Exhortation to Virginity

These things we could not refuse to the holy widow who asked for them. Receive, then, the gifts of salvation, which are now being laid up beneath the sacred altars. This holy widow, then, is Juliana, who prepared and offered to the Lord this temple which today we dedicate: worthy of such an offering, she who has already consecrated to the Lord, in her offspring, temples of chastity and integrity. While I wished to say "Juliana," I said "Judaea." My tongue did not err, but defined; for Judaea is the soul which confesses Christ. Finally, God is known in Judaea; that is, where He was acknowledged, not where He was denied. There is, then, a Judaea in the spirit, where the greater portion is, the more sincere understanding; because Salvation is of the Jews. The error of the tongue, then, discovered a testimony of holiness. 11. Let us then honor this widow, since it is written: Honor widows that are widows indeed.

Though she does not covet the honor of our words, she who has matched the apostolic mandate, having testimony in good works, who has well brought up her children, and better instructed them.

12. Mourning a Husband Taken from the Altar

Who did not bewail her as forsaken and miserable, when she lost her husband? Yet she groaned more over the minister snatched from the sacred altars than over a husband for herself, or a father for her children. For although she was widowed of a husband's protection and comfort, yet with a pious mind the cause of the Church outweighed it.

And thou indeed, son, somewhat nearer to thy father, acknowledge what thou owest to thy mother, that thou mayest render its name to thy house. Age excuses thee, but inheritance calls thee. Let thy father and thy mother be joyful in thee, my son. Do not despise thy mother as though imprudent. The admonition of a king, he says, whom his mother instructed. What, my son, who keeps the sayings of God? Firstborn, I say to thee, my son: What, son of my womb? What, son of my vows? Give not thy honor to a woman. Hear what the wise man says, what Scripture asserts. 15. Consider who helped thee to be born: thou art a son of vows rather than of my pains; consider to what gift thy father assigned thee, by such a name, when he called thee Laurentius. There we laid down our vows, whence we took the name. The vows were followed by their fulfillment; render to the martyr what thou owest to the martyr.

He obtained thee for us; do thou restore, as it were on thy own behalf, what we promised by the calling of such a name.

16. The Brevity and Vanity of Human Life

What else, then, my son, dost thou think should be chosen, but God, the father of thy family? For He it is who makes both poor and rich, both humble and exalted; He raises the poor man from the earth, and lifts up the needy from the dunghill, and makes him sit with the mighty in the seat of honor and inheritance. He grants the vow to him who desires it, and blesses the years of the just. What is more excellent than this, my son? Or what is the life of man on this earth but, as it were, a swift runner? And we have passed on, and we have seen nothing. And would that we might imitate this runner: that we might see nothing, and carry no burdens! But what is graver, the course is empty, and the works vain. Vain indeed they are, yet not light, nor void of offense: because the interest of sin is heavy.

Whence holy Job cries out: Is not the life of man upon earth a trial, or is not his life like that of a hireling by the day? And as a servant fearing his master, who longs for the shade, and as a hireling awaiting his wages; so have I waited in vain, and nights of sorrow have been given to me. If I sleep, I say: When will it be day? When I have risen, again: When will it be evening? I am full of grief from evening to morning. But my life is lighter than ash; it has perished in vain hope. Man, then, is nothing, unless thou, O Lord, look upon him, and make thy visitation of him even until morning, and bring him into rest. If a tree be cut down, it sprouts again, and flourishes at the scent of water; but man, when he has fallen, is nothing; sorrows press upon him.

17. Virginity Urged as Counsel Not Command

If then you wish, my sons, to avoid this trial of such great necessities, integrity of body is to be sought by you: which I urge as counsel, not enjoin as command. For virginity alone is that which can be persuaded, but cannot be commanded. It is a matter rather of vow than of precept. For what belongs to grace is not commanded, but desired; and it belongs rather to choice than to servitude. Whence also the Apostle says: Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel, as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord. For he had read that the Lord had said to 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 they shall not fail.

A better place, He says, will I give you—He speaks to eunuchs; that is, to those, namely, who have cut off the generative part from themselves. These, then, are they who have in heaven rewards more excellent than the rest.

18. The Lord's Teaching on Eunuchs for the Kingdom

These the Son of God proclaims in His Gospel; for when the apostles said: If the case of a man be so with his wife, that it is not lawful to put her away except for the cause of fornication, it is not expedient to marry, the Lord answered: All men do not receive this saying, but they to whom it is given; that is, the weakness of the human condition does not receive this so that it may be open to all: but it is easy to receive it only for those upon whom divine grace has shone, that they may be able to make themselves eunuchs, that they may attain the kingdom of heaven.

19. The Angelic Life of the Unmarried

You have heard, my sons, how great is the reward of integrity. A kingdom is acquired, and the heavenly kingdom exhibits the life of angels. This I urge upon you, than which nothing is more beautiful, that among men you should be angels, who are bound by no nuptial tie. For those who neither marry nor take wives are as the angels in the earth, so that they may not feel the tribulation of the flesh, may not know servitude, may be drawn away from the contagion of worldly thought, may direct their mind to divine things; that, as though stripped of the infirmity of the body, they may think not the things that are man's, but the things that are God's.

20. The Perils Facing a Fatherless Bride

Consider, daughters, if you should wish to marry, how much you lack, you who have no father. A rich dowry is lacking; and even were it abundant, you would be buying servitude at a great price. But now, who would not despise those bereft of a father? Whither will you flee? From whom will you seek help against the injuries of husbands? How great are the inconveniences even in marriages themselves! How grievous, for the most part, the insults! How great the chains!

21. Marriage as a Bond Upon the Wife

First, marriage itself is a bond, by which the bride is bound to the husband, and is drawn into subjection to him. It is indeed a good bond, the bond of charity, but nevertheless a bond, from which, when the bride wishes to free herself, she cannot, nor can she have free judgment of herself. Finally the Apostle says: The wife has not power over her own body, but the husband. And what wonder is this concerning the woman, since the husband too has not power over his own body, but the wife? If he who is stronger has not power over himself, how much less has the weaker! The common servitude, then, does not release the woman, but binds her more heavily.

