Counsel for Preserving Chastity.
Always keep a great watch over yourself, to promptly turn away everything that may hold any allurement to voluptuousness; for this is an evil that takes hold imperceptibly, and which, by small beginnings, makes great progress. In a word, it is easier to flee from it than to cure it.
Chastity is that treasure which Saint Paul says we possess in very fragile vessels; and indeed it partakes much of the fragility of these vessels, which, if they so much as strike against one another, run the risk of breaking. The freshest water that one would preserve in a vessel soon loses its freshness, if any creature has touched it ever so slightly. Therefore never permit, Philothea, and forbid yourself, all these outward playful touches of the hands, equally contrary to Christian modesty and to the respect due to a person’s station or virtue: for although one might perhaps preserve a chaste heart amid such actions, which arise rather from levity than from malice, and are not habitual, chastity nevertheless always receives some hurt from them. For the rest, you understand well enough that I am not speaking of those immodest touches which utterly destroy chastity.
Always keep a great watch over yourself, to promptly turn away everything that may hold any allurement to voluptuousness; for this is an evil that takes hold imperceptibly, and which, by small beginnings, makes great progress. In a word, it is easier to flee from it than to cure it.
Chastity is that treasure which Saint Paul says we possess in very fragile vessels; and indeed it partakes much of the fragility of these vessels, which, if they so much as strike against one another, run the risk of breaking. The freshest water that one would preserve in a vessel soon loses its freshness, if any creature has touched it ever so slightly. Therefore never permit, Philothea, and forbid yourself, all these outward playful touches of the hands, equally contrary to Christian modesty and to the respect due to a person’s station or virtue: for although one might perhaps preserve a chaste heart amid such actions, which arise rather from levity than from malice, and are not habitual, chastity nevertheless always receives some hurt from them. For the rest, you understand well enough that I am not speaking of those immodest touches which utterly destroy chastity.
Chastity depends upon the heart as its source, and its outward practice consists in regulating and purifying the senses; therefore it is lost through all the external senses, as well as through the thoughts of the mind and the desires of the heart. Thus every pleasure one permits oneself in an unchaste object, and with an unchaste intent, is truly an act of immodesty; so much so that the Apostle said to the first Christians: _let fornication not even be named among you_. Bees not only do not touch a putrid corpse, but also flee the foul vapour that rises from it. Observe, I pray you, what Holy Scripture tells us of the Bride in the Song of Songs; everything there is mysterious: Myrrh distils from her hands, and you know that this liquid preserves from corruption; her lips are bound with a scarlet ribbon, and this teaches us that modesty blushes at words that are in the least degree immodest; her eyes are compared to the eyes of a dove, because of their purity; she has pendants of gold in her ears, and this precious metal signifies purity; her nose is compared to a cedar of Lebanon, whose fragrance is exquisite and whose wood is incorruptible. What does all this mean? Such must the devout soul be: chaste, clean, pure, and modest in all its outward senses.
On this subject, I would teach you a most remarkable saying, which John Cassian, an ancient Father, assures us came from the mouth of Saint Basil, who, speaking of himself, once said with great humility: _I know not what women are, yet I am not a virgin_. Indeed, chastity may be lost in as many ways as there are kinds of immodesty, which, according as they are great or small, weaken it, wound it dangerously, or cause it to perish altogether. There are certain indiscreet, playful, and sensual liberties which, strictly speaking, do not violate chastity, but weaken it, soften it, and dim its brightness. There are other liberties not only indiscreet but vicious, not only playful but indecent, not only sensual but carnal, which at least mortally wound chastity: I say “at least,” because it perishes entirely if matters proceed to the ultimate consummation of voluptuous pleasure. Then chastity perishes in a manner more shameful than wicked, and more unhappy than when it is lost through fornication, or even through adultery and incest; for, although these latter forms of brutish pleasure are great sins, the others, as Tertullian says in his book On Modesty, are monsters of iniquity and sin. Now Cassian does not believe, nor do I, that Saint Basil meant to accuse himself of such an excess when he says that he was not a virgin; and I rightly believe that he meant only the voluptuous thoughts which merely defile the imagination, the mind, and the heart: chastity, therefore, has always been so dear to generous souls that they have been exceedingly jealous of it.
Never have any commerce with persons whose morals you know to be corrupted by voluptuousness, especially when shamelessness is joined to impurity, as is almost always the case.
It is said that goats, by merely touching with their tongues the almond trees, which are naturally sweet, make their fruit bitter; and these brutish and filthy souls scarcely speak to anyone, whether of the same sex or of the opposite sex, without doing great harm to modesty: like basilisks, which bear their venom in their eyes and in their breath.
On the contrary, form a close bond with chaste and virtuous persons; often occupy yourselves with reading the Sacred Books, for the word of God is chaste, and makes chaste those who love it. This is why David compares it to that precious stone called topaz, whose special property is to quell the heart’s concupiscence.
Keep yourselves always near Jesus Christ crucified, whether spiritually through meditation, or actually and bodily through Holy Communion. You know that those who lie upon the herb called _Agnus-castus_ gradually acquire dispositions favorable to chastity; think, therefore, that, as you rest your heart upon Our Lord, who is truly the immaculate Lamb, you will soon find your soul, your heart, and your senses entirely purified of all sensual pleasures.
It is said that goats, by merely touching with their tongues the almond trees, which are naturally sweet, make their fruit bitter; and these brutish and filthy souls scarcely speak to anyone, whether of the same sex or of the opposite sex, without doing great harm to modesty: like basilisks, which bear their venom in their eyes and in their breath.
On the contrary, form a close bond with chaste and virtuous persons; often occupy yourselves with reading the Sacred Books, for the word of God is chaste, and makes chaste those who love it. This is why David compares it to that precious stone called topaz, whose special property is to quell the heart’s concupiscence.
Keep yourselves always near Jesus Christ crucified, whether spiritually through meditation, or actually and bodily through Holy Communion. You know that those who lie upon the herb called _Agnus-castus_ gradually acquire dispositions favorable to chastity; think, therefore, that, as you rest your heart upon Our Lord, who is truly the immaculate Lamb, you will soon find your soul, your heart, and your senses entirely purified of all sensual pleasures.