Growing in Virtue – Mother Most Pure

St. Philip’s Counsels on Remaining Pure

Site Admin — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 23:36:25 +0000

MAXIMS OF ST. PHILIP NERI

FOR CONQUERING LUST, THE GRAMMAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

• Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is actually necessary, because there is no better means of obtaining God’s

graces than through His most holy Mother.

• In order to preserve their purity, young men should frequent the Sacraments, especially confession, go to

sermons, and be often reading the Lives of Saints.

• He who conceals a grave sin in confession, is completely in the devil’s hands.

• There is nothing more to the purpose for exciting a spirit of prayer, than the reading of spiritual books.

• We ought to fear and fly temptations of the flesh, even in sickness, and in old age itself, aye, and so long as we

can open and shut our eyelids, for the spirit of incontinence gives no truce either to place, time, or person.

• The stench of impurity before God and the angels is so great, that no stench in the world can equal it.

• Humility is the true guardian of chastity.

• We must never trust ourselves, for it is the devil’s way first to get us to feel secure, and then to make us fall.

• If young men would preserve their purity, let them avoid bad company.

• Without mortification nothing can be done.

• Let them also avoid nourishing their bodies delicately.

• Young men should be very careful to avoid idleness.

• If young men wish to protect themselves from all danger of impurity, let them never retire to their own rooms

immediately after dinner, either to read or write, or do anything else; but let them remain in conversation,

because at that time the devil is wont to assault us with more than usual vehemence, and this is that demon

which is called in Scripture the noonday demon, and from which holy David prayed to be delivered.

• When a man is in an occasion of sin, let him look what he is doing, get out of the occasion, and avoid the sin.

• An excellent method of preserving ourselves from relapsing into serious faults, is to say every evening, “To-

morrow I may be dead.”

• Let a man always think that he has God before his eyes.

• Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them.

• One of the most efficacious means of keeping ourselves chaste, is to have compassion for those who fall

through their frailty, and never to boast in the least of being free, but with all humility to acknowledge that

whatever we have is from the mercy of God.

• To be without pity for other men’s falls, is an evident sign that we shall fall ourselves shortly.

• In the matter of purity there is no greater danger than the not fearing the danger: when a man does not

distrust himself, and is without fear, it is all over with him.

• As soon as a man feels that he is tempted, he should fly to God, and devoutly utter that prayer which the

fathers of the desert so much esteemed: “O God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me” or that

verse, “create a clean heart in me, O God.”

• When sensual thoughts come into the mind, we ought immediately to make use of our minds, and fix them

instantaneously upon something or other, no matter what.

• In temptations of the flesh, a Christian ought to have immediate recourse to God, make the sign of the cross

over his heart three times, and say, “Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

• In the warfare of the flesh, only cowards gain the victory; that is to say, those who fly.

• We should be less alarmed for one who is tempted in the flesh, and who resists by avoiding the occasions,

than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid the occasions.

• When a person puts himself in an occasion of sin, saying, “I shall not fall, I shall not commit it,” it is an almost

infallible sign that he will fall, and with all the greater damage to his soul.

• Let us always go to confession with sincerity, and take this as our rule - Never out of human respect to conceal

anything from our confessor, however inconsiderable it may be.

• In trying to get rid of bad habits, it is of the greatest importance not to put off going to confession after a fall,

and also to keep to the same confessor.

• When we go to confession, we should accuse ourselves of our worst sins first, and of those things which we

are most ashamed of, because by this means we put the devil to greater confusion, and reap more fruit from

our confession.

• At Communion we ought to ask for the remedy of the vice to which we feel ourselves most inclined.

• In order to begin well, and to finish better, it is quite necessary to hear mass every day, unless there be some

lawful hindrance in the way.

• We must not trust in ourselves, but take the advice of our spiritual father, and recommend ourselves to

everybody’s prayers.

• Let us strive after purity of heart, for the Holy Ghost dwells in candid and simple minds.

• The Lord grants in a moment what we may have been unable to obtain in dozens of years.

• We must pray incessantly for the gift of perseverance.

• Human language cannot express the beauty of a soul which dies in a state of grace.

• To obtain the protection of our Blessed Lady in our most urgent wants, it is very useful to say sixty-three

times, after the fashion of a Rosary, “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me.” 

Five Aids to Chastity by St. Thomas Aquinas

Site Admin — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 23:31:13 +0000

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON HOW TO PRESERVE CHASTITY

INCE CHASTITY is so difficult a virtue that, in

Our Lord’s words, not all men “take it,” but

those only “to whom it is given,” it is

necessary for those who desire to live a life of

continence, so to conduct themselves as to avoid all

that might prove an obstacle in the prosecution of their

design. Now there are three principal hindrances to

continence. The first arises from the body. The second

from the mind. The third from external circumstances,

whether they be of persons or of things.