22. Paul's Counsel to Remain Unmarried

See therefore what Scripture says, what the Apostle advises. Who can give you better counsel than that vessel of the Lord's election? Hear then what he says: But I would that all men were even as I myself. And again he says of the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they so remain, even as I. I wish you to be imitators of so great an Apostle, that you may follow his life, who fled the bond of marriage, that he might be bound to Christ Jesus. He could not have attained to so great a grace of his apostolate, had he been bound in the fellowship of marriage.

23. Paul's Own Abstention from Marriage

But if he who was most excellent in doctrine, and who possessed so great a gift of Christ, judged it to be of such moment to abstain from the use of the marriage union, and therefore so remained, lest very much should be taken from his office—since it would not be permitted always to be free for prayer, nor always to attend to the divine commands, being one whom the care of marriage would call back, so that it would be necessary to please a wife—what indeed ought you to choose, for whom virginity alone can give freedom, since she who marries is sold into servitude with her own money? Slaves are procured on better terms than marriages: in the former, the worth of servitude is bought; in the latter, a price is added to servitude. The married woman, being sold, is weighed down with gold, is valued by gold.

24. A Mother's Experience of Marriage's Burdens

I have experienced, my sons, the labors of union, the indignities of marriage, and even under a good husband, yet under no husband was I free: I served my husband, and I labored that I might please him. The Lord had mercy, and made him a minister of the altar, and immediately he was snatched away both from me and from you: and perhaps, by the Lord's mercy, lest he should be called a husband.

25. A Widow Worn by Untimely Sorrow

You see, my sons, a mother long-worn by sorrows, and still under the burdens of an untimely widowhood. You see every protection and adornment taken away. I have neither the help of a husband, nor the grace of virginity. And of me there is little care: it is you I mourn, you I consider. There have remained to me the burdens of marriage, the helps have departed. How much rather would I have never come to these experiences!

26. Her Sons Urged to Choose Virginity for Her Sake

Yet you can excuse your father, lighten your mother's burden, if what was lost in us should be represented again in you. For this alone we shall not repent of marriage, if our labor has profited you. I shall count it next thing to keeping virginity myself, to be the mother of virgins. Consider, my sons, whom the Lord Jesus, coming into these lands, chose for himself as mother. He came to give salvation to the world through a virgin, and dissolved the woman's fall by the childbearing of a virgin: let your integrity also dissolve my errors.

27. The Crown Virginity Would Bring Her

Consider what good virginity is. It is certain that I am destitute, that I need protection: but if you will so remain, I shall seek no one's help, the crown of your integrity will abound to me for all riches. Who will not call me blessed, whom they now think wretched? Who will not honor the mother of so many virgins? Who will not venerate the hall of modesty?

28. Scripture's Examples of Virgins Chosen for Salvation

Divine Scripture has raised many women into the light, yet has given the palm of public salvation to virgins alone. In the Old Testament, a virgin led the Hebrew people, shut in by land and sea, on foot through the seas: in the Gospel a virgin brought forth the author and redeemer of the world. The Church is a virgin, whom the Apostle was zealous to present as a chaste virgin to Christ: the daughter of Sion is a virgin; that city Jerusalem which is in heaven, into which nothing common or unclean enters, is a virgin: she is also a virgin whom Jesus calls, to whom he also said: Come hither from Lebanon, Bride, come hither from Lebanon; you shall pass over and pass through from the beginning of faith. Not only did the virgin pass over, but also pass through, who hastens to the Bridegroom; she passes over the world, she passes through to Christ: or because she who has dedicated herself to Christ, in passing over to heavenly things, passes through earthly things.

For the Bridegroom himself so comes to his Bride, that he leaps over the mountains, bounds over the hills.

29. Virginity as an Enclosed Garden

He adds yet further to the praise of virginity: A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, so that virginity, hedged in by the enclosure of modesty, may bring forth the better fruits, in which the seals of chastity remain undefiled. Keep this garden of your souls, this fountain of pure water, so that no one may disturb in you, no one may mark, what the origin of birth has sealed in you. Let no one take away my vineyard from you, and sow common herbs. The fruit of the vine is, as it were, virginal; marriages are like olive-plantings, in which frost is frequent; therefore, like garden herbs, they quickly fall and wither, unless old age puts an end to them, or continence raises them to fruit.

30. The Vineyard Defended Against Ahab and Jezebel

Let not Ahab come into you, who longed to destroy and blot out your vineyard: let not Jezebel come into you, that vain and worldly flood; for this is signified by the name, empty and overflowing: nor let Naboth come, who comes from the father, as his very name interprets, who redeemed the vineyard with his own blood, and offered his death for it. This is he who was stoned for us, who died for us, sought by false witnesses; who came poor, though he was rich, that we might be enriched by his poverty. This is the vine, who has filled the whole world with the abounding fruits of his grace. May this remain fixed with deep root in your hearts, so that it may overflow with fruit, and by the liquor of spiritual grace may the burnings of the body be tempered.

31. Mary as the Light Cloud and Budding Rod

This is he who comes upon a light cloud, as the prophet said: Behold, the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and will come into Egypt; signifying that he will come into Egypt—that is, into the affliction of this world—upon a virgin. He called Mary a cloud, because she bore flesh; light, because she was a virgin, not weighed down by any burdens of marriage. She herself is the rod budding with a flower, which is a virgin directed with free heart toward the Lord, one who is bent by no windings of the cares of this world.

32. John Entrusted with the Virgin Mary

Therefore the Lord from the cross gave her to his most beloved disciple, holy John, who said to his father and mother: I do not know you. Finally, being called by Christ, he left his father, following the Word. To him is the virgin given, who knows not his own kin: to him is the virgin given, who draws wisdom from the breast of Christ: to him is the virgin given, who did not recognize his brothers, and did not know his sons. Therefore the Law blesses him: Give to Levi his truths, give to Levi his lots.

33. John's Reception of Mary and True Possession

Whence also he himself received the Mother of the Lord; for we have it written, that from that hour the disciple took her unto his own. What is meant by "unto his own," since he had left father and mother, and followed Christ? Or how "unto his own," since the apostles themselves said: Behold, we have left all things, and followed you? What things of his own did John have, who had no worldly and secular possessions, who was not of the world? What then did he have as his own, except what he had received from Christ? A good possessor of the word and of wisdom, a good recipient of grace. Hear what the apostles received from Christ: Receive, he said, the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. For neither would the Mother of the Lord Jesus have removed, except to the possessor of grace, where Christ had his dwelling.

