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Let us crown virginity with our crowns, singing it from the bottom of our hearts in pure songs! This is a wonderful gift of our life, the most brilliant gift of gold, orectrum and ivory, a gift to those in whom the fire of love for virginity has brought down the carnal life, raising from here the wings of their mind to the highest God. Let the guardians of purity listen to my song with joy, because it is the common reward of all the chaste; and let the envious block the doors of hearing! If anyone wants to open it, then cleanse your heart with teaching! I greet you, great, God-given virginity, giver of blessings, mother of a comfortable life, Christ's lot, cohabitant of heavenly beauties, to whom marital ties are unknown! But they do not know these bonds, firstly, God, then - the face of the ever-present God - God, this source of lights, the nameless, incomprehensible light, which flees from the speed of the mind approaching Him, always warns every thought, so that in our desires we constantly stretch to a new height, and the face of God, these lights are secondary after the Trinity, which has royal glory. The first virgin is the pure Trinity. From the beginningless Father, not excited by anyone (because He Himself is the path, root and beginning for everyone) and who does not give birth to anything like mortal children, like light from light, comes the Son-King. From the Son there is no other beloved son who delights in such glory, so that the Father is entirely the Parent, and the Son only the Son, and the only Son of the only Father, having this in common with the great Spirit, that both are equally from the Father. One God, revealed in three Lights; such is the pure nature of the Trinity! After the Trinity - luminous, invisible angels. They move freely around the great throne, because they are swift-moving, flames and divine spirits, quickly carried through the air. They diligently serve high commands. They have no marriages, no sorrows, no worries, no terrible and criminal rebellion of passions. Neither members nor abodes separate them from each other. They are all of the same mind with each other, and each is identical with himself. One nature, one thought, one love around the great King God. They do not seek pleasure either in children or in spouses, or in carrying out sweet labors for them; They do not desire wealth, nor do they desire those thoughts of evil that the earth brings to mortals. They do not sow, do not sail the seas to please the unbridled womb - this source of sin. They all have one perfect food - to saturate the mind with the greatness of God and draw immeasurable light from the bright Trinity. These pure servants of the pure God lead a lonely life. They are simple, spiritual, imbued with light, do not originate from the flesh (because all flesh, as soon as it thickens, is destroyed) and do not enter into the flesh, but remain as they were created. For them in virginity, the path of godlikeness is ready, leading to God, in agreement with the intentions of the Immortal, Who wisely rules the helm of the great world, as well as strong-hearted mortals, together in heaven and on earth - this sacred race of distressed people - sow the glory of the King. But now I will proclaim the venerable mysteries of God, how virginity has shone forth in recent times. There was once a time when black night covered everything, the kind light of dawn had not yet shone, the sun had not made a fiery path from the east, the cuckolded moon - this decoration of the night - had not appeared; but everything, one with the other mixed and bound by the dark bonds of primeval chaos, wandered without a goal. You, blessed Christ, submitting to the wise thought of the Great Father, beautifully distributed every thing into its place in the world and, first of all, indicated that there should be light, so that all Your deeds, filled with light, would be delightful; and then he rounded out the greatest of miracles - the starry sky, permeated with the light of the sun and the moon, with which You spoke, so that from the dawn of the morning one would illuminate people with streams of immeasurable light and determine the hours with its flow, and the other would illuminate the darkness and bring about the second day. He placed my land at the foot of the sky; then he connected the sea with handfuls of earth, and with the sea the earth washed by the waters of the ocean, so that all this: the earth, the sky, and the sea (the sky decorated with celestial bodies, the sea with fish, the vast earth with earthly animals) made up the world. Then, having surveyed and then found everything in order, the Father rejoiced in the deeds of the Son-King, in agreement with His advice. There was also a need for a spectator of Wisdom - the mother of all and the reverent king of the earth. And He said: “The vast sky is inhabited by pure and ever-living servants, immaculate minds, good angels, hymns, ceaselessly singing My glory. But the earth is decorated only by irrational animals. Therefore, it pleases Me to create such a kind of creatures in which both would be mixed, a kind of creatures intermediate between mortals and immortals, a rational person