The body is an obstacle to continence. As St. Paul

says, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit” (Gal. 5:17), and

“the works of the flesh are fornication, uncleanness,

unchastity and the like.” Concupiscence is that law of the

flesh, of which, in his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul

says, “I see another law in my members fighting against the

law of my mind” (Rom. 7:23). Now the more the flesh is

pampered, by superabundance of food, and by

effeminacy of life, the more will its concupiscence

increase. For, as St. Jerome says, “A man heated with

wine will quickly give the rein to lust.” The book of

Proverbs warns us against wine as “a luxurious thing”

(Prov. 20:1). Job, again, tells us that Behemoth (by whom

Satan is signified) “sleepeth under the shadow, in the covert

of the reed and in moist places” (40:16). St. Gregory (33

Moral) thus interprets this passage. “Moist places,” he

says, “betoken voluptuous works. We do not slip on dry

ground; but, we have no sure foothold on slippery soil.

Hence, those men pursue the journey of this present life

in moist places, who cannot hold themselves upright in

justice.” He, then, who desires to undertake a life of

continence must chastise his flesh, by abstention from

pleasure, and by fasts, vigils, and such like exercises.

St. Paul sets before us his own conduct as an

example in this respect, “Everyone that striveth for the

mastery, refraineth himself from all things. . . . I chastise my

body and bring it into subjection, lest, perhaps when I have

preached to others, I myself should become a castaway” (1

Cor. 9:25). What the Apostle practiced in deed, he

taught in word. In his Epistle to the Romans (13:14),

after his warning against “chambering and impurities,” he

concludes, “make not provision for the flesh in its

concupiscences.” He rightly lays stress upon the

concupiscence of the flesh, i.e., its desire for pleasure;

for it is incumbent on us to make provision for what is

necessary for our body, and St. Paul himself says, “No

man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it and cherisheth

it” (Eph. 5:29).

An obstacle to continence arises also from the mind,

if we dwell on unchaste thoughts. The Lord says by His

prophet, “Take away the evil of your devices from my eyes”

(Isa. 1:16). For, evil thoughts often lead to evil deeds.

Hence the Prophet Micheas says, “Woe to you that devise

that which is unprofitable” and he immediately continues,

“and work evil in your beds” (2:1). Amongst all evil

thoughts, those which most powerfully incline unto sin,

are thoughts concerning carnal gratification.

Philosophers assign two reasons for this fact. First, they

say, that as concupiscence is innate in man, and grows

with him from youth upwards, he is easily carried away

by it, when his imagination sets it before him. Hence

Aristotle says (2 Ethics), that “we cannot easily judge of

pleasure, unless we enjoy it.”

The second reason is given by the same philosopher

(3 Ethics), “Pleasure is more voluntary in particular

cases than in general.” It is clear that by dallying with a

thought we descend to particulars; hence, by daily

thoughts we are incited to lust. On this account St. Paul

warns us to “Fly fornication” (1 Cor. 6:18); for, as the

Gloss says, “It is permissible to await a conflict with

other vices; but this one must be shunned; for in no

other means can it be overcome.”

But, as there are many obstacles in the way of

chastity, there are also many remedies against such

obstacles. The first and chief remedy is to keep the mind

busied in prayer and in the contemplation of Divine

things. This lesson is taught us in St. Paul’s epistle to the

Ephesians, wherein he says, “Be ye not drunk with wine

wherein is luxury; but, be ye filled with the Holy Spirit,

speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual

canticles” (which pertain to contemplation), and “singing

making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (whereby prayer

is implied) (5:18). Hence in Isaias, the Lord says, “For by

my praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst perish” (48:9).

To the divine praise is, as it were, a bridle on the soul,

checking it from sin.

The second remedy against lust is the study of the

Scriptures. “Love the study of Holy Writ,” says St.

Jerome to the monk Rusticus, “and thou wilt not love

the vices of the flesh.” And St. Paul in his exhortation to

Timothy says, “Be thou an example of the faithful in word,

in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity,”

immediately adding, “Till I come, attend unto reading” (1

Tim. 4:12).

The third preservative against concupiscence is, to

occupy the mind with good thoughts. St. Chrysostom,

in his commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, says

that, “physical mutilation is not such a curb to

temptation, and such a source of peace to the mind, as is

a habit of bridling the thoughts.” St. Paul also says to

the Philippians, “For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things

are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever holy, whatsoever

lovely, whatsoever of good

fame, if there be any virtue,

if any praise of discipline,

think on these things” (4:8).