34. Clouds, Veils, and the Weight of Marriage

Give, therefore, you also, my sons, to that true Levi his truths. Be clouds, but light ones. You will surely be so, if virginity lightens the burdens of our condition, and illumines the darkness of this miry flesh. Therefore she says: I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, black through the flesh, beautiful through virginity. Clouds, then, are they, and heavy clouds, who marry; for I judge the word for marrying women to be drawn from clouds. Finally, they are covered as clouds, when brides receive their veils. And truly heavy clouds are they who bear the burden of matrimony. For they are also said to be made heavy in the womb, when they have received the seeds of conception.

35. Undefiled Virginity as True Levitical Truth

Give, therefore, to Levi his truths. What is so true as undefiled virginity, which guards the seal of modesty and the enclosure of the birth-given integrity? But indeed, when a young woman is deflowered by the use of marriage, she loses what is her own, when what is another's is mingled with her. For that is true which we are born, not that into which we are changed; what we have received from the Creator, not what we have taken up from cohabitation. Give, therefore, to the true Levi, to that prince of priests, to the true Aaron, to the true Melchisedech, his truths, such as he himself established, not such as the practice of this world makes them; that he may recognize his own work in you, and that birth-given seal, inviolate and whole.

36. Adam and Eve Before and After the Fall

Give to him, show forth to him that Adam who was before sin, that Eve who was before she drank in the slippery venom of the serpent, before they were tripped up by his snares, when they had nothing by which to be ashamed? For indeed now, though marriages be good, yet they have something by which the spouses themselves blush before each other. Be such, then, my sons, as Adam and Eve were in paradise. Of whom it is written, that after Adam was cast out of paradise, he knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, whom she called Cain: and again she conceived and bore a son, whose name was Abel. Better, then, was the second fruit than the first, because the latter was undefiled, the former defiled. The one clinging to God, and wholly of the Lord; the other a worldly and earthly possession. Finally, in the one the redemption of the world is announced, from the other the ruin of the world.

In this the sacrifice of Christ, in that the parricide of the devil. Let there be nothing, therefore, my sons, between you and the possession of the world, nor think that any lots of earthly and Jewish possession are to be claimed by you.

37. The Daughters of Salphaad and Worldly Possession

We read indeed that Moses—that is, the law—decreed that the lands won by war and slaughter should be distributed by lot to the Hebrew people, the possession of which the daughters of Salphaad demanded for themselves, because they were daughters of Salphaad. Yet the same Moses did not divide land to the Levites, whose dwelling was not earthly, but higher; but to them, without earthly labor, he assigned the stipends of the sacred ministry. But what are the daughters of Salphaad, who seek land, but, as the interpretation teaches, "shadowing of the mouth"? Which indeed is in those in whose mouth there is no truth, nor truth in their speech, as in the people of the Jews, who refuse to confess Christ Jesus, the Son of God, to be God. Such, then, seek land, and demand a possession of this kind, in which they toil through their whole life, and reap thorns of cares and anxieties instead of fruits.

38. Fleeing the Shadow for the Light of Christ

Flee, therefore, daughters, the shadow of the mouth, you who believe in the eternal light, which enlightens every man: who confess Christ not as it were in a shadow, but in the light. The people who sat in the shadow of death, upon them a light has arisen. We were, then, in shadow, but now no longer, we who confess Christ. And would that it were permitted also to me to say it—we who profess Christ! And yet let us profess: I widowhood, you virginity. Let confession with the mouth unto salvation be made in us.

39. The Lot of Levi, Virginity, and Widowhood

Give, then, to that Levi, our salutary one, his lots. His lot is the Levitical lot, his lot is virginity, his lot is widowhood; since not only the virgin, but also the unmarried woman thinks of the things of the Lord. Whence also the Apostle said: In whom also we have been chosen by lot. For as in the Old Testament the land was divided by lot, so in the Gospel we are assigned to the Lord by a certain lot. Whence also it is written of the evangelists: They divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots. And the apostles, when the twelfth apostle had to be chosen in the place of Judas, judged that the office of the apostolate should be conferred by lot. And so, prayer being made, that the Lord might choose whichever he would of the two, the lot fell upon Matthias.

40. The Spiritual Allotment Versus the Earthly

That, then, was the old earthly allotment, this is the spiritual one. In that one was the material wealth of the world, in this the personal wealth of office: there is the possession of cares, here the distribution of graces: there we are possessed by fields full of labor and sorrow, here we are possessed by Christ. Whence holy David also says: Thou hast possessed my reins. Here, my children, let him possess your reins, that in them may remain the seedbeds of chastity, the incitements of virtues. Therefore dedicate yourselves to Christ, and confess to him, that you may say: The Lord is my portion. This the married woman cannot say, but the unmarried; for the married woman seeks to please her husband, but the unmarried, Christ. That is the world's possession, this is Christ's.

41. The Levite's Renunciation of Earthly Wealth

Christ's possession is the levite, who claims nothing for himself of earthly things. He who seeks a wife cannot say: The Lord is my portion. Finally, what does Christ's minister say? Silver and gold I have not: but what I have, I give thee: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up, and walk—for this he had received, since he did not desire gold. Finally he had been sent without staff, without purse, without money. And therefore he gloried, because he had not what he had not received; for he was not ashamed in poverty, whom the poor one had redeemed. And therefore he said: Rise up and walk, because he had read: This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.

42. The Barren Woman's Joy and the Church's New Birth

Let the Lord, then, be your portion, the Lord who makes both the barren and the child-bearing. He makes both: but the one bears in sorrow, the other rejoices in barrenness, to whom it is said: Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not; break forth and cry out, thou that travailest not. For she has children without the pain of childbirth. Whence it is said of the Church: Who hath heard such a thing, that the earth should travail in one day, and a nation be born at once? Now the earth does not travail in one day, but grace brings forth. The day of Easter comes, the sacraments of baptism are celebrated in the whole world, sacred virgins are veiled. In one day, then, the Church is wont to bring forth many sons and daughters without any pain. And therefore it is beautifully said: And a nation was born at once, concerning the consecrated people.