who would rejoice in My deeds, would be a wise confidant of heaven, a great ruler of the earth, a new angel from dust, a hymnographer of My power and My mind.” So he said and, taking a part of the newly created earth, with immortal hands he composed my image and allocated it to him from His life; because he sent into him a spirit, which is a stream of the invisible Divinity. Thus, man was created from flesh and breath - the image of the Immortal, because in both the nature of the mind reigns. Therefore, like the earth, I am tied to this life and, like a particle of the Divine, I carry in my chest the love for the future life. But when the divine creature appeared on earth and in the earthly valleys of an ever-blooming paradise, however, man did not yet have an assistant in life like him, then the all-wise Word performed truly the greatest miracle - created to be a spectator of the world, that is, dividing my root and seed of a diverse life into two parts, with a powerful and life-giving hand he removed one rib from the side in order to create a wife and, pouring love into the depths of both, prompted them to strive for each other. But so that not every wife strives for every husband, she puts a limit on lust, which is called matrimony - this bridle for a substance that knows no measure, so that with its swiftness and unbridled impulses, when people are attracted to each other in groups, the sacred human race is not cut off by illegal communications and lust covered by uncontrollable recklessness does not arouse wars and grief in everyone. Until Mother Earth saw man on herself, she did not have her highest decoration, which she should have received. But even the very first of people, who, due to his own foolishness and the envy of the evil serpent, was cast out of paradise for the crime of eating from a man-killing tree, began to gravitate towards the earth with his leather vestments. However, then there was the best couple among people, and marriage, having given rise to the human race, served as salvation from destruction - so that when some die, and others take their place, the changing generation of people flows like a river, which does not stand in one place, due to the prevailing death, and is always full due to new births. But how soon both the bowels and the wide ends of the earth, the east and the west, and the southern and northern countries were filled with these one-day creatures, and the dirty vale boiled with insolence; the creation was humbled by many lessons: the division of languages, floods, rains of fire, the decrees of the written law, the prophets. Since she did not want to throw off the bonds of original sin, on the contrary, she was constantly entangled in the strongest captivity of the flesh, indulging in voluptuousness, drunkenness and idolatry; then finally, at the behest of the immortal Father and the action of the Son, the beloved race received the following honor as its inheritance. Christ, seeing how soul-destroying sin consumes in a mortal body everything that He put into it from the heavenly portion, and how the cunning serpent dominates people, to restore His property, he did not leave other helpers to heal the disease, because weak healing is not enough in great suffering, but he exhausted the glory that He Himself had - the heavenly and unchanging Image of the Heavenly. Together, according to human and non-human laws, having incarnated in the most pure womb of a chaste wife (oh a miracle, incredible for the weakest!), He came to us, being at the same time God and mortal, combining two natures (of which one is hidden, and the other is visible to people, one is God, and the other was born for us at the end of the time when God united with him in the human womb), and in both natures being one God; because man united with the Divinity, and from the Divinity, man is the King and Christ. A new connection has occurred; because I didn't care about the first one. In the first, I was granted God’s breath, and in the last, Christ took upon Himself my soul and all my members, took on that Adam, initially free, who had not yet clothed himself with sin until he recognized the serpent and tasted the fruit and death, but fed the soul with simple, heavenly thoughts, and was the bright confidante of God and the divine. For this re-creation, God came into human nature, so that, having transformed and defeated the murderer by death, taking gall for food, nails for intemperance of hands, a cross for wood, an ascension to the cross for the earth, he would raise Adam back to life and glory. And having spread out the holy body according to the ends of the world, He gathered the human race from all ends, united it into one man and imprisoned it in the bosom of the great Divinity, having cleansed all impurities with the blood of the Lamb and removed the filth that blocked the path from earth to heaven for mortals. But who will open the mind and its depths in You, King? You know the number of raindrops and sea sand; You know the paths of the wind. Who will also know the traces of Your advice, O Blessed One? You, reigning in the higher worlds, see everything and control everything, no matter what the boundless age hides within itself. The human mind, reaching