A man who, seeing through the illusion with the eye of his spirit purged, lifts himself above the struggling world, and, to use the words of the Apostle, slights it all as but dung, in a way exiling himself altogether from human life by his abstinence from marriage, — that man has no fellowship whatever with the sins of mankind, such as avarice, envy, anger, hatred, and everything of the kind. He has an exemption from all this, and is in every way free and at peace; there is nothing in him to provoke his neighbours’ envy, because he clutches none of those objects round which envy in this life gathers. He has raised his own life above the world, and prizing virtue as his only precious possession he will pass his days in painless peace and quiet.
On Virginity, Chap. 4
St. Gregory of Nyssa
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We have indeed a mark to guide us safely over the ocean of temptations; and why make the too curious inquiry, whether some with such thoughts as these have not fallen nevertheless, and why therefore despair, as if the achievement was beyond your reach? Look on him who has succeeded, and boldly launch upon the voyage with confidence that it will be prosperous, and sail on under the breeze of the Holy Spirit with Christ your pilot and with the oarage of good cheer. For those who go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in great waters do not let the shipwreck that has befallen someone else prevent their being of good cheer; they rather shield their hearts in this very confidence, and so sweep on to accomplish their successful feat.
—Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity -
The old man is completely composed of passions. The divesting of it means spiritual martyrdom, by which you appointed yourselves to martyrdom. You know that this is true from your own experience. The external labors and podvigs are not as painful as the taming of the thoughts, the extinguishing of the passions, the tearing away of the temptations. If such movements can arise in a moment, then you are at any moment in labors, in wounds and turmoils.
—St. Theophan the Recluse, Kindling the Divine Spirit -
CHAPTER VI: That no one comes to grief by a sudden fall, but is destroyed by falling through a long course of carelessness.
FOR no one is ever driven to sin by being provoked through another’s fault, unless he has the fuel of evil stored up in his own heart. Nor should we imagine that a man has been deceived suddenly when he has looked on a woman and fallen into the abyss of shameful lust: but rather that, owing to the opportunity of looking on her, the symptoms of disease which were hidden and concealed in his inmost soul have been brought to the surface
—St. John Cassian, Institutes
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On the Spirit of Fornication
CHAPTER 4. What is the difference between continence and chastity, and whether both are always found together
In fact, it is one thing to be continent, that is encratite, and another to be chaste. This latter means to advance to that state of integrity and incorruption that they call agnos, which only refers to those who remain virginal in both mind and body.
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We hold that this condition is very difficult to attain among crowds of men. But whether it is impossible, each one should personally judge on the basis of conscience. We do not expect everyone to agree with our opinion on this. Moreover, we don’t doubt that there are many continent persons who suffer infrequent or daily assaults of the flesh, but who manage to put them down and repress them either for fear of hell or desire for the kingdom of heaven. But our elders tell us that just as these men cannot be entirely overwhelmed by the assaults of vices, neither can they always be secure and unscathed. For it is inevitable that someone in the midst of the fray sometimes be thrown into confusion himself, even though he frequently conquer his adversary.
CHAPTER 5. That the assault of fornication are impossible to overcome by human effort alone.
IF we really desire to enter into this spiritual combat on the same terms as the Apostle (2 Tm 4:7), let us concentrate our every effort at dominating this unclean spirit by placing our confidence not in our own forces but on the help of God. Human effort will never be able to win through here. For the soul will be attacked by this vice as long as it does not recognize that it is in a war beyond its powers and that it cannot obtain victory by its own effort unless it is shored up by the help and protection of the Lord.
CHAPTER 6. The particular grace of God necessary for the attainment of chastity.
There is no virtue which renders the lives of carnal men more similar to that of the angelic spirits than the attainment and the gift of chastity.