43. Grace Given by Lot, Not by Merit

You see the mysteries, you see the grace of Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is conferred as if by a kind of lot; since not by works, but by faith is each one justified by the Lord. For just as the outcome of a lot is not in our power, but as chance brings it; so the grace of the Lord is conferred not as it were by merit of wages, but as it were by will. Whence the Apostle also speaks of the distributions of graces, which are conferred in various ways upon God's little servants: But all these things worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to every one as he will. As he will, he says, not as is owed. Finally the Lord also says to those demanding richer wages for their work, and complaining that they had received equally with those who had come later: Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

44. Rewarding Virginity Beyond the Merit of Labor

Give, then, my children, your lots to him who is accustomed to give his own a reward beyond the merit of labor. Give his truth to the holy man, that is, integrity; for integrity belongs to him who came without stain. Truth, then, is virginity: corruption is falsehood. Stand therefore in your heart, like a good vine in its own layer.

45. Cades and the Temptations Against Virginity

Many are the temptations; and therefore Scripture says: They tempted him with temptation, and reviled him at the water of contradiction of Cades. Virginity is tempted by many suitors; and when the virgin wishes to persevere, there arise those who oppose. The suitor opposes, and being refused, curses. The unmarried woman, whether virgin or widow, seems to be in reproach. For Cades is the unmarried woman, who is holy in body and spirit, and has dedicated herself to the Lord, who has left her parents, and does not do the will of those who are wont to say: You owe us grandchildren, daughter. Cades is she who knows not children. But if she prefers the reproach of Christ to the riches of the world—which he must undergo who seeks to please Christ—how much more should you, whom your father urges to integrity, whose mother exhorts to follow what is fitting!

46. The Relative Merits of Marriage and Virginity

Virginity, then, is good. Finally: He that judgeth, he says, in his heart to keep his virgin, doeth well. Therefore he also who joins his virgin in marriage doeth well; and he who does not join her doeth better. The former does well because of the snare, the latter does better because of the benefit. The one is for a remedy, the other for a reward. But more blessed is he who shall so remain, according to my counsel indeed. For I think that I also have the Spirit of God. Follow, then, my children, the counsel of the Apostle, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

47. Miriam's Timbrel and the Mortifying of the Flesh

Take up, then, you too, just as Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron, took up the timbrel in her hands; go out saying: Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea. Mortify your members after the manner of the timbrel: let no lasciviousness of the flesh burn in them, and let every sense of bodily heat perish. Let nothing resound in them save the spirit alone, amid the deadened pleasures of the body. For if you shall have died to sin, you will live to God: and you will live, if no concupiscence reign in your dead body.

48. Crossing the Red Sea Toward Sabbath Rest

Turn in your hands the cross of the Lord Jesus, and lifting it up in your works, tread down the depths of this world, and pass through. Let that horse, neighing after lust, find no place in you; and whoever, pursuing, shall wish to seize you, let him be drowned. Let the wall of water be on your right hand and on your left, that all bodily vapor may be tempered; until the divine condescension shall bring you to those understood twelve fountains, and the seventy palm trees, to that rest of the great Sabbath, and shall deign to plant you on the mountain of his inheritance, where holy Mary leads the dances.

49. Seeking Wisdom Through Job and the Resurrection

Put on, then, my children, the Lord Jesus; seek true wisdom, of which Job speaks: But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding? The depth saith: It is not in me. The sea saith: It is not with me. Well did the depth say: It is not in me, because he has risen; for it does not have him whom it could not hold. Finally you have it in the Gospel, that the angels said to the women coming to the sepulchre: You seek Jesus who was crucified: he is not here, but he has risen. What means, he is not here? That is, he is not in the tomb, he is not in the underworld, but he is in the heavens. The sea also, that is, the world, says: It is not with me; because he is above the world, whom the fall and enticement of human life did not change; for he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

The depth, then, said: It is not in me; the sea said: It is not with me. But heaven did not say that he is not with it, since it had received him rising again. Paradise did not say: He is not in me, since it had known him to reign in it, once the thief also had been absolved; just as the Lord himself said: Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

50. Praising the Lord Day and Night in Wisdom

Draw, my children, wisdom into the inner storehouses of your heart, since she is more precious than all gold and silver, whom death does not know; for the dead shall not praise thee, O Lord, but the living. And you, therefore, that you may live, praise the Lord, and praise him day and night. But you will praise him, if no desire of marriage, and no care of the world, turn you away from him; since those who fall to the lot of marriage are troubled with the business of this world.

51. The Vow of Jephthah's Daughter

Consider, my children, what you owe to the vows of your parents. We have opened our mouth to God: the vow is the will of parents. We have not prayed, do you pay it. How great is the force in the vows of parents, the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite should teach you, who, lest she should frustrate her father's offering, offered even her own death. For when he, anxious about the peril of war, had vowed that, if the outcome of the battle should be more favorable, he would sacrifice to God whatever should first meet him returning to his house; when he had gained the victory, his daughter met him, joyful before the others with the joy of victory and the office of devotion. The father groaned, mindful not of affection, but of his vow. The daughter asked the reason: he answered what he had promised to the Lord. Then she exhorted him to fulfill the gift promised to God. And so she paid her father's incautious offering with her own blood (Judges 11:30-39).

52. The Mother's Consecration of Her Son to God

These things are common to you all. But you, my son, whom the true Elcana, that is, God, gave me as a possession, my requested one, my petitioned one (whence Samuel too did not receive his name otherwise), you, I say, my obtained one, and my votive one, who how you came into my womb, I know not (for I had already despaired of offspring of the male sex), whom my vows, not any solemn assembly's secret rites, formed for me: you, I say, my son, acknowledge from whom you were given to me. He fashioned your mouth, he shaped your members; he received my prayers, to whose temple, to whose service, before you were born, I consecrated you. You were born not for your parents, not for yourself, but for God, whose you began to be before you came forth from your mother's womb. And indeed we are all his, but yet you especially, being promised, are rendered to your Lord; because it is written: Vow, and pay to the Lord your God.

