General Counsels on Chastity
From Monachos Patristic Quotations Index
(Redirected from Chastity)
Contents |
St Ephrem the Syrian (4th cent.)
- 'Every man who loves purity and chastity becomes the temple of God.' <citation needed>
St Ignatius of Antioch (1st/2nd cent.)
- 'I write to you in the midst of life, yet in love with death, for my love (eros) has been crucified. There is within me no fire of material longing, but living water, within me springing up, within me crying, “Come to the Father.”' <citation needed>
St Isaac the Syrian (7th/8th cent.)
- 'Not he is chaste in whom shameful thoughts stop in time of struggle, work and endeavor, but he who by the trueness of his heart makes chaste the vision of his mind not letting it stretch out towards unseemly thoughts.' <citation needed>
- 'It is just as shameful for lovers of the flesh and the belly to search out spiritual things as it is for a harlot to discourse on chastity.' <citation needed>
St John of the Ladder (5th/6th cent.)
- 'Chastity is the name which is common to all virtues.' (The Ladder to Paradise, step 15.)
- 'He is chaste who has continually acquired perfect insensibility to difference in bodies.' (ibid.)
- 'He is great who remains free from passion when touched. But greater is he who remains unwounded by the sense of sight, and who, by meditation on the beauty of Heaven, has conquered the fire caused by sight.' (ibid.)
- 'He who fights this adversary by bodily hardship and sweat is like one who has tied his foe with a string. But he who opposes him by temperance, sleeplessness and vigil is like one who puts a yoke on him. He who opposes him by humility, freedom from irritability and thirst is like one who has killed his enemy and hidden him in the sand. And by sand, I mean humility, because it produces no fodder for the passions, but is mere earth and ashes.' (ibid.)
- 'Offer to the Lord the weakness of your nature, fully acknowledging your own powerlessness, and imperceptibly you will receive the gift of chastity.' (ibid.)
- 'Someone told me of an extraordinarily high degree of purity. He said: "A certain man [St Nonnus of Heliopolis. -ed.], on seeing a beautiful woman, thereupon glorified the Creator; and from that one look, he was moved to the love of God and to a fountain of tears. And it was wonderful to see how what would have been a cause of destruction for one was for another the supernatural cause of a crown." If such person always feels and behaves in the same way on similar occasions, then he has risen immortal before the general resurrection.' (ibid.)
- 'The good Lord shows His great care for us in that the shamelessness of the feminine sex is checked by shyness as with a sort of bit. For if the woman were to run after the man, no flesh would be saved.' (ibid.)
- 'Those who are inclined to sensuality often seem sympathetic, merciful, and prone to compunction; while those who care for chastity do not seem to have these qualities to the same extent.' (ibid.)
Methodius of Olympus (3rd/4th cent.)
- 'Indeed, who was ever able to grasp Christ or His Spirit perfectly without first purifying himself? Chastity is the exercise which from childhood prepares the soul for glory by making it attractive and lovable, and with ease brings this adornment for her to the next world untried. It holds up great expectations as the reward for small toil and renders our bodies immortal. It is only fitting then that all should gladly praise and esteem chastity above all other things; some, because by practicing virginity they have been espoused to the Word: others, because by chastity they have been emancipated from that condemnation, "Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return".' (The Symposium: A Treatise on Chastity.)
