On the Training of a Virgin

8. Prayer Ordered First by Praise

How good is prayer with mercy! Good is the prayer which keeps order, so that we begin first from the praises of God. For if, when we deal with a man, we wish to make the judge favorable, how much more when we entreat our Lord! Let us first, then, offer to God the sacrifice of praise; whence also the Apostle says: I exhort therefore, first of all, that prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgivings be made.

9. Psalm Eight and the Pattern of Prayer

Let the eighth Psalm of David teach you, which began from the praises of God: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth! For thy magnificence is raised above the heavens. Out of the mouths of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise. Thus far the prayer of praise; then follows supplication, that the enemy may be destroyed; petition, that he may see the moon and the stars—the moon being the Church, the stars the sons of the Church, shining with the light of heavenly grace; and what he asks, he promises by a prophetic spirit that he shall see; thanksgiving, that the Lord watches over man, and confirms this clay of our body by a divine visitation; or that he has subjected to man all the kinds of living creatures.

10. The Lord's Prayer and Harmony of Mind

Likewise the Lord's Prayer comprehends everything, which there is no need to expound commonly. But you who read, recognize how you ought to distinguish it; especially, however, as I have said, prayer is to be commended, as I have set forth, by the calmness and tranquility of the mind; so that each one may be consistent and in harmony with himself, and that it may come to pass which is written: If two of you shall agree on earth concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

11. The Soul and Body Made One in Christ

Who are these two, if not the soul and the body? Whence also Paul chastised his flesh and reduced it to servitude; that the flesh might be subject to the soul as to its ruler, and might obey the commands of the mind; and that there might not be discord in one man, and that it might not wage war within itself, nor the law of the body resist the law of the mind. These two things, then, differing by a certain reason, he joined together in peace, according to what he himself asserted, saying: For Christ is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmities, in his flesh; lest he should do what he would not wish, and do what he would hate. These, then, are the two: the soul and the flesh. Whence also David says: I will not fear what flesh can do to me, knowing it to be the adversary of his soul.

12. The Inner and Outer Man United

Which two, however, that we may express it more clearly, are not only two, but also two men, one inner, the other outer. If these two run together in an equality of purpose, so that thoughts agree with deeds and deeds with thoughts, the wheel of our life will turn without any stumbling, so that, as it is written: Let the voice of thy thunder be in the wheel. These two, then, are one; and not only one, but one man. Whence also the Apostle says: That he might create the two into one man, making peace, and reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, slaying the enmities in himself, that in both we might have access in one Spirit to the Father.

13. The Old Man Crucified and the New Man Risen

There are also two men, the old and the new.

The old, liable to sin and worn out, and worn and torn like an old garment, whom we fasten to the cross in baptism. Whence the Apostle says: For our old man is crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer serve sin. The old man, therefore, is fastened to the cross, that he may die to sin; that the new man may rise, who is renewed by grace. We have spoken of the two.

14. Spirit Soul and Body Made Whole

Perhaps someone may say: What do you say of the three, since Scripture has it thus: For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them? From this too the reason is plain: because the same Apostle says: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where, therefore, these three are whole, there Christ is in the midst of them, who within governs and rules these three, and disposes them in faithful peace.

15. The Virgin Charged to Keep These Three Whole

Let the virgin, therefore, keep these three whole above all else in herself, so that she give no cause for complaint against her sacred virginity, and be blameless, without wrinkle, without spot. Although I have spoken of this in frequent books, yet for the sake of the aforementioned pledge we have judged it fitting to compose this book for you.

16. Virginity Absolves Both Sexes of Blame

Good is virginity, which not only absolves both sexes from guilt, but has even summoned them to grace. Yet we commonly accuse the feminine sex, as having introduced the cause of error; and we do not consider how much more justly the reproach may be turned back upon us. For let us go back to the beginning, and inquire into the origins of things, and we shall investigate how much has been granted to her, and how much grace woman nonetheless found, in the wretched fragility of the human condition.

17. Man's Praise Withheld at Creation

For when God praised all his works—heaven, earth, the seas, night and day—because the one served the use of labor, the other the fruit of rest, and he praised the wild beasts; when it came to man, he alone does not seem to have been praised, for whose sake all things were made. What, then, is the reason, unless perhaps this: that the others exist in outward appearance, but man in what is hidden? In beasts you will find nothing more than what appears; in man there is nothing lower than what appears; for since he consists of soul and body, that indeed which appears serves in him, while that which does not appear rules in him.

18. The Heart's Hidden Man Precious before God

Rightly, then, are the others praised at the outset, but the praise of man is not brought forth then, but reserved; because the grace of the others is outward, but his is inward—the others' at their birth, his in the heart. For what is so lofty and so deep as the mind of man, which is covered and hidden as it were by a certain wrapping of the body, so that no one may easily look into it and behold it? Therefore man is not praised at the outset, because he is to be approved and proclaimed not in his outward covering, but in the inner man first; whom the apostle Peter has excellently defined, saying that the hidden man of the heart is in the incorruptibility of a quiet and modest spirit, which is precious before God.

19. Job's Nakedness and True Riches before God

Rightly, then, it is deferred, that his praise, with interest, may follow: whose delay is not loss but increase. Let no one, then, despise himself as worthless, nor esteem himself by the sight of the body. For even though holy Job said: Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked also shall I depart hence, yet he had that whereby he might be found rich not only among men, but even before God.

20. The Inner Man Made after God's Image

What indeed is richer than that man is made after the image of God and his likeness? But the inner man is according to the image, not this outer one: that man which is judged by sense, not comprehended by the eyes. He, therefore, is to be regarded by us, who is discovered more slowly. Therefore God did not think the fashioning of man worthy of praise for this; because the greater portion of him lies in virtue. Indeed his form is excellent, and superior to the other living creatures; but let irrational things be esteemed by the form of the body, while those things which are full of reason set apart for themselves a common praise.

21. Praise Reserved for the End of Life

Let man, then, stand out and excel to me not so much by countenance as by disposition worthy of admiration; that he may be praised in those things in which even God is praised by prophetic judgment, of whom it is written: Terrible in his counsels above the sons of men; whose works shine before God, who weaves together good deeds by continual works; and therefore his praise is not at the outset, but at the end: for no one is crowned unless he has competed lawfully. And therefore the Wise Man says to you: Praise no man before his death. For what reason he said this, he taught in what precedes, saying: For at the end of a man his works are laid bare.

