Purity

For everyone, whatever his state — single, married, widowed or priest — chastity is a triumphant affirmation of love.

The “miracle” of purity has prayer and mortification as its two points of support.

A temptation against chastity is more dangerous the more concealed it is. When it comes insidiously, it is all the more deceptive.

—Do not give in, not even with the excuse of not wanting to “seem strange”!

Holy Purity is the humility of the flesh! You asked the Lord for seven bolts on your heart. And I advised you to ask for seven bolts for your heart and eighty years of gravity as well, for your youth…

And be watchful, for a spark is much easier to extinguish than a fire. Take flight… for in this it is low cowardice to be “brave”; a roving eye… does not mean a lively spirit, but turns out to be a snare of satan.

Yet human diligence, with mortification, the cilice, disciplines and fasting are all worthless without you, my God!

This is how a confessor killed concupiscence in a sensitive soul who confessed to a certain curiosity: “Nonsense! It is just a question of male and female instincts.”

As soon as you wilfully allow a dialogue with temptation to begin, the soul is robbed of its peace, just as consent to impurity destroys grace.

He followed the way of impurity with all his body… and with all his soul. —His faith became obscured… even though he knew it is not a problem of faith.

“You told me, Father, that after my past life it is still possible to become another Saint Augustine. I don’t doubt it, and today more than yesterday I want to try to prove it.”

But you have to cut out sin courageously from the root, as the holy Bishop of Hippo did.

Yes, ask for pardon with contrition and do penance in abundance for the impure events of your past life, but don’t try to recall them.

That conversation… was as dirty as a sewer!

—It is not enough for you to take no part in it. You must show your repugnance for it strongly!

It seems as if the “spirit” were growing smaller, shrinking to a little point… And the body seems to grow and become gigantic, until it gains control. —It was for you that Saint Paul wrote: “I buffet my own body, and make it my slave; or I, who have preached to others, may myself be rejected as worthless.”

One feels sorry for people who say from their own sad experience that you cannot be chaste while living and working in the middle of the world!

—If they accepted the consequences of their illogical reasoning, they ought not to feel hurt if others were to insult the memory of their parents, brothers or sisters, wife or husband.

That confessor was a bit rough, but he was experienced and contained the ravings of a soul and brought them to order. He brought him to his senses by saying: “The way you are now means you are going the ways of cows; next you will be content to go the way of goats; and then… always like an animal which doesn’t know how to look up to heaven.”

Perhaps you are… just what you are, a little animal. —But you must admit that there are people of integrity who are chaste. Well, don’t get upset then, if they leave you out of things. Those men and women include in their human plans people with a body and a soul, not animals.

Some people bring children into the world for their own benefit, to serve their own purposes, out of selfishness… They forget children are a wonderful gift from God for which they will have to render a very special account.

Do not be offended if I say that having offspring just to continue the species, is something that… animals can do too.

No Christian married couple can want to block the well-springs of life. For their love is based on the Love of Christ, which entails dedication and sacrifice… Moreover, as Tobias reminded Sara, a husband and wife know that “we are children of saints, and we cannot come together in the way of the gentiles, who do not know God.”

When we were little, we kept close to our mother in a dark alley or if dogs barked at us.

Now, when we feel temptations of the flesh, we should run to the side of Our Mother in Heaven, by realising how close she is to us, and by means of aspirations.

—She will defend us and lead us to the light.

No one is more of a man or more of a woman for leading a disordered life.

Obviously anyone who thinks so would find their ideal of a person in a prostitute, or someone who was perverted and corrupt — that is in those who have rotten hearts and cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

May I give you some advice for you to put into practice daily? When your heart makes you feel those low cravings, say slowly to the Immaculate Virgin: Look on me with compassion. Don’t abandon me, my Mother! —And recommend this prayer to others.

References to Holy Scripture
References to Holy Scripture
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