Tag: virginity

Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes

Quote/s of the Day – 30 September – St Jerome

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Begin with the Psalter, and teach your daughter how to chant the Psalms. You can read with her the Proverbs, by which she will know the moral precepts. This can be followed by Ecclesiasticus, a book so capable of inspiring her with a contempt of this world. You can then proceed to the Gospels – these, your daughter ought ever to have on hand. She can then read the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles. These finished she will gladly learn by heart the Prophets and Historical books. Lastly, she can read the Canticle of Canticles, for she will have been prepared to understand this in a spiritual sense.

The Master of that religion has been crucified. His servants have been chained down like criminals, and yet for all that, His religion grows and flourishes every day.

The clergy are called by that name, either because they are a portion of the inheritance of the Lord or because the Lord is their portion. He, therefore, who is thus of the heirdom of the Lord, or he who has God for his portion, should show himself to be worthy of possessing God, and that God should possess him.

Nothing so corrupts the heart and mind as flattery, for the flatterer’s tongue does more harm than the persecutor’s sword. We are dragged downwards by an evil which is inherent within us, we feel favourably towards those who flatter us, and although in our reply we show, or pretend to show, that we are unworthy of their praise, we nevertheless receive the flattering praise with a secret joy and pleasure.

We must take care not to only to avoid leading a bad life, but we must not contract a friendship with those who live sinfully, for that, according to the Prophet, is included among the sins. True friendship exists not in family interests, nor with those persons by whom we are accustomed to be entertained, nor with those who flatter us, and whose company is dangerous, but with those who cherish the holy fear of God and the study of Holy Scripture.

Whether you like it or not, marriage is subordinated to virginity and widowhood. Even when marriage continues to fulfil its function, the Church does not condemn it, but only subordinates it; it does not reject it, but only regulates it. It is in your power, if you will, to mount the second step of chastity. Why are you angry if, standing on the third and lowest step, you will not make haste to go up higher?

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Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes

Quote/s of the Day – 12 August – St Clare 

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 12 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Memorial of St Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)

Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Ps 44:8

For though you, more than others, could have enjoyed the magnificence and honor and dignity of the world, and could have been married to the illustrious Caesar with splendor befitting you and His Excellency, you have rejected all these things and have chosen with your whole heart and soul a life of holy poverty and destitution. Thus you took a spouse of more noble lineage, who will keep your virginity ever unspotted and unsullied, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you have loved Him, you shall be chaste;
when you have touched Him, you shall become pure;
when you have accepted Him, you shall be a virgin.
Whose power is stronger,
Whose generosity is more abundant,
Whose appearance more beautiful,
Whose love more tender,
Whose courtesy more gracious.
In whose embrace you are already caught up;
who has adorned your breast with precious stones
and has placed priceless pearls in your ears
and has surrounded you with sparkling gems
as though blossoms of springtime
and placed on your head a golden crown
as a sign to all of your holiness.

O blessed poverty, who bestows eternal riches on those who love and
embrace her!

O holy poverty, to those who possess and desire you
God promises the kingdom of heaven and offers, indeed, eternal glory and
blessed life!

O God-centered poverty, whom the Lord Jesus Christ who ruled and now
rules heaven and earth, who spoke and things were made, condescended to
embrace before all else!

Be filled with a remarkable happiness and a spiritual joy! Contempt of the world has pleased you more than its honors, poverty more than earthly riches, and you have sought to store up greater treasures in heaven rather than on earth, where rust does not consume nor moth destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. Your reward then, is very great in heaven! And you have truly merited to be called a sister, spouse, and mother of the
Son of the Father of the Most High and of the glorious Virgin.

What a great laudable exchange: to leave the things of time for those of eternity, to choose the things of heaven for the goods of earth, to receive the hundred-fold in place of one, and to possess a blessed and eternal life.

She was the first flower in Francis’ garden, and she shone like a radiant star.