22. Not Good for Man to Be Alone

Let us look at the third point, in which God manifested his judgment; for when he had made man and placed him in paradise to work it and keep it, he said that it was not good for man to be alone. Let us make, he said, a helper for him like himself. Without woman, therefore, man has no praise; in woman he is commended. For when he says it is not good for man to be alone, he certainly confirms that the human race is good, if the female sex be joined to the male sex.

23. Woman Formed from Man Rather than Earth

At the same time this must be considered, that he was made from earth and mud, but she from man. And indeed his flesh was mud too; but he was still unformed, she formed.

24. Marriage as a Mystery of Christ and the Church

Let us now summon that outstanding Apostolic example, which we have written: For a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak in Christ and in the Church. We observe therefore that through woman that heavenly mystery of the Church was fulfilled, grace being figured in her, on account of which Christ descended and completed that eternal work of human redemption. Whence also Adam called the name of his wife life; for among the peoples too, through woman the series and progeny of human succession is spread abroad, and through the Church eternal life is conferred.

Indeed we cannot deny that the woman erred. Yet why do you wonder if the weaker sex erred and fell, since even the stronger fell? The woman has an excuse in her sin, which you do not have. She, as Scripture asserts, was deceived by the serpent, wisest of all creatures; you by a woman: but a superior creature deceived her, an inferior deceived you; for a woman deceived you, but though an evil angel, still an angel deceived her. If you could not resist an inferior, how could she resist a superior? Your guilt absolves her.

26. The Sentences upon Adam and Eve Compared

If you doubt concerning the measure of guilt, let us inquire of the sentence. To her it was said: In sorrow shall you bring forth children, and your turning shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you. But to the man it is said: You are earth, and unto earth you shall go. And truly a just sentence; since if Adam could not keep what he had heard from the Lord God, how could the woman keep what she heard from the man? If the voice of God did not confirm him, how would a human voice confirm her?

27. Eve's Confession Compared to Adam's Blame

Finally, when Adam was confronted for having tasted, contrary to the divine precepts which he had heard face to face, he had nothing to say except that the woman gave it to him, and he ate; but the woman said: the serpent led me astray, and I ate. How much greater the woman's excuse! He is accused, she is questioned. Add to this that she also confessed her fault first, for in saying she was seduced, she testifies to her error. The remedy of error, therefore, is confession.

28. Eve's Restraint in Accusing Only the Serpent

In the judgment itself, how much more gentle was the woman than the man! He accused his wife; she accused the serpent, that is, even when accused she did not turn back the charge, but preferred, if she could, to absolve her very accuser rather than to bind him.

29. Eve's Sentence Turned into the Grace of Childbearing

You have, therefore, both the absolving of guilt in confession, and the sentence in its execution. In sorrow, he says, shall you bring forth children. She acknowledges the weight of her condemnation, she carries out the burden of the penal condition. On your behalf, man, woman labors with her sorrows, and finds recompense out of her punishment; that through the children by whom she is afflicted, she may be set free. Thus grace was made out of injury, health out of weakness; for it is written: For she shall be saved through the bearing of children. So she brings forth with salvation those whom she bore in sorrow, and rears to praise those whom she bore with pain.

30. Beauty as a Further Temptation for Man

But you say, man, that the woman was the temptation of the man. True. Now if she is beautiful, behold another temptation.

30. Abraham, Sarah, and the True Beauty of a Wife

But you say, man, that the woman was the temptation of the man. True. Now if she is beautiful, behold another temptation. Yet the beauty of his wife did not harm Abraham when he went down into Egypt, rather it profited him; for he was honored on account of his wife, not made a mockery in his wife. But why do you look more for beauty of face in a wife than for beauty of character? Let a wife please more by honesty than by beauty. Let her be chosen who resembles Sarah in character. It is not the woman's fault that beauty is born in her: but it is the man's fault to seek in a wife that by which he is often tempted; in which, if he is the weaker, the woman herself is made to stumble; if he is stronger, the man is imperiled.

We cannot find fault with the work of the divine Craftsman: but he whom bodily beauty delights, let that comeliness delight him much more, which is according to the image of God within, not more adorned without.

31. Watching and Fasting against the Danger of Temptation

If then a wife is a temptation, be more cautious, seek a remedy against the danger of temptation: Watch, he says, and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The Lord said this, the man heard it, the woman fulfilled it. Daily women fast, and keep fasts not commanded: they acknowledge sin, they summon a remedy. Once did the woman eat of the forbidden thing, and daily she absolves it by fasting. You who followed her when she erred, follow her when she corrects. Both of you ate; why does she alone fast? That is, both of you sinned; why does she alone seek a remedy for the error?

32. Eve Renewed as Sarah, Bearing without Sorrow

Come, Eve, now sober; come, Eve, though once intemperate in yourself, but now fasting in your offspring. Come, Eve, now such that you are not excluded from paradise, but caught up to heaven. Come, Eve, now Sarah, who may bear children not in sorrow, but in exultation: not in grief, but in laughter. Isaac shall be born to you manifold. Come again, Eve, now Sarah, of whom it may be said to her husband: Hear Sarah your wife. Though you be subject to your husband, because it is fitting that you be so, yet you have swiftly loosed the sentence, so that the man is bidden to hear you.

33. Sarah's Type Fulfilled in Mary's Virgin Motherhood

If she, by bearing a type of Christ, deserved to be heard by her husband, how much does that sex profit which bore Christ himself, with virginity yet unimpaired! Come then, Eve, now Mary, who has brought us not only the incentive of virginity, but has even brought in God. Whence Isaiah, joyful and exulting at so great a gift, says: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us. Whence this gift? Not from the earth indeed, but from heaven he chose for himself this vessel through which Christ should descend, and consecrated a temple of modesty. Through one he descended, but he called many. Whence also Mary found this special name of the Lord, which signifies: God from my kin.