The fourth help to

chastity is to shun

idleness, and to engage in

bodily toil. We read in the

book of Ecclesiasticus,

“Idleness hath taught much

evil” (33:29). Idleness is

pre-eminently an

incentive to sins of the

flesh. Hence Ezechiel says, “Behold, this was the iniquity of

Sodom thy sister, pride, fullness of bread, abundance and

idleness” (16:49). St. Jerome likewise writes, in his letter

to the monk Rusticus, “Do some work, that so the devil

may always find thee employed.”

A fifth remedy for concupiscence lies in certain

kinds of mental disquietude. St. Jerome relates, in the

epistle quoted above, that, in a congregation of

cenobites there dwelt a young man who could not, by

means of fasting or any laborious work, free himself

from temptations of the flesh. The superior of the

monastery seeing that the youth was on the point of

yielding, adopted the following means for his relief. He

commanded one of the most discreet among the fathers

to constantly upbraid the young man, to load him with

insults and reproach, and, after treating him thus, to

lodge complaints against him with the Superior.

Witnesses were called, who all took the senior father’s

part. This treatment was continued for a year. At the

end of that time, the superior questioned the youth

about his old train of thought. “Father,” was the reply,

“I am scarcely permitted to live. How, in such straits,

shall I be inclined to sin?”

A great obstacle to continence arises from extrinsic

circumstances, such as constant intercourse with

women. We read in Ecclesiasticus, “Many have perished

by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled as a

fire . . . for her conversation burneth as fire” (9:9). And, in

the same chapter, the following safeguard is proposed

against these dangers: “Look not upon a woman that hath a

mind for many, lest thou fall into her snares. Use not much

the company of her that is a dancer, and hearken not to her

lest thou perish by the force of her charms.” Again, in

another chapter, “Behold not everybody’s beauty; and tarry

not, among women, for from garments cometh a moth, and

from a woman the iniquity of a man” (42:12). St. Jerome, in

his book against Vigilantius, writes that a monk,

knowing his own frailty, and how fragile is the vessel

which he carries, will fear to slip or stumble, lest he fail

and be broken. Hence, he will chiefly avoid gazing at

women, and especially at young ones, lest he be caught

by the eyes of a harlot, and lest beauty of form lead him

on to unlawful embraces.

Abbot Moses, in his conferences to the fathers, says

that, in order to preserve purity of heart, “we ought to

seek solitude and to practice fasting, watching, and

bodily labor: to wear scant clothing; and to attend to

reading in order, by these means, to be able to keep our

heart uncontaminated by passion, and to ascend to a

high degree of charity.” It

is for this reason that such

exercises are practiced in

the religious life.

Perfection does not

consist in them; but they

are, so to speak,

instruments whereby

perfection is acquired.

Abbot Moses, therefore,

continues, “Fasting,

vigils, hunger, meditation

on the Scriptures,

nakedness, and the privation of all possessions are not

themselves perfection; but they are the instruments of

perfection. The end of discipline does not lie in them;

but, by their means we arrive at the end.”

But, perchance, someone may object, that it is

possible to acquire perfection without fasting or vigils

or the like, for we read that, “the Son of Man came eating

and drinking” (Matt. 11:19), nor did His disciples fast, as

did the Pharisees, and the followers of St. John. To this

argument we find in the Gloss the following answer,

“John drank no wine nor strong drink; for abstinence

increases merit, though nature has no power to do so.

But, wherefore should the Lord, to Whom it belongs to

forgive sin, turn away from sinners who feast, when He

is able to make them more righteous than they who

fast?” The disciples and Christ had no need to fast; for

the presence of the Bridegroom gave them more

strength than the followers of John gained by fasting.

Hence Our Lord says, “But the days will come when the

Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they

shall fast” (Matt. 9:15). St. Chrysostom makes the

following comment on these words, “fasting is not

naturally grievous, save to those whose weakness is

indisposed to it. They who desire to contemplate

heavenly wisdom rejoice in fasting. Now, as when Our

Lord spoke the words we have just quoted, the disciples

were still weak in virtue, it was not the fitting season to

bring sadness upon them. It was more meet to wait until

they were strengthened in faith. They were dispensed

from fasting, not by reason of their gluttony, but by a

certain privilege.” St. Paul, however, writing to the

Corinthians, expressly shows how fasting enables men

to avoid sin, and to acquire perfection. He says, “Giving

no offence to any man, that our ministry be not blamed; but in

all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in

much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses in,

stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in

fastings, in chastity” (2 Cor. 5:3).

