…There in triumph are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence…In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure.
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CHAPTER XXVIII. — A VIRGIN WHO FELL
AGAIN, I knew a virgin in Jerusalem who wore sackcloth for six years and shut herself up in a cell, taking none of the things that bestow pleasure. In the end she fell, abandoned (by God) because of her excessive arrogance. She opened the window and admitted the man who waited on her and sinned with him, because she had practised asceticism not with a religious motive and for the love of God, but with human ostentation, which springs from vain-glory and corrupt intention. For, her thoughts being engrossed in condemning others, the guardian of her chastity was absent.
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918) pp. 35-180 -
Galatians 5:16-19
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, [f]murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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St. Theophan the Recluse (1800s), in a homily to a group of nuns at a Convent which he oversaw, wrote: “For he who refuses to give in to passions and sinful desires does the same as he who refuses to bow down and worship idols. He who refused to worship idols was given over to external sufferings, while he who refuses to satisfy the passions actually wounds himself and forces his heart to suffer until the passions quiet down in him. Victory over passions is a self-inflicted spiritual martyrdom, which is performed invisibly in the heart but is nevertheless very painful.”
Sainthood and Martyrdom in the Modern World -
“By refusing to give into temptation, I am counted as a martyr in the eyes of Christ…There are crowns waiting for you in heaven. Each time you refuse to give into the passions, it’s another jewel added to your crown.”
—Anthony Marcos -
That is the message of Claire’s Knee. Love is a serious business, and sex is a serious business. It’s not always possible to control it with “reason” (the message of My Night at Maud’s) or with a casual, “free love” approach to life (the message of Claire’s Knee). The older, harsher, more dogmatic rules were created to deal with the physical and elemental side of romance and sex. Rohmer is saying that, perhaps, we should think twice before setting them aside.
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But Rohmer isn’t going along. He thinks it’s all a crock — the whole milieu, the whole lifestyle, the whole philosophy. It’s life as a porn film. It’s not going to work.
—Robert Garrick, Claire’s Knee, Cinema St. Louis -
“If a man obtains chastity, he will be able to see God’s angels…chastity will enable him to see the unseen through the Divine vision, and God would unveil the secrets of the spiritual world to him. In other words, he would be able to see the souls of those who have departed, our fathers the hermits would also be visible to him in their full form, including their whereabouts. He would be able to see them through the eyes of the body as well as the eyes of the soul.”
—Abouna Faltaous El-Souriani
SO GOOD QUOTES 