By St Cyprian of Carthage
1 Exhortation to modesty - 2 ° praise of this virtue; - 30 The impurity; - 4 ° Obligation to practice chastity - 5 ° Excellence virginity - Examples 6 ° - 7 ° The need to combat - 8 Ways to preserve modesty - 9 ° Parure Women - 10 ° tips.
I think my duty, my brothers, exposing the daily lessons of the Gospel, for you to advance in science and in the spirit of faith. What could be more useful in the Church of God, what more in harmony with the episcopal office, to remind the faithful that the divine teachings and thus lead to the kingdom of heaven? This is the duty I try to fill, though absent. In my letters, I carry within you, I speak, I instruct you as usual, I especially urge you to firmly faith in your soul to withstand the assaults of the enemy. If I can get this result, I will not complain over my absence. It is not enough for us to quote the words of Scripture, we join these lessons our wishes and our prayers to the Lord (169) opens the treasure of His graces and he gives you strength to fulfill its precepts. This is a great evil to know the Lord's will and do not put it into practice.
1 ° The most pressing exhortation that I can send you - because, first of all, I want your perfection-it is that you are faithful to practice in all its rigor the virtue of chastity. I know you do. You know, in fact, that ye are the temple of the Lord, members of Christ, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. God calls you to the hope of eternal blessings, he spread the faith in your soul you predestined to salvation. Son of God, brothers of Christ, the Holy Spirit is pleased to sanctify your souls. Climb therefore above the flesh, since baptism you addicted to a new life, do you attach to chastity, since Christ himself was consecrated, and that dying for you, it made it somehow incorruptible.
The apostle calls the church the bride of Christ, yet I ask you, what should be the shame of the members of the Church, inasmuch as it retains her virginity, even in its union with the celestial spouse? If the limits of this Treaty were opposed, I would do this under a long panegyric, but why, since you do it? By clinging to it, you improve its brightness; following his maxims, you praise him, you contribute to its glory, it helps to yours, and you enrich each other. It shows you the rule of morals, you give him in exchange your holy works, you show by your conduct the full extent of her power, she manifests, in turn, the sanctity of your desires. Thus the divine law as a complete whole: the works complement the precepts, the precepts inspired works, one would say the members of one body.
2 Modesty is honoring body, the ornament of manners, the sanctity of the sexes, the relationship of continence, the source of the (171) chastity, domestic peace, the principle of harmony. Modesty does not seek to please but herself. Always modest, she is the mother of innocence. It is judged fairly beautiful if it may displease the defect. It does not look for ornaments is in it she finds them. It makes us acceptable to God and unites us intimately with Christ. It soothes the battles of the flesh and gives us true peace. Blessed itself, it communicates its appreciation to those in which it resides: contemplate his enemies with respect and they admire him even more than they can overcome it.
3 Such is the virtue that men and women must look hard. As a result, they must hate the impurity, its mortal enemy: the impurity, which dips into the degradation and filth, those who follow his guidance fatal; impurity, which attacks and both the body and the soul. It makes man a slave, destroying it in morals. First seductive, and it even more harmful, it carries a death blow to virtue and fortune. What am I saying? It even bloodshed. It inflames all the passions, it perverts the honest conscience. Mother of the impenitent, scourge of the future, family shame, it breaks the bonds of blood substitutes for legitimate children and his own children away in their favor legacies making them the price of corruption. Often, in his foolish passions, it reverses the order of nature and seeks, not the real pleasure, but monstrous debauchery. Let us return to modesty.
The first degree of this virtue is found in virgins, the second for those who live in continence, the third for married people. Whatever its degree is always glorious. Yes, it is a glory to be faithful in marriage, despite many struggles. Live in continence is more honorable thing yet, since we are deprived of the pleasures (173) permit. But to live in chastity from the womb, practice this virtue to old age is the height of glory. We may say that there is more happiness to ignore the demands of the flesh and more than deserves to repress its differences, it is possible. But let us, above all, that this virtue is a gift from God, although it manifests itself in human limbs.