I, wretched and unworthy, yet like Anna have promised that all the days and nights of your life you should not depart from the presence of the Lord: I have promised, do you fulfill it: the Lord will himself fulfill the gift of his own sacrifice.

53. Hannah's Prayer of Thanksgiving

These and other things the devout mother said: who, after she had seen the fitting affection of her children, leading her weaned one to the breasts of spiritual grace into the temple of the Lord, turned to prayers, and said: My heart is confirmed in the Lord: my horn is exalted in my God. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies: let it rejoice in thy salvation: for there is no holy one like the Lord, and there is none righteous like our God, and there is none holy besides thee.

54. The Mother's Legacy of Widowhood and Virginity

These things, then, the mother said to her children, who brought into her house at once the titles of widowhood in herself, and of integrity in her offspring, as it were certain feminine principates. A truly excellent woman, who left nothing for herself: all that she had, she offered to God; whose life is an institution of discipline, and a pattern of chastity by good purpose and by teaching. For the example of widowhood and virginity is a teaching.

55. The Family's Devotion Through Church and Scripture Reading

She proceeds into the Church with an attendance of virgin daughters, bringing in domestic honor: she comes into the Church that she may call her own, her son sounding forth the oracles of the sacred readings; that the sisters may learn at home, while the brother is heard. She also rejoices to profit by the example of the heavenly pattern from her son, and treasures all the words of the one reading with pious affection, and keeps them with a diligent heart.

56. Seeking Christ Above the Synagogue's Lost Love

But although nothing has been lacking to your mother's exhortations, I too, my children, will address you with a few words. Seek the Lord Jesus, who admonishes us to seek the kingdom of God: And behold, he says, all things shall be added unto you. But I prefer to set you before merit, and so exact the reward. Good is the reward, but more divine is the dispenser of the reward, and the author of the gift. In the kingdom is the reward, in Christ the power of rewarding. Seek him in the divine Scriptures, where Christ is found, and say as she said: Tell me whom my soul hath loved. But the Synagogue too sought whom she had lost; do you seek whom you may not lose. But why, O Synagogue, do you say whom I loved, and not say whom I love? Therefore you do not hold him, because you say you have loved; why do you not rather still love, that you may be able to hold him?

57. Finding Christ Who Comes Unsought

But let us leave her aside. You, O virgin, when you shall have begun to seek, he is present; for it cannot be that he should be lacking to those who seek him, who was made manifest to those not seeking him, and was found by those not asking for him. While you ponder and think, he is at hand. Learn to ask, when he comes, where he feeds, where he abides; as she said: Where dost thou feed, where dost thou abide at noon? For where does Christ abide, save where the noonday of righteousness shines? And this is taught by the testimony of the sacred Scripture, which says: In the sun hath he set his tabernacle. Whence also elsewhere the same Prophet says: In thy light we shall see light. The light is the Son, the light is also the Father who is seen in the Son; since the Son is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the image of his substance.

58. Watching for Christ by Night in Good Works

But also in your own light, virgin, seek Christ, in good thoughts, in good works, which may shine before your Father who is in heaven. Seek Him in the nights, seek Him in your chamber; for He comes also by night, and knocks at your door. For He wishes you to keep watch at every moment, He wishes to find the door of your mind open. There is also that door which He wishes to be open, that your mouth may be opened and resound with the praise of the Lord, the grace of the Bridegroom, the confession of the cross: when you recite the creed, when you sing psalms in your chamber. Therefore when He comes, let Him find you watching, that you may be ready. Let your flesh sleep, let your faith watch: let the allurements of the body sleep, let the prudence of the heart watch: let your members breathe forth the fragrance of the cross of Christ, and the odor of burial; so that sleep may infuse in them no warmth, may stir up no movements.

It is that soul which opens itself to Christ, which no vapors of the flesh disturb.

59. The Soul's Pilgrimage and the Resurrection of the Flesh

When the Bridegroom has found these things, He will pass by: let your soul follow Him thither, let it depart from its resting-place, let it go forth in His word, as it is written: My soul went forth at thy word, that is, let it become a pilgrim from the body, that it may be present to God: for when it is in the body, it is a pilgrim from Christ. Whence also the Apostle says: We are confident, therefore, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. And therefore we labor, whether absent or present, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things proper to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. How quickly has He proven the cause by which the body will rise again!

For the flesh must rise again, which is to receive the reward of its own deeds; that what we have done in the body, we may receive in the body.

60. Christ Withdraws to Stir Up Love

The Lord wishes, then, to be sought more often: He departs, He runs away, that He may stir up grace, which He wishes to be stirred up by you even in you, as we have it written to Timothy: For which cause I admonish thee, that thou stir up the grace of God, which is in thee by the imposition of my hands. But she who has stirred up grace becomes wounded with love, as she said: For I am wounded with love: if you find and stir up love. What this may be we shall be able to understand, if we recall that the Lord Jesus is an arrow, to whom the Father says: I have made thee as a chosen arrow. And since He Himself is love, there are indeed darts of love, with which He wounds those who seek Him. Finally, those bound with chains follow Him; because whom He wounds, He binds. There are therefore also chains of love, with which Paul was bound, who says: Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

61. Job, Jeremiah, and the Wounds of Love

Job teaches that these are the wounds of love—Job, than whom no one loved Christ more, who loved even in the very tortures of his own body. Whence he said: For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose fury drinks up my blood; when I begin to speak, they wound me. There are, therefore, wounds of love, and good wounds: indeed, better are the wounds of a friend than the willing kisses of an enemy. Jeremiah also burned, and could not bear the fire of love with which he was inflamed to the duty of prophesying. And in the end he was cast down into a pit; because he announced future destruction to the Jews, and could not be silent. Stephen was stoned, and received those wounds for Christ, as it were wounds of love, with devout affection. The apostles were beaten, and rejoiced. How good is the Lord, for whom even injuries are sweet, death welcome! And well is it welcome, since it acquires immortality.

62. White Garments and Watchful Lamps

At all times, he says, let your garments be white. What is whiter than virginity: what whiter than the untouched garment of modesty? Good indeed is conjugal chastity, and the chastity of widowhood; every chastity is clean, but perhaps not every one is white, or white at all times. It is not white when someone does not have power over his own body, when prayer is set aside for a time. Of virginity, therefore, it is beautifully said: At all times let your garments be white, and let oil be on your head; that your lamps may always be able to shine, and not be extinguished, when that heavenly Bridegroom begins to come.

