Edition Masquer
De Exhortatione Castitatis

X.

[1] Renuntiemus carnalibus, ut aliquando spiritalia fructificemus. Rape occasionem, etsi non exoptatissimam, attamen opportunam, non habere cui debitum solueres et a quo exsoluereris. Desisti esse debitor: o te felicem! Dimisisti debitorem: sustine damnum. Quid si, quod diximus damnum, lucrum senties? Per continentiam enim negotiaberis magnam substantiam sanctitatis, parsimonia carnis spiritum acquires. [2] Recogitemus enim ipsam conscientiam nostram, quam alium se homo sentiat, cum forte a sua femina cessat. Spiritaliter sapit; si orationem facit ad dominum, prope est caelo; si scripturis incumbit, totus illic est; si psalmum canit, placet sibi; si daemonem adiurat, confidit sibi. Ideo apostolus temporalem purificationem orationum commendandarum causa adiecit, ut sciremus, quod ad tempus prodest semper nobis exercendum esse, ut semper prosit. Quotidie, omni momento oratio hominibus necessaria, utique et continentia, postquam oratio necessaria est. [3] Oratio de conscientia procedit: si conscientia erubescat, erubescit oratio. Spiritus deducit orationem ad deum. Si spiritus reus apud se sit conscientiae erubescentis, quomodo audebit orationem deducere ad altare, qua erubescente et ipse suffunditur sanctus minister? [4] Etenim est prophetica uox ueteris testamenti: Sancti eritis, quia et deus sanctus, et rursus: Cum sancto sanctificaberis, et cum uiro innocenti innocens eris et cum electo electus. Debemus enim ita ingredi in disciplina domini ut dignum est, non secundum carnis squalentes concupiscentias. [5] Ita enim et apostolus dicit quod sapere secundum carnem mors sit, secundum spiritum uero sapere uita aeterna sit in Christo Iesu domino nostro. Item per sanctam prophetidem Priscam ita euangelizatur, quod sanctus minister sanctimoniam nouerit ministrare. 'Purificantia enim concordat, ait, et uisiones uident, et ponentes faciem deorsum etiam uoces audiunt manifestas, tam salutares quam et occultas.' [6] Si haec obtusio, etiam cum in unis nuptiis res carnis exercetur, spiritum sanctum auertit, quanto magis, cum in secundo matrimonio agitur?

Traduction Masquer
On Exhortation to Chastity

Chapter X.--Application of the Subject. Advantages of Widowhood.

Renounce we things carnal, that we may at length bear fruits spiritual. Seize the opportunity--albeit not earnestly desired, yet favourable--of not having any one to whom to pay a debt, and by whom to be (yourself) repaid! You have ceased to be a debtor. Happy man! You have released ¹ your debtor; sustain the loss. What if you come to feel that what we have called a loss is a gain? For continence will be a mean whereby you will traffic in ² a mighty substance of sanctity; by parsimony of the flesh you will gain the Spirit. For let us ponder over our conscience itself, (to see) how different a man feels himself when he chances to be deprived of his wife. He savours spiritually. If he is making prayer to the Lord, he is near heaven. If he is bending over the Scriptures, he is "wholly in them." ³ If he is singing a psalm, he satisfies himself. ⁴ If he is adjuring a demon, he is confident in himself. Accordingly, the apostle added (the recommendation of) a temporary abstinence for the sake of adding an efficacy to prayers, ⁵ that we might know that what is profitable "for a time" should be always practised by us, that it may be always profitable. Daily, every moment, prayer is necessary to men; of course continence (is so) too, since prayer is necessary. Prayer proceeds from conscience. If the conscience blush, prayer blushes. It is the spirit which conducts prayer to God. If the spirit be self-accused of a blushing ⁶ conscience, how will it have the hardihood to conduct prayer to the altar; seeing that, if prayer blush, the holy minister (of prayer) itself is suffused too? For there is a prophetic utterance of the Old Testament: "Holy shall ye be, because God is holy;" ⁷ and again: "With the holy thou shalt be sanctified; and with the innocent man thou shalt be innocent; and with the elect, elect." ⁸ For it is our duty so to walk in the Lord's discipline as is "worthy," ⁹ not according to the filthy concupiscences of the flesh. For so, too, does the apostle say, that "to savour according to the flesh is death, but to savour according to the spirit is life eternal in Jesus Christ our Lord." ¹⁰ Again, through the holy prophetess Prisca ¹¹ the Gospel is thus preached: that "the holy minister knows how to minister sanctity." "For purity," says she, "is harmonious, and they see visions; and, turning their face downward, they even hear manifest voices, as salutary as they are withal secret." If this dulling (of the spiritual faculties), even when the carnal nature is allowed room for exercise in first marriage, averts the Holy Spirit; how much more when it is brought into play in second marriage!