34. The Name Mary and the Waters of Marah

Many were called Mary before: for Mary, sister of Aaron, was also so called; but that Mary was called bitterness of the sea. The Lord therefore came into the bitterness of human frailty, that the bitterness of our condition might become sweet, tempered by the sweetness and grace of the heavenly Word. This was signified by the spring of Marah, sweetened by the wood; because the people of the nations, bitter before with sins, or our flesh, might be changed to other uses by the tempering of the Lord's passion.

35. Four Objections to Mary's Perpetual Virginity Introduced

Outstanding therefore is Mary, who raised up the standard of sacred virginity, and set up for Christ the pious banner of untainted integrity. And yet, although all are summoned to the cultivation of holy virginity by Mary's example, there have been those who denied that she remained a virgin. This great sacrilege we have long preferred to pass over in silence: but since the occasion has brought it into the open, so that even a Bishop was charged with this lapse, we do not think it should be left uncondemned; and especially since we read that she is called a woman, just as the Lord himself, at Cana of Galilee, said to her when she said to him: They have no wine: Son, he answered: What is it to me and to you, woman? And elsewhere we read what Matthew said of Joseph and Mary: She was found, before they came together, to be with child of the Holy Spirit. And below: He knew her not, until she brought forth.

And again of Joseph: He was unwilling to expose her. And the brothers of the Lord seem to signify that they were begotten of Mary. And the Apostle says: When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Each of these must be unraveled by us, so that whoever reads them may not be bound by the fetter of such language. Let us answer, then, in their order.

36. The Word Woman Signifies Sex, Not Corruption

Why should we be troubled by the word "woman"? It refers to sex; for it is not a term of corruption, but of sex.

38. Eve Called Woman Before She Knew Adam

Why should we be troubled by the word "woman"? It refers to sex; for it is not a term of corruption, but of sex. The usage of common speech does not prejudice the truth. Indeed, virginity first received this name: for when God had taken one of Adam's ribs, and had filled up the flesh in its place: He built her, it says, into a woman. Certainly she had not yet known a man, and already she was called a woman. Nor has Scripture been silent on the reason for this name, saying: Because Adam said: Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man. Because she was taken, it says, from her man, not because she had experienced a man. And so as long as she was in paradise, she was called woman, and was not known by the man; but when she was cast out of paradise, then we read that Adam knew Eve his wife, and then she conceived and bore a son.

The first knot, then, is loosed.

37. Resolving the Question of Before They Came Together

The second question, that it is written, Before they came together, she was found to be with child. But it is the custom of divine Scripture to establish the cause that has been taken up, and to defer the incidental matter.

38. The Word Until Does Not Imply Change

By this the third question also is resolved, in which it is said: He knew her not, until she brought forth a Son. What then? Did he afterward know her? By no means. For see, it is written: I am God, and until you grow old, I am. Did God, then, cease to be, once they had grown old, to whom it was said "until"? Likewise in the prophecy of David we read: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. Did the Son, then, once the peoples of the nations were subjected, who before seemed enemies when they denied the author of salvation and served idols, cease to sit at the right hand of the Father, or will he not sit forever?

39. Joseph's Doubt Compared to the Angels at the Resurrection

But what does it prejudice Mary, if Joseph did not understand the mystery of the heavenly counsel, and thought she was not a virgin, whom he saw to be pregnant? The angels did not know of his resurrection, which the verses signify: Lift up your gates, princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall enter. Who is this King of glory? They ask as though they did not know; and others answer: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, he is the King of glory. And the Prophet repeated the same verses, and nonetheless they, as though ignorant, again asked; for so it is written: Lift up your gates, princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall enter. Who is this King of glory? How, then, could a man know the divine secret which the angels did not know? And in the book of Isaiah you have: Who is this that comes from Edom; the redness of his garments from Bosor?

And surely it was a lesser thing for a man to have risen again, than for a virgin to have given birth. For already at Elijah's prayers, at Elisha's prayers, the dead had risen again: but never before, never after, has a virgin brought forth.

40. Joseph Convinced of Mary's Virginity by the Angel

This he thought, that he might expose her as guilty, before he was warned by the angel: but afterward, as a believer and free from doubt, he kept the oracle of her virginity.

41. Betrothal and the True Meaning of Marriage

Nor should this trouble us, that it says: For Joseph took his wife, and went into Egypt; for a woman betrothed to a man receives the name of wife. For when a marriage is begun, then the name of marriage is assumed; for it is not the deflowering of virginity that makes a marriage, but the marital covenant. Indeed, when a girl is joined in wedlock, it is a marriage, not when she is known by union with a man.

42. Why Mary Was Betrothed to Joseph

But that she was betrothed in marriage, though we have said more fully elsewhere, it is enough now to touch briefly upon the reason for the heavenly mystery; so that by those who saw Mary heavy with child, it might be believed not adultery against her virginity, but the lawful childbirth of a betrothed woman. For the Lord preferred that some should doubt about his own generation, rather than about his mother's modesty.

43. Brothers as a Term for Common Kinship

But the Lord himself teaches that "brothers" is also used to denote fellowship of nation, of race, and of people, when he says: I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise thee. Paul also says: I wished myself to be accursed for my brethren. Now they could have been brothers from Joseph, not from Mary. Indeed, whoever pursues this more diligently will find it so. We have not thought it necessary to pursue these matters, since it is clear that the name of "brother" is common to many.

44. Christ's Choice of an Unstained Mother

Would the Lord Jesus indeed choose for himself as mother one who could stain the heavenly hall with masculine seed—as though she were one for whom it would be impossible to keep the guard of virginal modesty? By whose example the rest are called forth to the pursuit of integrity—would she herself have strayed from this very gift which through her was set forth as an example to the rest?

45. The Eunuch's Promise and Mary's Unfailing Virginity

And who was there to whom the Lord would render a greater merit, or reserve a greater reward, than to his mother? For to none has he assigned richer gifts than to virginity, as Scripture teaches us. For thus the Lord spoke through Isaiah: Let not the eunuch say, I am a dry tree. Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Whosoever shall keep my commandments, and shall choose the things that I will, and shall hold fast my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, and it shall not fail. To others he promises that they shall not fail: would he suffer his own mother to fail?

But Mary does not fail, the mistress of virginity does not fail; nor could it be that she who had borne God should think herself to be one to be borne by man; nor could Joseph, a just man, have broken out into such madness as to be joined by bodily intercourse with the mother of the Lord.