St. Bonaventure on Clare

Posted in CARMELITES, DOCTORS of the Church, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Prayers and Novena, MARIAN PRAYERS, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES on PURITY, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Our Morning Offering – 16 December – Most Holy Mary By St John of the Cross

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 16 December – “The Month of the Divine Infancy and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” – Saturday of the Second Week of Advent and a day to honour our Holy Mother

Most Holy Mary
By St John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Doctor of the Church

Most holy Mary,
Virgin of virgins,
Shrine of the most Holy Trinity,
joy of the Angels,
sure Refuge of sinners,
take pity on our sorrows,
mercifully accept our sighs
and appease the wrath
of your most holy Son.
Amen.

Posted in CATECHESIS, DOCTORS of the Church, DOMINICAN OP, FATHERS of the Church, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on CHASTITY, QUOTES on PURITY, St Francis de Sales, The HEART, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 21 July – Virginity, Chastity, Purity

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 21 July – “The Month of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus” – St Praxedes, Virgin (Died 164) – 1 Corinthians 7:25-34, Matthew 13:44-52 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“And the unmarried woman
and the virgin,
thinketh on the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy,
both in body and in spirit,
in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

1 Corinthians 7:34

“Virginity can be lost by a single thought.”

St Jerome (343-420)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“He errs who believes
that he can overcome his sensual propensities
and preserve chastity, by his own efforts.
God’s mercy must extinguish nature’s ardour.
Have recourse to the intercession
of the Immaculate Virgin
and rest assured, you will obtain this mercy.”

St John Chrysostom (347-407)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“Chastity depends on the heart, for its source
and on the body, as its subject.
Hence, it may be lost,
by all the external senses of the body
and by the thoughts and desires of the heart.”

(Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 13).

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of the Church

Prayer for Chastity and Purity
By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Dear Jesus,
I know that every perfect gift
and especially that of chastity,
depends on the power of Thy Providence.
Without Thee, a mere creature can do nothing.
Therefore, I beg Thee, to defend, by Thy grace
the chastity and purity of my body and soul.
And if I have ever sensed or imagined anything
that could stain my chastity and purity,
blot it out, Supreme Lord of my powers
that I may advance with a pure heart
in Thy love and service,
offering myself
on the most pure altar of Thy Divinity,
all the days of my life.
Amen

Posted in HOLY ORDERS, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on PRIESTS, the PRIESTHOOD and CONSECRATED LIFE, QUOTES on PURITY, The BEATITUDES

Thought for the Day – 29 January – Blessed are the Clean of Heart

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 29 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Blessed are the Clean of Heart

it is a sublime dignity to belong body and soul to god - bacci 29 jan 2020

“Understood in it’s entirety, as embracing it’s higher grade, that is, perpetual virginity consecrated to God, purity of heart is a gift which only Christianity can give (Encyclical, Sacra Virginitas, Pope Pius XII, 1954).
If we have been called to receive this wonderful gift, let us humbly thank God.
It is a sublime dignity to belong, body and soul, to God.

Sacred Scripture says of men:  “What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man, that you should care for him?   You have made him a little less than the angels and crowned him with glory and honour.   You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet” (Ps 8:5, Heb 2:7).
But, under a certain aspect, those who are living in virginity, can be said to be superior to the angels.
Since an angel has no body, he offers God only the homage of his spirit.
A virgin, on the other hand, must bear the burden of an earthly body.
He must offer continually, on the altar of his heart (and often, after a heroic battle), not only his soul with it’s appetites and will but also, all the impulses and lower faculties “which wage war against the soul” (1 Pter 2:11).

This is a double sacrifice, which St Ambrose calls, a continual martyrdom of body and soul.
But the reward lies in the joy and peace which flow from this perpetual offering of soul and body to the Immaculate Lamb.
This happiness is a compensation, for any conflict, which must be endured and is, a foretaste of the joys of Heaven.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci