the heart, of the soul. and spirit.
Continence is never sterile, but fruitful in joy, through the Lord God her spouse
(Confess. Lib. VIII, ch. XI) ... A triple crown garlands the virgins: the crown of
virginity, the nuptial crown of their marriage to Jesus Christ, the crown of
athletes; because like talented fighters, they endure a long and terrible fight
against lust. and meat. A fourth crown still belongs to them, and it is that of
martyrdom, since they have all the credit for it.

4. MEANS OF KEEPING VIRGINITY. - The Evangelist notes that the Immaculate Virgin
Mary was completely disturbed at the sight of the Angel who came to announce the
Incarnation of the Word to her (Luc. I); because, as St. Ambrose observes, it is
precisely of virgins to fear and tremble at the sight of men, and to be disturbed
at their words (In Luc. lib. II, ch. 8). «Chaste virginity is always timid, writes
Tertullian; she flees the glances, and with her veil she almost makes a helmet
against the blows of temptations, the thunderbolts of scandals, suspicions and
slander (De veland. Virg.) ». She knows that. she carries her treasure in a fragile
clay vase (II Cor IV, 7); therefore she is all solicitude in practicing that advice
of the Nazianzen: "Be virgin of eyes, of tongue, of ears" (Laud. Virg.).
Astronomers place the sign of Virgo in the firmament between Libra and Leo; it is a
beautiful symbol to show us that virginity needs the strength of the lion and the
balance of prudence! ... The higher the virginal continence, observes St.
Augustine, the more she fears the pride that kills her. God alone gives virginity
and is the only one who keeps it; and God is still charity; therefore the keeper of
virginity is the love of God and humility. The place where it is preserved is
humility (De S. Virgin. C. CI). "Get dressed, wrote Tertullian to the Virgins, in
the armor of modesty, surround yourself with the bastion of truthfulness, protect
your sex with the wall of privacy, which stops your and others' gazes (De velando
Virgin. C. XVI)".
Very powerful and very effective means to protect and maintain virginity are:
meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ ... the use of the sacraments ...
distrust of ourselves ... devotion to the Immaculate Virgin ... Finally, the
vigilance, flight, prayer are three weapons without which there is no purity or
virginity.