46. John's Mystical Testimony to Mary's Perpetual Virginity

Yet let Mary be defended by her own manners, not by those of others. She did not fail, as I have said. The Son of God himself is witness, who, when he was on the cross, commended his mother to a disciple as a son, and delivered her to the disciple as a mother. This John taught, who wrote more mystically; for the other evangelists wrote that at the passion of the Lord the earth trembled, the sun fled, pardon was asked for the persecutors: but he, the beloved of the Lord, who had drawn from his breast the secrets of wisdom and the hidden things of holy will spoken by the others, passing these by, pursued this matter more diligently, that by his own testimony he might confirm the perseverance of the mother's virginity; as a son solicitous for his mother's honor, lest anyone should sully her with so great a reproach of violated integrity.

47. Mary at the Cross and Her Visit to Elizabeth

Fitting indeed it was that he who granted pardon to the thief should absolve his mother from doubt of her honor. For he says to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. And he says to the disciple: Behold thy mother. This is the disciple to whom the mother is commended. How would he take away the wife from her husband, if Mary had been joined in marriage, or had known the use of the marriage bed?

Close your mouths, you impious; open your ears, you pious: hear what Christ speaks. The Lord Jesus bears witness a little while even to the common welfare, lest he leave his mother without honor. John is given by the testament of Christ. Let there be read the defense of modesty, the testimony of integrity: and to the disciple the guardianship of the mother, the grace of piety. Him the disciple took to his own. Assuredly Christ was making a divorce, not that Mary loved a husband. But with whom ought a virgin to dwell, but with him whom she knew to be the heir of her son, and the guardian of her integrity?

The mother stood before the cross, and, while the men fled, she stood undaunted. See whether the mother of Jesus could have changed her modesty, she who did not change her spirit. With pious eyes she beheld the wounds of her Son, through whom she knew that the body's redemption would come. She stood, not degenerated by the spectacle, she who did not fear the slayer. The Son hung upon the cross; the mother offered herself to the persecutors.

If this alone were the case, that she should be seen before her Son, praiseworthy would be the affection of piety, in that she did not wish to survive her Son; but if indeed she desired to die with her Son, she longed to rise again with him also, not ignorant of the mystery, that he whom she had borne would rise again; and that she might not wish the death of her Son to be spent for the public use alone, she waited to see if perhaps by her own death also something might be added to the common gift. But the passion of Christ needed no help, as the Lord himself had long before said: And I looked, and there was no helper: and I sought, and there was none to uphold: and I will deliver them with mine own arm.

How then could her integrity have been wrested from her, who, while the apostles fled, did not fear torments, but herself offered herself to dangers? Her faith was such, that not only did she preserve in herself the grace of virginity, but even conferred the mark of integrity upon those whom she visited. She visited John the Baptist, and, before he was born, he leapt in his mother's womb. At the voice of Mary the little infant exulted, obeying before he was born. Nor undeservedly did he remain uncorrupted in modesty, whom for three months the mother of the Lord imbued with a certain oil of her presence and the ointment of her integrity. And the same woman was afterward made a companion to John the Evangelist, who knew not marriage. Whence I do not wonder that divine mysteries were spoken to one for whom the hall of all sacraments stood ready.

51. The Prophecy of Israel's Restoration and Gathering

Now let those who sow this question tell me, what is it that the Lord says through the prophet: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy yet upon the house of Israel? And below: I will gather them, he says, from the nations, and I will gather them from the regions of the peoples, and I will be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations: and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, when I shall appear to them among the nations; and I will not turn my face any more from them, because I poured out my wrath upon the house of Israel, says the Lord.

52. The Shut Gate of Ezekiel Identified with Mary

And below the prophet says that he saw upon a very high mountain the building of a city, whose gates are signified as very many; yet one is described as shut, of which he speaks thus: And he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the East, and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, and shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it, because the Lord God of Israel shall pass through it. And it shall be shut, because the prince shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord. By the way of the porch of the gate he shall enter, and by the way thereof shall he go out What is this gate, but Mary? Shut, therefore, because a virgin. Mary, then, is the gate through whom Christ entered into this world, when he was brought forth by a virginal birth, and yet did not loosen the enclosures of virginal birth.

The unspotted enclosure of her modesty remained, and the seals of her integrity endured inviolate, when he came forth from the Virgin, whose height the world could not sustain.

53. Christ Passed Through the Gate Without Opening It

This gate, he says, shall be shut, and shall not be opened. Good gate is Mary, who was shut, and was not opened. Christ passed through her, but did not open her.

54. The Gate of Every Man and of the Womb

And that we may teach that every man has a gate through which Christ enters: Lift up, he says, ye gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. How much more, then, was there a gate in Mary, in whom Christ sat and from whom he went forth? For there is also a gate of the womb. Whence also holy Job: He forbade, he says, the star of that night, because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb.

55. Mary's Womb the One Gate That Remained Closed

There is, then, a gate of the womb also, but not always shut: yet one alone could remain shut, through whom, without loss of the barriers of her generative parts, the offspring of the virgin came forth. Therefore, says the prophet: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: that is, no man of men: because the Lord, he says, the God of Israel shall pass through it. And it shall be shut, that is, both before and after the Lord's passing it shall be shut: and it shall not be opened by any, nor has it been opened: because it has always had as its door Christ himself, who said, I am the door, whom none could pluck away from it.

56. The Eastern Gate and the True Light

This gate looked to the east: because she poured forth the true light, she who begot the Orient, and bore the Sun of Righteousness. Let the imprudent, then, hear: This gate, he says, shall be shut, which receives only the God of Israel. He, then, of whom it was said to the Church: For he has strengthened the bars of thy gates—could he not strengthen his own gate? But he did indeed confirm it and keep it untouched. Accordingly it has not been opened.

57. The Prophesied Gate Kept Shut for Mary

Let them hear, then, the prophet saying: It shall not be opened, and it shall be shut, that is, it shall not be opened by him to whom she shall be betrothed: for it shall not be lawful that it be opened, through which the Lord shall pass. And after him, he says, it shall be shut, that is, Joseph shall not open it, since it shall be said to him: Fear not to take Mary thy wife; for that which shall be born of her is of the Holy Ghost.