4 ° The precept of modesty is an old one, dating back to the, creation of man. God gives a husband the woman, he gives a woman to man: They are two in one flesh, says the sacred (Gen. II). Thus is established the unit that makes no separation. Hence these words of the Apostle: The man is the head of the woman. Can we better identify the precept of decency? A head can not agree as to its own members, as members can not agree as they please, they are joined together by a mysterious bond that keeps the work of God in its harmonious integrity. So the apostle says: He who loves his wife loves himself. Nobody hates her body, instead, you feed, you warm, and acts Christ to the Church (Eph. V). The precept of charity walk hand in hand with that of modesty, since the husband should love their wives as Christ loves the church and that wives should love their husbands as the Church loves Christ.
Christ paid tribute to modesty by saying that man can return only when his wife is guilty of adultery. It was written in the old law: You put to death the adulterers (Lev., xx). Hence the words of the Apostle: The will of God is that you avoid fornication (I Thess., IV). He (175) adds that one should not join the members of Christ to those of a courtesan (I Joan., VI). It delivers to Satan, sacrificing the flesh to save the soul, those who trample the chastity and indulge in vices, unclean (I Corint., V). According to him, the adulterers are excluded from the heavenly kingdom (Eph. V). All other sins, - the apostle who is always talking about - being committed outside the body, only adultery sins against his body (4). I pass over in silence the other precepts because you know and you put them. in practice. I hope you do not complain of his silence. It is obvious that there is no excuse for adultery, since he could, taking a wife, satisfy his legitimate desires.
5 ° Married women are subject to laws which they can not escape As for virginity, it places itself above all laws. Free care of marriage, she raises her forehead above the interests and concerns within this low, and participates in the halo of angels. I'm wrong, it is their superior, because it won a victory over nature as the angels do not know not.
Virginity is a foretaste of eternal life She has no sex: it's a childhood lasts forever. Mistress of passion, she has no children, she disdains to have, but if it is deprived of the joy of owning them, it does not feels the pain of losing them. Happy to avoid the agony of childbirth, more than happy to avoid the funeral. Virginity is the ultimate freedom: no husband to master not care who compete there. Freed from the bonds of marriage of convenience in the world, care of children, she could face it without fear persecution. (177) 6 °
Now for the examples: they will be preaching a more tellingly, for it ceases to doubt the virtue when we see it in action. You remember the story of Joseph (Gen. XXXIII)? This child, born of a famous father, himself more illustrious by the innocence of his manners, is sold to merchants Ismaili. A wealthy Egyptian receives in his house. His obedience her gentleness, her devotion to him soon had acquired for his master. Potiphar's wife also became attached to him, but for other reasons. One day she tries to bribe his innocence. It employs alternately prayers and threats, Joseph fled, leaving his garment in the hands of this criminal woman. Furious to see Scorned, she resorts to slander and Joseph is thrown into prison. But he was not alone, God was watching over his innocence and was preparing to crown. Removed from his prison, Joseph was placed, not as a slave in a house where he had run so many dangers, but in the king's palace where he became Prime Minister.
Women may turn to ponder the example of Suzanne. She was the daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joachim and she was very beautiful, but its purity made her even more beautiful. It employed, to beautify or rather to break his face, no foreign ornament, in her simplicity she knew no other charms that nature and modesty. Two old, forgetting and the fear of God and their gray hairs, she fell in love with a love for offense and dared to show him. Suzanne resist. So they resort to slander and accuse him of adultery. What will the wife of St. Joachim? She uses God entrusted her purity. His prayer was answered, and while the two last-old suffered the torment, the innocence of Suzanne was highly recognized. Thus, (179) winning twice, she escapes the corruption and death (Dan., XIII).
I could cite other examples, these two are enough. Suzanne and Joseph did not let themselves be blinded by their nobility that is too often an excuse for license. They evade the lure of pleasure, they suffocate in their hearts the fire of lust, they are thinking or solitude, nor darkness, nor the impunity that must wrap their crime. They resist the power that often reverses the strongest resolutions, they are insensitive to rewards, promises, accusations, threats, punishment, even death, for them, the only misfortune is irreparable falling from heights of chastity. Thus God was pleased to reward them: one took place near the throne of the Pharaohs, and the other back into favor with her husband, saw his enemies punished the punishment. These are the beacons we need to meditate day and night.
