164. A man knows God and is known by Him in so far as he makes every effort not to be separated from God; and he will succeed in this if he is good in every way and refrains from all sensual pleasure, not because he lacks the means to indulge such pleasure, but because of his own determination and self-control.
Anthony the Great: On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life: One Hundred and Seventy Texts
Philokalia
Category: TEMPTATION & LUST & VIRGINITY
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92. Our God has granted immortality to those in heaven, but for those on earth He has created mutability, giving life and movement to the whole of creation; and all this for man’s sake. So do [V1] 344 St Antony the Great On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life One Hundred and Seventy Texts not be ensnared by the worldly fantasies of the demon who insinuates evil recollections into the soul, but immediately call to mind the blessings of heaven and say to yourself: ‘If I so wish, it is in my power to win even this struggle against passion; but I shall not win if I am set on fulfilling my own desire.’ So struggle in this way, since it can save your soul.
Anthony the Great: On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life: One Hundred and Seventy Texts
Philokalia -
The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again.
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity -
“Either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence.” Now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts, that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct, as it now is, has gone wrong. One or the other. Of course, being a Christian, I think it is the instinct which has gone wrong.
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity -
St. Clement continues his teaching by stressing that there is nothing praiseworthy about abstinence from marriage, unless “it arises from love to God and true chastity as a gift of God’s grace.”
—Fr. Pishoy Salama, Of All Nations: Exploring Intercultural Marriages in the Coptic Orthodox Church of the GTA -
and, again, others who rush off into the extreme diametrically opposite, practising celibacy in name only and leading a life in no way different from the secular; for they not only indulge in the pleasures of the table, but are openly known to have a woman in their houses ; and they call such a friendship a brotherly affection, as if, forsooth, they could veil their own thought, which is inclined to evil, under a sacred term. It is owing to them that this pure and holy profession of virginity is blasphemed among the Gentiles.
On Virginity, Chap. 23
St. Gregory of Nyssa -
Thus even the most favoured live, and they are not altogether to be envied; their life is not to be compared to the freedom of virginity.
On Virginity, Chap. 3
St. Gregory of Nyssa -
The more exactly we understand the riches of virginity, the more we must bewail the other life; for we realize by this contrast with better things, how poor it is. I do not speak only of the future rewards in store for those who have lived thus excellently, but those rewards also which they have while alive here; for if any one would make up his mind to measure exactly the difference between the two courses, he would find it nearly as great as that between heaven and earth.
On Virginity, Chap. 3
St. Gregory of Nyssa
SO GOOD QUOTES 