63. The Woman Who Wiped Christ's Feet With Her Hair

For what reason Ecclesiastes said “on your head,” we shall gather from Proverbs; because The eyes of a man are in his head, that is, the sense of your wisdom. For this reason, perhaps, that woman of the Gospel is praised, who wiped the feet of the Lord with her hair, because by faith she humbled herself; lest she should seem to be exalted by the wisdom of the flesh, which Paul, the true interpreter of hidden things, denied to be subject to the law, in that it was made subject to Christ.

64. Against Vain Adornment of Hair and Dress

And we can beautifully understand this also in a bodily way, since if in the prophetic writings the daughters of Sion are reproved, because they walked with outstretched necks, with nods of the eyes, and with a gait of the feet dragging their tunics along, and playing with their feet; and therefore the Lord says that He will take away the glory of their raiment, and their adornment, their locks and curls: rightly did that woman scatter her hair, that by evangelical discipline she might loosen the knots of her tresses. Whence also the apostles said: Not with plaiting of hair, as Peter taught (I Peter III, 3), nor with braided locks, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire, as Paul declared: but rather the ornaments of the inner man are to be sought in women; since that hidden man of the heart, who is poor to the world, is rich to God.

65. The True Riches of an Incorruptible Spirit

You have heard, children, you who think yourselves poor. But who is a rich man, though he lack many things, unless he to whom sin is not grievous in conscience? For good, he says, is a substance to whom there is no sin in conscience. You have heard, I say, in what you can be rich with God; that if in you, he says, there be an incorruptible and modest spirit (I Peter III, 4). For good riches are those of innocence and simplicity, to whom sin is not imputed, because there is in them no cunning of deceit or fraud; for every simple person knows not how to detract, knows not how to envy: he is content with his own, he does not seek another's; even if he is in want, he seems rich to himself, if what suffices for food is at hand. Finally, the apostle Paul says beautifully: And their deep poverty, he says, abounded unto the riches of their simplicity.

66. The Synagogue's Plea to Become a Hireling

And because the Church was adorned with fitting ornaments, and shone forth receiving light from Christ, that passage can also be understood thus, in that the Synagogue says to the Church: Where do you feed, where do you rest at noon? Lest perhaps I become as one wrapped up over the flocks of your companions. She desires to be a hireling, who before claimed dominion for herself. How ruinous a thing is unbelief!

67. Knowing Oneself and the Church Without Wrinkle

But because she is unbelieving, harsh, sacrilegious, Christ separates her from the flocks of His Church, saying: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful one among women—that is, know first who you yourself are, and then seek to draw near to my flocks. And well is the Synagogue called beautiful among women, not in virtues; because she followed Eve the woman, through whom the fall came: but the Church is beautiful among virgins, because a virgin is without wrinkle.

68. Guarding the Soul Made in God's Image

Therefore whether man or woman ought to know that he is made to the image and likeness of God; that he may follow the beauty of the soul, not of the body. For in what do we consist? In the substance of the soul and the vigor of the mind. This is our whole portion. Finally David says: In God will I hope, I will not fear what flesh can do to me. We are not, therefore, flesh, but spirit. But of the Jews it was said: My spirit shall not remain in them, because they are flesh. We are not gold, we are not money, we are not an abundance of riches, for those are external to us. And therefore Moses says to you: Take heed to thyself, that is, to your soul; lest you perish, lest you become carnal. Take heed to thyself, that is, to the image which you received from Christ, to the likeness for which you were made.

Guard that very image, which Christ has painted in you by His own works, as He Himself says to Jerusalem, that is, to the peaceful soul: Behold, Jerusalem, I have painted your walls.

69. Rejoice in Youth Without Stain

Take heed, then, you especially, my son, take heed to yourself, that you may rejoice in your youth; to whom Scripture says: Rejoice, young man, in your youth. It does not speak to you of one age only. For there is a certain flower of life and age of good works, of which it is written: Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's. And let your heart delight you, it says, in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart without stain, and in the sight of your eyes, and not in the boldness of your eyes: in spiritual sight, that is, not in worldly boldness. And know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. And put away anger from your heart, and remove wickedness from your flesh.

70. Preparing the Soul Before Prayer

Take heed to yourself, virgin, and then apply yourself to prayer, and let your countenance grow pale with continual watchfulness. But before prayer prepare your soul, lest you seem to tempt God when you pray; that what you ask for, your hands may speak, faith may assist, works may commend. Take heed to yourself—what I say to you, I say to any virgin whatsoever. For you have not lacking a teacher of devout instruction.

71. Mary's Example of Modesty and Seclusion

Take heed, I say, virgin, especially of sacred profession, and beware of all irreverence of the eyes. And even if for a time it should pass by like a traveler, yet it opens its mouth, and drinks from every neighboring water, to intoxicate you Let no going out of yours be without your mother, who should be an anxious guardian of your modesty. Let even your going to church be rarer for young girls. Consider how great Mary was, and yet she is found nowhere else but in her chamber, when she is sought. Let her teach you what to follow. She saw an angel in the appearance of a man, and was afraid in her heart, was a stranger in her gaze. Whence the angel says to her: Fear not, Mary. She teaches the modesty of solitude: and the training-ground of modesty is seclusion.

72. Against Idle Visits and Gossiping Talk

For what need have you even to go easily to your neighbor? For the foot of the fool is quick into the house of his neighbor: but he who is wise is ashamed. From this arise gossiping tales, of which you are beautifully warned to beware, when the wise man says to you: Who will set a guard over my discipline, and a sure seal upon my lips; lest I fall by them, and my tongue destroy me. If the male sex is bidden to be silent before elders, how unbecoming is it for virgins to talk, and weave various discourses!

73. The Difficulty of Guarding the Ears

Grant that you can command silence for yourself; can you command others, that you may not hear? One can sometimes put a bridle on one's own mouth, and be silent in words; one cannot do so with the ears. For to speak lies within us, to hear depends on another's power; for often we hear what we do not wish.