7 ° The greatest happiness for the faithful soul is the sense of shame kept secret. The greatest pleasure is to vanquish lust. Is there a more glorious victory that we won over his passions? Defeating an enemy is c show its strength, but on others, overcome his passions is to be more powerful than oneself. In reversing an enemy, you are acting on outside, repressing your passions, you triumph over your heart. Nothing is more difficult to defeat than pleasure. Other ailments have something in them that repels: the pleasure flatters when it lends its weapons to the enemy, victory is doubtful. Defeat your passions and you overcome all your fears, because they are the passions that produced them. Defeat passions and you triumph over sin. Defeat (181) passions and you trample the enemy of mankind. Defeat passions and you will ensure eternal peace and, what is difficult even for great souls, true freedom.
8 ° You see, my brothers, modesty should be the continual subject of our meditations. This practice will become natural and easy. Like all great virtues, which move away if they are not retained, it is within us. Let us not look away, we need to develop it. Modesty, in fact, is nothing else than this honest soul who watches to guard the body so that the meaning contained in the limits of honor, preserve the human race all its purity.
If you ask me how to keep this virtue, I will show you first the reserve, the meditation of the divine precepts, the spirit of faith, respect for religion. I recommend you then remove some items from your eyes, especially the sculptures immodest, also proscribe all those vain artifice that have no other effect than to irritate the passions and arouse in us new fighting. She lost all shame the woman who seeks to produce similar impressions on his fatal, even keeping the chastity of the body. Away from us those who enhance their charms to deliver them to the mercy of impure desires. Take too much care of her beauty is a certain proof of a corrupt mind. Keep your body with all its freedom and do not try to do violence to God's work. The woman who can not be satisfied with the gifts of nature will always be unhappy. Why change the color of your hair? Why this shadow that extends to the tip of your eyes? Why do all these tricks to give your face a different character?. Why should consult a mirror if you want to be yourself? (183)
9 ° The woman should be chaste until her dress, she must banish from his clothes all that smells rather lie or adultery. Is not that corrupt fabrics to mix son of gold? What is a metal so hard in the middle of delicate fabrics? Is it not to be used to adorn the shoulders and immodest to show outside lust devours souls? Why these stones that load your neck and around her like a veil? Without taking into account the work of the artist, the capital of a citizen would hardly suffice to buy them. This is not an ornament for a woman these things serve only to highlight its flaws. And those huge rings that you upload your fingers you do they do something, or do you wear to flaunt your wealth? Strange thing! Women, if difficult for all, are stronger than men when to take charge of insignia of the defect.
To return to my subject, cultivate modesty, my beloved brethren, and contains your desires within proper limits. The body is our enemy dangerous and the flesh is always ready to fall. Nature, which seeks to repair the ruins of mankind awakens the love in your souls but the pleasure to wake up and turn you to the crime.
We must fight with all our forces against the solicitations of the flesh, which is terrible demon assistants. Obedient to the precept of the apostle, imitate the Christ's works and let us remove ourselves from the tyranny of the senses. That will dominate them. Châtions the evil inclinations, if we want to reduce them. The shame of sin has in it something low and misshapen; penance itself, with its tears, is the recognition of crimes already committed. Please keep your innocence. Do not attach the curious looks on the faces of strangers. That your conversations are short (185) Moderate your laughter; do otherwise would be the mark of an easy and relaxed character. Avoid contact even honest. To overcome a vicious flesh, one must deny. What an honor to win the vice! What a shame to be under its domination! We might add that adultery is much less a pleasure than a shame? What charm can there be in a crime that kills both the soul and decency?
May the spirit dulls the sting of the flesh, he represses the movement. To him to submit members to his empire, he has received the law. Skilled driver, he takes the reins of the Gospel to contain within reasonable limits the passions, lest the body, like a chariot gone astray, do not lead him into the abyss.
But above all things, ask God the graces necessary. He who made man alone can help effectively. - I stopped because I did not intend to write a book, but a simple statement. Read Scripture and fill yourself about it. Goodbye.
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