58. Open Hands, Shut Door, Sealed Mind

The shut gate, then, is virginity: and the enclosed garden is virginity: and the sealed fountain is virginity. Hear, O virgin, more diligently, with ears open, and with modesty shut: open thy hands, that the poor may know thee; shut the door, lest a violator creep in; open thy mind, but keep the seal.

59. The Rod from the Root of Jesse

The rod also from the root is virginity; for thus it is written: There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall arise from his root. This rod is not hollow, but solid. Let no one, then, scorch thy rod, that thou mayest guard thy flower. Thou art a rod, O virgin; be not bent, be not inclined to the earth, that in thee the flower of the paternal root may arise.

60. The Enclosed Garden and Its Hedge

Thou art a garden enclosed, O virgin; guard thy fruits: let not thorns come up in thee, but let thy roses flourish. Thou art a garden enclosed; let no one there take away the hedge of thy modesty, for it is a kingdom. As a testimony thou receivest hedge for hedge. But let him alone take it away, of whom it is written: Who was born through the hedge. Let no one destroy thy hedge, lest thou come into common use. Thou art a paradise, O virgin; beware of Eve.

61. The Sealed Fountain of Virginity

Thou art a sealed fountain, O virgin; let no one pollute thy water, let no one trouble it, that thou mayest always recognize thine own image in thy fountain.

62. The Shut Gate and the Key of David

Thou art a shut gate, O virgin; let no one open thy door, which once he shut, the Holy and True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no man shuts; who shuts and no man opens. He has opened the Scriptures to thee; let no one shut them: he has shut thy modesty; let no one open it.

63. Hold Fast Your Crown

Behold, he says, I come quickly: hold that which thou hast; that no man take thy crown. What is thy crown, but that of which it is said: And thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord?

64. Christ the One Who Has No Second

Who says this, but he of whom Ecclesiastes said: There is one, and there is not a second? Who is this, but he of whom it is said: One is your master, Christ? He is one, because he is the only-begotten Son of God: because he alone, as it is written: For he alone stretched out the heaven, and walketh upon the sea as upon dry ground. He, then, is not a second, because he is first; he is not a second, because he is one: One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. One God the Father, and one God the Son, and one Holy Spirit, as it is written: But all these things worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. One, he says, because one God. No second: because he does what he wills, not what is commanded. One, then, is God the Father, and one is the Son of God.

One and one, because they are not two gods. One is the Son, because he is one with the Father, as he himself said: I and the Father are one. And one is the Spirit, because it is the unity of the Trinity, not distinguished by order, nor by time.

65. The Order of Father, Son, and Spirit in Baptism

But they say it is written: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and they object that he named the Father first, the Son second, the Holy Spirit third. Is it then the case, because the Gospel says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, that he signified the Father to be inferior, because he first recalled that the Word of God was always and had ever been in the beginning? Or when the Apostle said: In the kingdom of Christ and God, did he establish an order? Or when the Lord Jesus himself says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he has anointed me, he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim remission to captives, did he testify that the Spirit is more eminent than the Son of God?

66. Open Ears, Closed Mouth

You observe, virgin, how these things are resolved. Open your ears to these things, close your mouth. Open your ears, that you may hear the faith: close your mouth, that you may keep your modesty.

67. One Name for Three Persons

Then they read that he said: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and they do not understand what he had prefaced before: In the name, he says. He signified indeed three persons, but he asserted one name of the Trinity.

68. One God, One Name, No Second

Therefore there is one God, one name, one divinity, one majesty. There is therefore no second, because the Trinity is the principle of all things, and the primacy of the Trinity is over all things. Therefore he is one, and there is no second. He is one who has no second, because he alone is unique without sin, alone without a helper, who says: I looked, and there was no helper.

69. Christ's Ceaseless Labor as Our Advocate

There is no end to his labor, because for all he is our advocate with the Father, and he has taken up our infirmities, and he grieves for us, he is weak for us, as he says: I was sick, and you did not visit me.

70. The Riches of Wisdom Not of the World

His eye is not satisfied with riches; because he himself is the height of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, in whom are the treasures of the heavenly mysteries. Why then do we labor rather for the world, and defraud our soul of the loss of so great a good, we who ought to serve none other than this Lord?

71. Testimony That Christ Is Not Second

He therefore is not second. I certainly bring this testimony: I read that he is first, I read that he is not second. Let those who say "second" prove it by reading.

72. First Man Earthy, Second Man Heavenly

But someone says that it is written: The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man was of heaven, heavenly. But observe what he says. The second, he says, man; as if he had said the second man. And I say that he is first according to divinity, before whom there is none; but second according to the flesh, because after Adam.

73. Christ the First and the Last Adam

I say more, not only "second" according to man, but even "last." Indeed thus you have it written: The first man Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit. See the clemency of Christ: he himself is first and last. He who was first made himself last for our sake. First, because through him are all things: last, because through him is the resurrection. For he descended and cast himself down, that he might fall, placing himself beneath all, that he might raise up all who lay prostrate.

74. No One to Lift the Fallen

Whence also Ecclesiastes says: For if one falls, another will lift up his companion; but woe to that one when he falls, and there is no second to lift him up. And indeed if two sleep together, they have warmth: but one, how shall he be warmed? That is, whoever has Christ with him, even if he falls, will rise again; even if he dies, he will live again; because he who came to cast fire on the earth is present to him. Then too, when Elisha revived the boy, he breathed upon him, that he might pour in the warmth of life. Have then with you in your breast this fire, which may revive you; lest the cold of perpetual death steal upon you.

75. The Youth Who Warmed Hearts on the Road

This, then, is the youth who cast himself down, who came through Mary, and poured the warmth of life into the breasts of his hearers. Whence they say in the Gospel: Was not our heart burning within us, when he opened to us the Scriptures?

76. The Second Youth Who Rises for All

This is the second youth, as Ecclesiastes says: I saw all the living, who walk under the sun, with the second youth, who shall rise up in his place? For who shall rise up in place of Christ, since he has risen for all, and in him all have risen, since they have received the hope of resurrection?

