About Chastity
For where purity dwells, there iniquity ought not to enter the heart of
a righteous man.
The Shepherd of Hermas
Chastity is the dignity of the body, the ornament of morality, the
sacredness of the sexes, the bond of modesty, the source of purity, the
peacefulness of home, the crown of concord.
Cyprian of Carthage
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If a person is chaste to seem chaste to other people, then he is not.
Virtue means nothing to him, but he want to ensure the others that it does.
St. Basil the Great
Chastity means to see dispassionately the things, which provoke unwise
dreams and desires.
Evagrius Ponticus
If you like chastity, then you have to restrain your utero.
Evagrius Ponticus
You cannot live chastely, if there is no humility in your heart.
St. John Cassian
Abstinence is not enough to reach chastity, because there is no chastity
without purity of spirit.
Abba Herimon
You can keep chastity not by abstinence, but in case you like it and the
feeling of purity as well.
Abba Herimon
Pray hard to God so that He gifts you the spirit of perfect chastity.
Then you will avoid the scheme of devil even in your night dreams.
St. Ephrem the Syrian
Chastity is not only abstinence from lechery and carnal pleasures, but
freedom from other passions as well.
St. Ephrem the Syrian
Those are chaste, who preserve from lust not just the body, but each
part of it. For example, when your eye and your tongue are chaste in their own
ways and when spiritual thoughts of a person are not confused with other intentions.
St. Ephrem the Syrian
Chastity of a person depends not on his age, but on his frame of mind.
St. John Chrysostom
Chastity is wonderful. However, it becomes even greater when it is
combined with physical beauty.
St. John Chrysostom
If one learns chastity, then his wife will be the most beautiful for
him, he will look at her with great love and will live with her in peace and
agreement. And through peace and
agreement he will get all the other goods.
St. John Chrysostom
There is nothing what adorns the youth more, than do chastity and
marriage free of any lechery.
St. John Chrysostom
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| Icon of St.John Chrysostom |
Those are pure, who wards physical love off with divine love and who put
carnal fire with spiritual one.
St. John Climacus
Those people are chaste, who remain chaste even in their own dreams.
St. John Climacus
Chaste is he who has attained perfect indifference to body differences
forever.
St. John Climacus
None of those who gained chastity should take credit for it, as it is
impossible that any one defeats his own nature. But when nature is defeated
then you can know the coming of Him, Who is above nature, because the least can
be defeated by the biggest without any doubts.
St. John Climacus
Some people appreciate eunuchs because of their nature, as they are free
from corporal temptation. But I appreciate those, who emasculates himself with
his mind like with a knife.
St. John Climacus
When you show God the weakness of your soul and accept, that you are
absolutely weak, then you will gain chastity without even realizing it.
St. John Climacus
Nothing makes demons happy more than filth of lust, and they like no
passion more than one, which desecrates the body.
St. John Climacus
There is nothing damaging chastity more than a bent for insolence and
free treatment, which rejects modesty.
St. John Climacus
About Purity
The corporal things avoiding shame and disgrace can serve as the way to
the purity of soul.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
We should clean our hearts in the most sensitive way. What the old
testament people wanted to reach by the purity of body, that we should keep in
our hearts. Being a part of our conscience, God – our main Adviser – always
watches that we do not do in our mind anything what we cannot do publicly, and
what we shame to do, that should we not do in our dreams too.
St. John Cassian
The only possible way to make your heart pure and to be better lies
through humility. You have to show you humility to your brothers and to God and
be sure that without His help and His grace you won’t be perfect at all.
St. John Cassian
St. John Cassian
The harder a person tries to cope with passion of anger, the more pure
becomes his heart.
Abba Herimon
What is the filthiness of soul? Filthy thoughts, lascivious glance, inability
to forgive, lie and so on.
St. Ephrem the Syrian
What is the filth of body? Lechery, infidelity, and any other kind of concupiscence.
St. Ephrem the Syrian
A pure heart is a heart, which shows God clean memory free from images and impressions, and which is ready to accept God’s feelings making it light.
St. Marcus Eremita
Pure life can easily breach even the devil’s will.
St. John Chrysostom
You will reach the purity, when you begin to treat other people (in
carnal sense) as if they were inanimate objects.
St. John Climacus
A sign of purity is to have fun with happy people ones and to cry with
crying ones.
St. Ephrem the Syrian
The purity of spouses is their faithfulness to each other. The purity of
virgins and widows married to Christ is their faithfulness to Him.
St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov
The purity of heart let us feel God. It shines and blooms in our souls
not with the help of human’s learnings, but in case it is not affected by human’s
rancor.
St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov
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