CHAPTER 11. From which Vice Nocturnal Illusions Proceed
THE quality of the thoughts, which are guarded negligently during the day because of distractions, is tested during the night rest. When such a fantasy occurs, it ought not to be thought a fault of sleep, but rather due to some negligence of the preceding time. It is a manifestation of a hidden interior fault, and not really produced by the hour of the night. Though it has lain hidden in the depths of the soul, sleep brings it to the surface. Repose reveals the hidden fever of passion which we have been stoking all day with harmful thoughts. Likewise, bodily sicknesses are not thought to be caused at the time they emerge, but contracted previously when the person imprudently ate harmful food and so took on harmful and lethal humors.
CHAPTER 13. What the First Custodian of Fleshly Purgation is.
THIS will be the first concern of the purgation: when the thought of the feminine sex first creeps up on our mind through the subtle suggestions of the crafty demon, beginning with the recollection of our mother, sisters, relatives or of certain pious women, we should hasten to drive it out of our inner being. If we were to linger over it, the tempter might take the occasion to make us gradually think of other women and so introduce evil thoughts.
CHAPTER 19. A Saying of the Holy Bishop Basil concerning the quality of his virginity.
THE following severe saying is reported of St. Basil, the Bishop of Caesarea: “I know not woman and yet I am not a virgin.” By this he means that bodily purity consists not so much in foreswearing women but in integrity of heart. For it maintains a perpetual incorrupt holiness of heart whether from the fear of God or from love of purity.
—St. John Cassian, Institutes
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If we lust after something let us see that we have this vigor in us and that we can use this vigor when we serve the Lord.
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One of those abbesses was Sarah, who lived in Pelusium, and her sayings were mentioned in the “Apothegmata”,7 from which I quote the following texts:
• It was said about Abbess Sarah that for thirteen years she was fiercely attacked by the demon of lust; and she never prayed deeply that the battle should cease, but all that she used to ask of God was, “O God, grant me strength!”
• Once the same spirit of lust attacked her more insistently, reminding her of the vanities of the world. But she gave herself up to the fear of God and maintained the rigor of her fasting and went up to the roof to pray. Then the spirit of lust appeared to her in a bodily form and said to her, “Sarah, you have overcome me.” She replied, “It is not I who have overcome you, but my Lord, Christ!”
EARLY MONASTICISM AMONG WOMEN IN THE COPTIC CHURCH
Father Tadros Y. MalatyCoptic Church Review
Vol. 1 Num. 4 -
the chief form of moral perfection which belongs to one who has preserved himself whole in the years of youth is a certain unshakability in virtue for his whole life.
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19. Let, then, holy Mary instruct you in the discipline of life, and Thecla teach you how to be offered, for she, avoiding nuptial intercourse, and condemned through her husband’s rage, changed even the disposition of wild beasts by their reverence for virginity. For being made ready for the wild beasts, when avoiding the gaze of men, she offered her vital parts to a fierce lion, caused those who had turned away their immodest looks to turn them back modestly.
20. The beast was to be seen lying on the ground, licking her feet, showing without a sound that it could not injure the sacred body of the virgin. So the beast reverenced his prey, and forgetful of his own nature, put on that nature which men had lost. One could see, as it were, by some transfusion of nature, men clothed with savageness, goading the beast to cruelty, and the beast kissing the feet of the virgin, teaching them what was due from men. Virginity has in itself so much that is admirable, that even lions admire it. Food did not induce them though kept without their meal; no impulse hurried them on when excited; anger did not exasperate them when stirred up, nor did their habits lead them blindly as they were wont, nor their own natural disposition possess them with fierceness. They set an example of piety when reverencing the martyr; and gave a lesson in favor of chastity when they did nothing but kiss the virgin’s feet, with their eyes turned to the ground, as though through modesty, fearing that any male, even a beast, should see the virgin naked.
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How can one be a virgin who cherishes a harlot? How can one be a virgin who loves adulterers? How a virgin if she seeks for a lover? It is preferable to have a virgin mind than a virgin body.
SO GOOD QUOTES 