77. The Prophecy of Judah and the Risen Temple

That this is said of Christ becomes clear when you notice that this passage agrees with the blessing or prophecy of Jacob, who says of Judah: Who shall raise him up? Certainly not another, because he himself raised himself up, as he himself says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he said this of the temple of his body.

78. Christ's People Without End

That too truly applies to Christ alone, which he added: There is no end for all his people: because Christ's people, being innumerable, have no end, for whom the faith of the eternal resurrection acquires the age of perpetual life. According to the flesh, then, he is called a youth, and it is not doubtful that he fell or rose again. Then he also added this, that the best boy is poor and wise: for he was made poor, though he was rich.

79. The Virgin as the King's Royal Hall

He himself, therefore, the king of Israel, passed through this gate, he himself the leader sat in it, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, as a King sitting in the royal hall of the virginal womb, or in the boiling pot, as it is written: Moab the hall of my hope, or the pot of my hope. For both readings are found in different manuscripts. The royal hall is the virgin, who is subject not to a husband, but to God alone. And the pot is the womb of Mary, which the fervent spirit that came upon her filled, and which filled the whole world when she bore the Savior.

80. Doing the Father's Will at the Gate

He who ate, sitting in the gate, certainly ate that food of which he says: My food is to do the will of my Father who is in heaven.

81. Mary as the Cloud and the Boiling Pot

O the riches of Mary's virginity! As a pot it boiled, and as a cloud it rained the grace of Christ upon the earth: for it is written of her: Behold, the Lord comes, seated upon a light cloud. Truly light, she who knew not the burdens of marriage: truly light, she who lifted this manner of sinner from the heavy weight of usury. She was light, who bore in her womb the remission of sins. Then too she lifted up John while he was still set in the womb, who at her voice leapt, and the infant exulted in joy, animated first by a sense of devotion before by the infusion of the living spirit.

82. Receive the Rain of the Sacred Cloud

Receive then, receive, sacred virgins, the spiritual rain of this cloud, the tempering of bodily heat; that you may quench all the ardors of the body, and that the inward parts of your mind may become moist. Our fathers announced to us the rain of this sacred cloud, that the salvation of the world would come. They signified that this rain, which was to come, was the dripping drops falling upon the earth, which Jerubbaal requested and obtained. Follow the good cloud, which bore within itself the fountain by which it watered the whole earth (Judges vi, 36 and following). Receive then the voluntary rain, the rain of blessing, which the Lord has poured out upon his inheritance. Receive the water, and let it not flow away from you; because it is a cloud, let it wash you, and drench you with its sacred moisture; because it is a pot, let it steam upon you with eternal spirit.

83. The Ointment Poured Out Without Fail

Receive then from this Moabite pot of heavenly grace the ointment, and do not fear that it will fail: what has been poured out abounds all the more; because its fragrance has gone out into all the earth, as it is written: Your name is an ointment poured out; therefore the maidens have loved you (Song, 2). May this ointment descend into the innermost depths of the heart, and the secret places of the inward parts, whereby holy Mary breathed not the scents of delights, but the breathings of divine grace.

84. This Ointment That Undid Eve's Fault

This rain quenched Eve's craving: this ointment wiped away the stench of hereditary error; this ointment Mary, sister of Lazarus, poured upon the feet of the Lord, and the whole house was filled and fragrant with the pious odor.

85. None Too Poor to Receive This Grace

Let no one think herself poor, let none consider herself needy, let none fear that she cannot afford to buy this precious ointment, or think that this fountain is for sale. You who thirst, he says, go to the water: and whoever have no silver, go and buy, and drink without silver. And above he says: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without silver. Therefore the Lord became poor, though he was rich; that all might buy him, and that he might especially enrich the needy with his own poverty.

86. Prepare Your Vessels for the Living Fountain

Prepare then the vessels of the Lord, that you may receive this fountain of living water, the fountain of virginity, the ointment of integrity, the odor of faith, and the grace, blooming with sweet mercy. Put on the innocence of his lamb, who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return: when he was struck, did not strike back.

87. The Beautiful Steps in the Sandal of Aminadab

Imitate her, my daughters, to whom fittingly applies that which was prophesied of the Church: How beautiful are your steps in the sandals of Aminadab (Song vii, 1); because the Church went forth beautifully in the preaching of the Gospel. Beautifully does the soul go forth which uses the body as a sandal; so that wherever it wills, it may bear its own footstep about without any hindrance.

88. The Virgin Birth Signified by the Sandal's Strap

In this sandal Mary went forth beautifully, who, without any commingling of bodily intercourse, brought forth as a virgin the author of salvation. Whence John excellently says: I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal, that is, I am not worthy to comprehend the mystery of the incarnation within the narrow bounds of the human mind, or to explain it with the poverty of a base speech. Whence Isaiah also says: Who shall declare his generation? Beautiful, then, are the steps either of Mary or of the Church, since beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel.

89. The Necklaces and the Turned Bowl of Mary

How beautiful too are those things which, in the figure of the Church, were prophesied of Mary; if only you attend not to the members of the body, but to the mysteries of her generation! For it is said to her: The joints of your thighs are like necklaces, the work of the hands of a craftsman. Your navel is a turned bowl, never lacking mixed wine. Your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies (Song vii, 1-3); because Christ's birth from the Virgin, containing all things in itself, just as victors in worldly battles are accustomed to honor the necks of valiant men by bestowing necklaces upon them, so he lifted our yoke, that he might crown the necks of the faithful with the insignia of virtue.

90. Mary's Womb as the Bowl of Wisdom

Truly that womb of Mary was a turned bowl, in which was Wisdom, who mixed his wine in the bowl, supplying, from the fullness of his divinity, an unfailing grace of pious knowledge.

91. The Grain of Wheat and the Heap

In this womb of the virgin there sprouted together both the heap of wheat and the grace of the lily flower: since it produced both the grain of wheat, and the lily. The grain of wheat, according to what is written: Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat, falling into the earth, dies, it remains alone. But because from one grain of wheat a heap was made, that prophetic word was fulfilled: And the valleys shall abound with grain, because that dead grain brought forth abundant fruit. This grain, then, satisfied all men with the perpetual food of heavenly gifts: and that prophetic utterance of David's mouth was fulfilled, saying: He fed them with the fat of the wheat, and satisfied them with honey from the rock.