“St. Thomas preserved his chastity unsullied in a

crisis of the most pressing danger and was

therefore considered worthy to be surrounded by

the angels with a mystic girdle. . . . If the purity

of Thomas therefore had failed in the extreme peril

into which it had fallen, it is very probable that

the Church would never have had her Angelic

Doctor” — Pope Pius XI.

The 15th Step in the Ladder of Divine Ascent—Overcoming Lust

Site Admin — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 23:17:37 +0000

FROM STEP 15 OF THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT: CHASTITY

by St. John Climacus

O BE CHASTE is to put on the nature of an

incorporeal being. Chastity is a supernatural

denial of what one is by nature, so that a

mortal and corruptible body is competing in a

truly marvelous way with incorporeal spirits.

A chaste man is someone who has driven out

bodily love by means of divine love, who has

used heavenly fire to quench the fires of the flesh.

A chaste man is completely oblivious to the difference

between bodies.

Anyone trained in chastity should give himself no

credit for any achievements, for a man cannot conquer

what he actually is. When nature is overcome, it should

be admitted that this is due to Him Who is above nature,

since it cannot be denied that the weaker always yields

to the stronger.

The beginning of chastity is refusal to consent to evil

thoughts and occasional dreams and emissions. The

middle stage is to be free of dreams and emissions even

when there are natural movements

of the body brought on by eating

too much. The completion of

chastity comes when mortified

thoughts are followed by a

mortified body.

The chaste man is not someone

with a body undefiled but rather a

person whose members are in

complete subjection to the soul, for

a man is great who is free of

passion even when touched,

though greater still is the man

unhurt by all he has looked on.

Such a man has truly mastered the

fires of earthly beauty by his attention concentrated on

the beauties of heaven. In driving off this dog by means

of prayer he is like someone who has been fighting a

lion. He who subdues it by resistance to it is someone

still chasing an enemy. But the man who has managed to

reduce its hold completely, even when he himself is still

in this life, is someone who has already risen from the

dead.

The man who struggles against this enemy by sweat

and bodily hardships is like someone who has tied his

adversary with a reed. If he fights him with temperance,

sleeplessness, and keeping watch, it is as if he had put

fetters on him. If he fights with humility, calmness, and

thirst, it is as though he had killed the enemy and buried

him in sand, the sand being lowliness since it does

nothing to feed the passions, and is only earth and ashes.

One man keeps this tormentor under control by

struggling hard, another by being humble, another by

divine revelation. The first is like the star of the morning,

the second like the moon when it is full, the third like the

blazing sun. And all three have their home in heaven.

Light comes from the dawn and amid light the sun rises,

so let all that has been said be the light in which to

meditate and learn.

So long as you live, never trust that clay of which you

are made and never depend on it until the time you

stand before Christ Himself.

Among beginners lapses usually occur because of

high living, something that, together with arrogance,

brings down also those who have made some progress.

But among those nearing perfection, a lapse is solely due

to the fact of passing judgment on one’s neighbor.

Pity the man who falls, but pity twice over the man

who causes another to lapse, for he carries the burden of

both as well as the weight of the pleasure tasted by the

other.

Do not imagine that you will overwhelm the demon

of fornication by entering into an argument with him.

Nature is on his side and he has the best of the

argument. So the man who decides to struggle against

the flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting

in vain. The truth is that unless the

Lord overturns the house of the

flesh and builds the house of the

soul, the man wishing to overcome

it has watched and fasted for

nothing. Offer up to the Lord the

weakness of your nature. Admit

your incapacity and, without your

knowing it, you will win for

yourself the gift of chastity.

Everything created longs

insatiably for its own kind, blood for

blood, the worm for a worm, clay

for clay. And what does flesh desire

if not flesh?

So let us pray that we may always escape from such a

trial because those who slide into the pit fall far below

those others climbing up and down the ladder. And they

have to sweat copiously and practice extreme abstinence

if they are ever to get far enough out of that pit to be able

to start the climb again.

The Lord, being incorruptible and incorporeal,

rejoices in the purity and cleanliness of our bodies. As

for the demons, nothing is said to please them more than

the foul smell of fornication, and nothing delights them

as much as the defilement of the body.

Chastity makes us as familiar with God and as like

Him as any man may be.

The mother of chastity is stillness and obedience.

Often the dispassion of body attained by stillness has

been disturbed whenever the world impinged on it. But

dispassion achieved through obedience is genuine and is

everywhere unshakable.

I have seen humility emerge from pride, and I

thought of the man who said: “Who has fathomed the

mind of the Lord?” (Rom. 11:34). The pit and the fruit of

arrogance is a fall; but a fall is often an occasion of

humility for those willing to profit by it.