74. The Danger of Swearing Oaths

Let us consider what else Scripture may admonish us. One should not swear lightly, for many mishaps often occur, so that we cannot fulfill what we have sworn. He who does not swear certainly does not sin: but he who swears must sometimes fall into perjury; for every man is a liar. Do not swear, then, lest you begin to be forsworn.

75. Weeping With the Sorrowful, Not the World

Not even too free a gladness befits virgins. If they have nothing to weep for, let them weep for the world, let them weep for the falls of sinners; for she who has wept for the falls of others will beware of her own. Let them weep, finally, even from this consideration, that those who weep here may there receive consolation; lest, like that rich man who lived luxuriously here, they be declared by the oracle of the Lord to undergo grievous punishments there, and you hear: You received good things in your life. How much more blessed was Lazarus, who wept here, and rejoices there; who hungered here, and feasts there! If you, too, wish to pursue good gladness, the book of Ecclesiastes shows you which you ought to follow, saying: Come, eat your bread with gladness; for now your works have pleased God.

76. The Crackling Laughter of Fools

But let us consider what the same Ecclesiastes admonished us all concerning the excess of laughter: As the voice, he says, of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools. For indeed thorns, when they burn, crackle and are quickly consumed, so that no effect of heat results. Whence it was said to the Jews: They have burned like fire in thorns. For they were consumed by their own laughter, they were set ablaze at the Lord's passion, when they made sport of the burning of their own soul, saying: He trusted in the Lord, let Him deliver him; let Him save him, since He wills him. And mocking, they struck His head with a reed, and because they crowned Him with thorns, and offered Him vinegar to drink; that laughter set the Synagogue ablaze forever. So then is the laughter of fools, which resounds without grace, and burns the pot of its own body.

Rightly did Sarah deny that she had laughed, lest she should seem, by laughing, to have doubted the fulfillment of the heavenly promises: and yet that laughter had been full of gravity and modesty, since no other witness but God alone knew it, whom hidden things do not escape.

77. Restraining Anger Without Denying It

How beautiful too is this! Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry; for anger rests in the bosom of fools, that is: even if there be a cause which moves indignation, let not vengeance be hasty; lest the heat of indignation blaze up too immoderately. It cannot, then, remove what is a natural movement, but it inserts a delay, so that the medicine of counsel may temper wrathfulness. For thus David had already said before: Be angry, and sin not; not because he commanded anger, but because that which was of nature he could not remove: and as a good physician he gave a remedy, that the anger itself might not do harm.

78. Being Judge of One's Own Faults

Finally, even if someone had slipped in heart, since anger knows not how to keep moderation, he counsels that one be pricked with remorse in one's chambers, and that each condemn his own error. For thus it is written: The things you say in your hearts, be pricked with remorse in your chambers. He wished, then, that all men should be censors of their own faults; so that one who is not held by public testimony might, as judge of himself, blush at the fault committed in secret, and restrain it with a certain sting of bitterness and shame.

79. Restraining Appetite Through Fasting

What shall I say of frugality, when the Wise Man says: Take from me the concupiscence of the belly, and let not the desire of intercourse take hold of me? Nor should you dread weakness from fasting and abstinence; for grave weakness makes the soul sober.

80. A Good Name Won by Good Works

How also do the Proverbs of Solomon teach that a good reputation must be sought, saying: A good name is better than many riches? For what is patrimony, unless good conduct and good works govern it? Whence holy Job says: Let the blessing of him that was ready to perish come upon me, and let the widow's mouth bless me. I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame, a father of the weak. If I have seen one perishing for want of clothing, and have not covered him: if the poor did not bless me, and if I did not warm their shoulders with the fleece of my sheep; if I have ever hid my sin, which perhaps in ignorance and not of my will I committed: if I have ever let the poor go out empty-handed from my door? By these things a good name is prepared.

81. Sobriety From Worldly Vanity, Not Wine

Yet above the rest, the pursuit of sobriety excels in a virgin. By sobriety I mean not abstinence from wine, but from bodily wantonness and worldly boasting, by which we are made drunk more gravely than by wine; for it gives the cup of ruin and the goblet of wrath. Whence also the Lord says to Jerusalem: Hear, you who are humbled and drunk, but not with wine. Behold I have taken from your hand the cup of ruin, and the goblet of wrath. But let the Synagogue drain this cup; let not the daughters of the Church drink it. For of the Jews it is said: Their daughters are decked out, adorned all around, in the likeness of a temple: but you are the temple of God, daughters of Him who is not transfigured into an angel of light, but the true light who is of the true light. Therefore let there be in you not the likeness, but the truth.

But many, though they profess the pursuit of chastity, court the aids of beauty; that they may go forth more attractive, with a more polished countenance than befits the sacred virgins of the Lord—to whom I reply with that apostolic saying: You who died with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still, as if living, decree things of this world? Touch not, he says, taste not, handle not, which all lead to corruption.

82. The Martyrdom of Sotheris

But not so holy Sotheris—to bring forth a domestic example of a devout kinswoman (for we priests have our own nobility, to be preferred to prefectures and consulships; we have, I say, dignities of faith, which know not how to perish); but not, as I said, did Sotheris take care for her countenance: she, though of very comely face and a noble virgin of ancestral lineage, set her forebears' consulships and prefectures below the sacred faith, and would not consent to sacrifice; whom a savage persecutor ordered to be struck with the palms of hands, that the tender virgin might yield either to pain or to shame. But she, when she heard this sentence, uncovered her face, veiled and covered before none but for martyrdom: and willingly ran to meet the outrage, offering her face; that there a sacrifice of martyrdom might be made, where the trial of modesty is wont to be. For she rejoiced that at the cost of her beauty the danger to her integrity should be removed.

But they could indeed furrow her face with the welts of wounds; yet they could in no way furrow the countenance of her virtue and the grace of her inward beauty.

83. The Etruscan Youth Who Marred His Face

Old tales tell of an Etruscan youth who, since his admirable facial beauty inflamed women with love, scored his own face with marks, that no woman might be able to love him. I leave it to be seen whether his mind was chaste: yet the affection was not innocent, on account of which he took vengeance upon himself. He, however, took on wounds only that he might do no harm; she bore back the triumphal scars of martyrdom, that she might preserve the image of God which she had received.