92. Christ the Lily Among Thorns

That there is also a lily in this grain the divine oracles testify, for it is written: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys: as a lily among thorns (Song ii, 1, 2). Christ was the lily among thorns, when he was in the midst of the Jews.

93. The Bridegroom's Garden of Lilies

Hear, virgin, what he says: The lily, he says, of the valleys is Christ, that is, of humble and meek souls. Be, then, meek and gentle, that in you Christ may sprout up as a lily. Concerning whom you also have elsewhere: His lips are lilies, dropping choice myrrh (Song, 13); that is, those who speak of Christ's passion and celebrate it with their own mouth, and who carry about his mortification in their own body, are the lilies of Christ; especially the sacred virgins, whose virginity is splendid and immaculate. Whence many take it that the Church seems to say: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys: she who in this valley of this world exhales the grace of a good odor, by the diligent confession of piety. Then also elsewhere she says: My brother has gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

I am my brother's, and my brother is mine, who feeds among the lilies (Song vi, 1, 2).

94. The Wheat and Lilies Poured Into the World

From that womb of Mary, then, was poured out into this world the heap of wheat set about with lilies; when Christ was born of her, to whom the prophet David says: Thou shalt bless the crown of the year with thy goodness, and thy fields shall be filled with plenty. The pastures of the wilderness shall grow fat, and the little hills shall be girded with joy. The rams of the flocks are clothed, and the valleys shall abound with corn: yea, they shall shout and sing a hymn.

95. The Acceptable Year and Day of Salvation

What is the year of the Lord's goodness, if not that of which it is said: In an accepted time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee; when the Church abounded through the faith of the peoples, when priests put on righteousness? Whence also the Apostle says: Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation; when the Lord came to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution, as he himself recalled in his Gospel, saying: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he hath anointed me.

96. Christ's Sojourn Crowned by His Sufferings

Then, therefore, the Lord crowned the time of his coming with his works and with his own glory and honor; for that whole year of his sojourn in this world contained the contests of various sufferings. As a little child he conquered Herod, over whom he triumphed in the passion of the infants. He hungered, he thirsted, for us he was scourged, for us he endured unworthy insults, he mounted the cross, he died for us.

97. The Crown Given by Solomon's Mother

You see how great the contests! Yet he is not a stingy exactor of reward, for whom one heavenly crown of virtue sufficed abundantly. Whence, go forth, daughters of Jerusalem, as the divine Scripture exhorts you in the Song of Songs: Go forth and behold King Solomon in the crown wherewith his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals, and on the day of the gladness of his heart, for he made for himself, it says, love from the daughters of Jerusalem; that is: Go forth from these bodily anxieties and cares, go forth from this carnal delight, and journey away from the body, that you may be present with the Lord; since they who are in the flesh cannot please their Lord. It is said to you, then, that you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if you shall be able to comprehend the love of that true Solomon, the peaceable one, which he made for himself; and therefore he received a crown from his mother.

98. Mary's Womb Crowns the Unwrought Christ

Blessed mother Jerusalem, blessed too the womb of Mary, which crowned so great a Lord. She crowned him when she formed him: she crowned him when she brought him forth; for although she formed him without any working of her own since the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin; whence he himself says: Thine eyes did see my unwrought substance, yet by this very fact, that she conceived and bore him for the salvation of all, she placed upon his head a crown of eternal loving-kindness; that through the faith of believers Christ might become the head of every man. Thus the flesh of Christ too was unwrought, which, that the Virgin Mary might conceive it, by a certain unaccustomed and new mystery of the Incarnation, without any admixture of male seed, by the disposition of divine grace, he assumed from the Virgin that which belonged to the flesh, and in her formed the members of the immaculate man, the last Adam.

99. Put On Christ and the Garment of Virtue

You hear of a man, but understand above man; for it is written: Thou shalt not seethe a lamb in its mother's milk. And elsewhere you read: And he is a man; and who shall know him? Therefore you ought not to estimate that Lamb, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, by the powers of the human condition, nor confine the majesty of incomprehensible power within the weakness of a degenerate understanding. For that food of perfect faith Jacob did not seethe in milk, wherein Isaac his father took such delight that with prophetic soberness he conferred upon him the whole prerogative of blessing. And therefore the Apostle wrote that the thin juice of milk is the food of instruction, saying: For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe, but solid food belongs to the perfect.

100. And you, therefore, daughter, take up that robe of the woman woven together by pious work, who opens her hands to the poor, and whose lamp is not put out the whole night through: put it on, and bring such food to your father, that he may say: How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my daughter? Praising in you, still of tender age, prudence, and also the affection of pious devotion. And may he say to you: Come near to me, daughter; and having smelled the smell of your garments, may he bless you, saying: Behold, the smell of my daughter is as the smell of a full field which the Lord hath blessed, and God give thee of the dew of heaven from above, and of the fatness of the earth abundance. And to these may he add: Cursed be he that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

101. Clothed with this robe, Jacob saw a man, and asked of him a blessing as from the Lord God, and he called the place, The Vision of God. Clothed with this robe, he saw that robe of Christ, of which it is said: He shall wash his robe in wine. And he blessed Joseph also, saying: My son, Joseph is grown, my son is grown, my son the younger, envied, return to me, signifying the token of the Lord's resurrection. And he added: The blessing of thy father and of thy mother hath prevailed above the blessings of the enduring mountains, and the desires of the everlasting hills, that is, above the King of grace.

102. Take up this robe, that you may put on Christ, and be renewed in the knowledge of him.

Put on, therefore, as one chosen of God, bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, patience, gentleness, charity, which is the bond of unity; that you may owe no man anything, save that you love one another as sisters, and that you envy not her grace, but rather, where you see the proof of it, that you imitate it, so that the peace of Christ and his grace may be in you, and the word of God dwell in your heart, and you flee the thoughts of this world.

103. Once dead to the world, touch not, I beseech you, nor handle the things of this age: but always, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, withdraw yourself from the conversation of this age, singing not to man, but to God. And, as holy Mary did, ponder these things in your heart. Chew over in your mouth, like a good lamb, the divine precepts, so that you may say too: I will be exercised in thy wonders. Let not your soul slumber nor drip away through weariness.