The man who observes himself succumbing to some

passion should first of all fight against this, especially if

it has made its abode with him, for until this particular

vice is wiped out it will be useless for us to have

mastered other passions. Kill this Egyptian and we will

surely have sight of God in the bush of humility (cf.

Exod. 2:12; 3:2).

When the devil decides to forge some disgraceful

bond between two people, he goes to work on the

inclinations of each of them--and then lights the fire of

passion.

The body can be defiled by the merest touch, for of all

the senses this is the most dangerous. So think of the

man who wrapped his hand in an

ecclesiastical garment when he was

about to carry his sick mother. Let

your hand be dead to everything

natural otherwise, to your own body

or to that of another.

We have to be especially sober and

watchful when we are lying in bed, for

that is the time when our mind has to

contend with demons outside our

bodies. And if our body is inclined to

be sensual it will easily betray us. So

let the remembrance of death and the

concise Jesus Prayer go to sleep with

you and get up with you, for nothing

helps you as these do when you are

asleep.

Never brood by day over the fantasies that have

occured to you during sleep, for the aim of the demons is

to defile us while we are still awake by causing us to

harp on our dreams.

The place of temptation is the place where we find

ourselves having to put up a bitter fight against the

enemy, and wherever we are not involved in a struggle

is surely the place where the enemy is posing as a friend.

We should strive in all possible ways neither to see

nor to hear of that fruit we have vowed never to taste. It

amazes me to think we could imagine ourselves to be

stronger than the prophet David, something quite

impossible indeed (cf. 2 Kings [2 Sam.] 11:2-4).

After we have fought long and hard against this

demon, this ally of the flesh, after we have driven it out

of our heart, torturing it with the stone of fasting and the

sword of humility, this scourge goes into hiding in our

bodies, like some kind of worm, and it tries to pollute us,

stimulating us to irrational and untimely movements.

This particularly happens to those who have fallen to the

demon of vainglory, for since dirty thoughts no longer

preoccupy their hearts they fall victim to pride.

This demon is especially on the lookout for our weak

moments and will viciously assail us when we are

physically unable to pray against it.

Who has won the battle over the body? The man who

is contrite of heart. And who is contrite of heart? The

man who has denied himself, for how can he fail to be

contrite of heart if he has died to his own will?

Dirty and shameful thoughts in the heart are usually

caused by the deceiver of the heart, the demon of

fornication, and only restraint and indeed a disregard for

them will prove an antidote.

By what rule or manner can I bind this body of mine?

By what precedent can I judge him? Before I can bind

him he is let loose, before I can condemn him I am

reconciled to him, before I can punish him I bow down

to him and feel sorry for him. How can I hate him when

my nature disposes me to love him? How can I break

away from him when I am bound to him forever? How

can I escape from him when he is going to rise with me?

How can I make him incorrupt when he has received a

corruptible nature? How can I argue with him when all

the arguments of nature are on his side?

If I try to bind him through fasting,

then I am passing judgment on my

neighbor who does not fast--with the

result that I am handed over to him

again. If I defeat him by not passing

judgment I turn proud--and I am in

thrall to him once more. He is my

helper and my enemy, my assistant

and my opponent, a protector and a

traitor. I am kind to him and he

assaults me. If I wear him out he gets

weak. If he has a rest he becomes

unruly. If I upset him he cannot stand

it. If I mortify him I endanger myself. If

I strike him down I have nothing left

by which to acquire virtue. I embrace

him. And I turn away from him.

What is this mystery in me? What is the principle of

this mixture of body and soul? How can I be my own

friend and my own enemy? Speak to me! Speak to me,

my yoke-fellow, my nature! I cannot ask anyone else

about you. How can I remain uninjured by you? How

can I escape the danger of my own nature? I have made

a promise to Christ that I will fight you, yet how can I

defeat your tyranny? But this I have resolved, namely,

that I am going to master you.

And this is what the flesh might say in reply: “ I will

never tell you what you do not already know. I will

speak the knowledge we both have. Within me is my

begetter, the love of self. The fire within me is past ease

and things long done. I conceived and give birth to sins,

and they when born beget death by despair in their turn.

And yet if you have learned the sure and rooted

weakness within both you and me, you have manacled

my hands. If you starve your longings, you have bound

my feet, and they can travel no further. If you have taken

up the yoke of obedience, you have cast my yoke aside.

If you have taken possession of humility, you have cut

off my head.

This is the fifteenth reward of victory. He who has

earned it while still alive has died and been resurrected.

From now on he has a taste of the immortality to come.

O Mary, Conceived without original sin, make my

body pure and my soul holy. Hail Mary…

(3 times morning & night)