84. The Lord's Deliverance From the Scourge of the Tongue

Preserve you too this image, daughters, keep the precepts of the divine Scripture: That every mouth, it says, may be stopped. For it is written: Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law. The good Lord instructs and teaches, and often rebukes, but even him whom He rebukes He makes blessed; for blessed is the man whom the Lord rebukes. And therefore do not flee His reproofs, because they are of charity and grace; for He Himself strikes, and because He is a good physician, He heals with His own hands. Seven times He delivers you from necessities, and in the seventh no evil shall touch you. In famine He rescues you from death, and in war He strips you from the hand of the sword, He hides you from the scourge of the tongue. If you have thought to detract from no one, you will not fear the scourges of another's tongue.

85. Guarding the Tongue Against Slander and Reproach

Wonderfully he expressed the words of slanderers by calling it the scourge of the tongue, whose sound resounds far and wide. From which Peter the Apostle, wishing to separate us, admonishes that we not render evil for evil, nor curse for curse (I Peter iii, 9): but rather, when we are cursed, that we return the grace of blessing. And therefore he says: Restrain your tongue from evil, as from the scourge of a tongue; and fear not the sound of words, if your conscience is clean. It is good indeed, if it can be done, to give no place at all to detraction: but since many detract not from vices but from virtues, let them find fault with what deserves praise, not find what is erroneous.

86. The Peril of a Virgin's Own Tongue

But what is worse, we are scourged not only by another's tongue, but by our own. And these are graver blows, when by much speaking we fall into sin. Therefore guard, O virgin, your rods, that you sin not with your tongue. And to speak good things is often a fault in a virgin. But why do you marvel at this concerning a virgin, when a woman is bidden to speak in silence? Good is the modesty which silences commend.

87. Susanna's Silent Defense Against False Charges

Susanna was in peril, and was silent; that she might speak the better with a silent modesty. In the end her modesty found a defender, who might defend her chastity. Of her it is well said that the Lord hid her from the scourge of the tongue.

88. Joseph, Daniel, and David on Silence Under Trial

What shall we say of women? Joseph, accused, kept silence, that his innocence rather than his tongue might defend him. Daniel, wiser than all, kept silence, and shut the mouths of the lions Whence beautifully holy David says: I have set a guard upon my mouth, while the sinner stood against me.

89. Job on Laughing at Reproaches Without Answer

For what do you wish to say? You fear lest, if you are silent, the charges brought against you be believed. But hear the good teacher, holy Job, saying: Behold, I laugh at reproaches, and speak not; I will cry out, and there is nowhere judgment, that is, does some accuser hurl reproaches? You have that within you at which you may laugh, if conscience does not recognize the crime. For why should you answer words with words? There is not yet judgment: and though you cry out, it does not draw near. Many contests are owed to you in this world.

90. Job's Last Trial: The Reproaches of Friends

Holy Job had conquered the grief of loss: he had conquered, nay had shut out, the bitterness of mourning in the losses of his children, he had conquered the harshness of wounds: the trials of his wife are applied to the welts of his body, and he did not even feel them. Still the reproaches of friends are reserved for his final contest. He had wrestled with fatherly affection, he had wrestled with bodily pain and sickness; it remained that he should undergo also the trials of words.

91. The Widow's Trials as a Contest for the Crown

Therefore when you see a widow laboring under some losses, or the misfortune of her children: or a just man afflicted by death, or by injuries; do not weigh her merits by the misfortunes of this world, nor marvel that she seems forsaken by the Lord. Here indeed we wrestle, but elsewhere we are crowned. I have spoken not of myself only, but of all men in common. For whence indeed is merit to me, for whom indulgence stands in place of a crown? Here is the wrestling, there the prize; here the warfare, there the pay. Therefore while I am in this world, I still wrestle, still contend, still am driven to fall; but the Lord is near, who receives the one driven, sets upright the falling one, raises up the wavering one. Why then do you marvel that someone labors? As long as one is in this life, the contest will not be lacking, nor will there be the crown.

No one is approved unless he has persevered even to the end; that afterward he who has fought lawfully may be crowned.

92. Paul's Finished Course and Crown of Righteousness

Who was stronger than Paul, who more blessed? Yet he, the vessel of the Lord's choosing, did not claim the crown for himself before he had completed the whole contest. And so he says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness: which he says is to be rendered not to himself only, but to all who love the coming of the Lord. Beautifully he said, to those who love the coming of Christ; for no one hastens to judgment, unless he is secure in his innocence, or presumes upon his labor, to whom either the grace of the Lord or devout contests for Christ lend support.

93. The Widow's Reward and the Two Mites

What prerogative, indeed, will that widow have too who has well brought up her children, and rejoices in her offspring, and above all she who has given to the Lord all whom she has borne. Whence also that Gospel widow is preferred before the rich; not only because she sent all that she had for the sustenance of the poor, but also because she brought two mites, she is praised by the voice of the Lord, that is, for full faith. Then also, for the healing of a man, that Samaritan gave two coins to the innkeeper, with which to cure the wounds of him who had been wounded by robbers.

Therefore, since she imitated, according to the Old Testament, the virginity of Mary the sister of Aaron, and according to the New, the integrity of holy Mary the Mother of the Lord, in the raising of her offspring, she will obtain the reward of faith by the divine judgment; she who reserved nothing for herself for the support of this world, but bestowed the whole gift of her devout offspring upon the Lord.

94. A Prayer for the Newly Dedicated Temple

You now, O Lord, I beseech, that over this house of Yours, over these altars which today are dedicated, over these spiritual stones, by which a sensible temple is consecrated to You in each one: as daily overseer You would attend, and would receive with Your divine mercy the prayers of Your servants which are poured out in this place. May every sacrifice which is offered in this temple with whole faith and devout diligence become to You an odor of sanctification. And when You look upon that saving Victim, by which the sin of this world is blotted out, may You look also upon these devout victims of chastity, and guard them with lasting help; that they may become to You victims acceptable in an odor of sweetness, pleasing to Christ the Lord, and may You deign to keep their spirit whole, and their soul and body, without reproach, even to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son.