For drippings drive a man out of his house in the winter season: but the perfect soul does not drip, in which there is no crack of graver sin, but it abides in its own house, and rejoices and delights in the newness of an unassailed dwelling. But if perchance something should waver, say: Confirm me in thy words.

Now, having run through all these things, I turn my prayers to you, Father of grace, to whose loving-kindness we give thanks without number, because in sacred virgins we behold on earth the life of angels, which once we had lost in paradise. For what more could you have contributed toward marking out the pursuits of virgins, and confirming virtue, or celebrating together the glory of virginity, than that God should be born of a virgin? The fault has profited us more than it harmed us: wherein indeed our redemption found a divine gift.

105. But your only-begotten Son himself also, about to come upon the earth to take up what was lost, could find no purer generation of flesh than to dedicate to his own dwelling the heavenly hall of a virgin, in which there should be both the sanctuary of unspotted chastity and the temple of God.

106. And why should I weave in this too, that by your divine gift, together with the holy Moses and Aaron, the virgin Mary led the army of the Hebrews on foot through the waves? I leave the ancient things aside, I do not seek private matters: this nobility of the family is enough for the virginal state.

107. I beseech you to watch over this your handmaid, who has presumed to serve you, to dedicate to you her soul, to you the zeal of her integrity.

Her I offer with the priestly office, I commend with fatherly affection, that graciously, as bishop, you may confer upon her grace, whereby she may shake off her Bridegroom lingering in the inner chambers of the heavenly bridal room, may deserve to see him, may be led into the chamber of God her king, may deserve to hear him saying to her: Come hither from Lebanon, my spouse, come hither from Lebanon; thou shalt pass and pass through from the beginning of faith; that she may pass through this age, and pass on to those eternal things.

108. Look, therefore, Father, upon your own gift, for whose sanctification you sought no counsel; but upon her, without any petitioner or arbiter, you conferred so great a grace as, before the divine oracles, no one could have believed possible, that a virgin should carry God in her womb. By the prerogative of this gift, provoked, the pursuits of virginity and the examples of sacred integrity increase.

To these also let this your handmaid, roused to the grace of such virtue, stand ready at your altars, bringing not golden hair gleaming ruddy, dedicated to the nuptial veil: but that hair with which that evangelical woman, holy Mary, with zealous devotion wiped the feet of Christ, and filled the whole house with the ointment she poured out, offering it to be consecrated with the sacred veil.

109. Here is a girl present, whom neither the feasts of a wedding, nor rewards, nor the weight of a burdened womb, disturb with the pain vowed to those about to marry: but who begs for herself unspotted offspring of faith and devotion: that she may receive in her womb of the Holy Spirit, and, made fruitful unto God, may bring forth the spirit of salvation. But that she may be able to advance by the grace of merits, do you, God the Father almighty, add the aids of your commendation; for the dowry of modesty is not solitary.

Let modesty, sobriety, continence gird the hair of sacred virginity, that, girt about with the company of the virtues, crowned with the purple veil of the Lord's blood, she may carry about in her flesh the mortification of the Lord Jesus; for these are the better veils, which are the garments of the virtues, whereby fault is covered over, innocence revealed.

110. Clothe, therefore, your handmaid with these garments, which at every time may be clean; for that remains clean which no intervening fault has stained, that it may rightly be said to her: Because God has already accepted your works. At every time let your garments be white, and let oil not be lacking upon the head, wherewith she may kindle her mystic torches; that when the Bridegroom comes, she may be counted worthy of the heavenly chamber among those wise virgins, who by the light of her devotion and faith and gravity may illuminate the gift of her sacred profession.

111. Watch over, therefore, your handmaid, Father of charity and glory, that as in a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed, she may keep the barriers of modesty, the seals of truth. May she know how to till her field, which holy Jacob tilled; and may she reap from it fruits of sixty and a hundredfold. In the virtues and strengths of this field rouse in her grace, and revive charity. May she find whom she has loved, may she hold him, and not let him go; until she receives those good wounds of love, which are preferred to kisses. Ever ready, night and day, may she keep watch with her whole spirit and mind, lest the Word ever find her sleeping.

And since her beloved wishes to be sought more often, that he may test her affection, may she follow him as he retreats; let faith go forth, and let her soul journey in your word away from the body, that she may be present with God: let her heart keep watch, let the flesh sleep, lest it begin ill to watch for sins.

112. You, Lord, add other adornments of sacred virginity, add zealous, pious cultivations; that she may know how to possess her own vessel, may know how to be humbled: let her hold fast to love, the wall of truth, the hedge of modesty. Let not the covering of pine trees, let not cypresses surpass her; let not turtledoves surpass her chastity, let not doves surpass her simplicity.

Let there be simplicity in her heart, moderation in her words, modesty toward all, piety toward her kin, mercy toward the needy and the poor: let her hold to what is good, let her abstain from every appearance of evil: may the blessing of the dying man come upon her, and may the mouth of the widow bless her.

113. Set your word as a seal upon her heart, as a seal upon her arm; that in all her senses and works Christ may shine forth, that she may intend Christ, may speak of Christ. May much water not be able to quench her charity, nor the sword of persecution, nor danger: but, confirmed in every good work and word, may she put on your glory, and live in your grace in this world.

Sanctify her in truth, confirm her in virtue, join her in charity, and by your divine favor lead her through to that heavenly glory of chastity and integrity, the unspoiled and immaculate crown; that there she may follow the footsteps of the Lamb, and feed at noonday, and abide at noonday, and not walk in the flock of her companions: but, mingled with your lambs, without offense may she move about, the companion of virgins, the handmaid of the Marys.

114. Go forth, therefore, O Lord Jesus, on the day of thy espousals; receive her who has long been devoted to thee in spirit, now also by profession; fill her with the knowledge of thy will; take her up from the beginning unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, that thy handmaid may say: Thou hast held my right hand, and by thy will thou hast led me, and with glory thou hast taken me up.

Open thy hand, and fill her soul with blessing; that thou mayest save her who hopeth in thee, and that she may become a vessel sanctified unto honour, profitable to the Lord, approved unto every good work: through that eternal cross, through that venerable glory of the Trinity, to whom is honour, glory, everlastingness, to God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, from the ages, and now, and always, and unto all ages of ages. Amen.