out to You, sees only a small radiance and, as it were, fleeting lightning running through the air. But, however, it is certain that through your suffering you took a person from here and placed him in a new life - instead of a sinful one, into a free one. Previously, life on earth was many-sorrowful and the world was many-sick; the earthly king was surrounded by a large people, treacherously kidnapped from the great King. But now Christ, having freed us from the power of terrible sin, again leads us to the great King in a better world. And the first was for people the fruit of marriage, and the other was godlike virginity. Marriage served as an adornment for the earth, and virginity for God’s heaven. Like a painter, depicting soulless likenesses of things in a picture, first shades the image with light and unclear features, and then paints the full image with different colors; so virginity, the property of the ever-present Christ, appeared before in a small number of people, and while the Law reigned, shaded by faint colors, it shone in a few features with a hidden light. But when Christ came through a pure, virgin, unmarried, God-fearing, undefiled Mother without marriage and without a father, and since He had to be born, he purified the female nature, rejected the bitter Eve and rejected the carnal laws, according to the great statutes the letter yielded to the spirit, and grace appeared to us; Then a bright virginity shone for people, detached from the world and renouncing the weak world, as much preferable to marriage and worldly ties as the soul is preferable to flesh and the wide sky to earth, as much as the unchangeable life of the blessed is better than a fleeting life, as much as God is more perfect than man. And around the radiant King stands an immaculate, heavenly host - these are those who hasten from earth to become gods, these are Christ-bearers, servants of the cross, despisers of the world, dead to earthly things, caring for heavenly things, luminaries of the world, clear mirrors of light. They see God, God sees them, and they see God. Come now, you who are in unanimity with your side, who have dedicated yourselves to the secrets of marriage, who raise your head high and boldly turn your eyes, who adorn yourself in gold mixed with precious stones, and who clothe your tender limbs in magnificent clothing, come and show us what benefits are brought to mortals by marriage and matrimony! Then we will also call those who do not know the bonds of marriage. And the first will not hesitate to say majestically: “Dear children of marriage, this king of the earth! listen to us, for whom marriage and the bonds of life are sacred! What law did the Son of the immortal Father establish for the human race and for our blood at the very time when he created the first Adam with a rib, so that the fruit of man would be man and that he who is mortal in himself should continue his race as classes, producing children, honoring the same law and the same dear yoke of marriage and we live together and, as having come from the flesh, follow the most ancient law of dust or God himself. It is true that those natures to which the wide sky is given as their inheritance do not know marriage; they are above passions and heavy worries; then marriage and bonds are useful to us one-day creatures; it is the root of sweet branches and kind fruits, it is the good support of a sweet life. First, God is the parent of everything; and forgive me, Christ! Initially or first of all, there is a place for Your pure laws; and then - the bonds of love; because the earth, the ether, and the sea bloom with childbearing - the gifts of marriage. If it is true that there is a law of love even for tall palm trees, a male and female branch, united by the hands of a gardener in springtime, bears abundant fruit; if, as those who tested the nature of stones say, from two stones coming together a new stone is born: then even inanimate creatures have matrimony and bonds of love. “But what do I care about the love of others, about stories and affections unknown to me! Look what prudent marriage has brought to people. Who taught the coveted wisdom? Who discovered the depths that the earth, the sea, and the sky contained within themselves? Who gave laws to cities, and even before this, who erected cities and invented arts? Who filled the markets, houses and squares? Who builds armies in wars and tables at feasts? Who gathered the hymn-speaking crowd in the fragrant church? Who exterminated animal life, taught to cultivate the land and plant trees? Who sent a black ship driven by the winds across the seas? Who connected both the dry land and the wet land on one path? Who else if not marriage? Who besides him has combined the most distant things with each other?” “Such are the gifts of marriage in this respect; but they are even more excellent if we take them higher. Bound by the bonds of marriage, we replace each other’s hands, ears, and feet. Marriage makes even a weak person twice as strong, brings great joy to well-wishers and sadness to ill-wishers. The common concerns of the spouses ease their sorrows; and common joys are more delightful for both. For unanimous spouses, wealth becomes more pleasant; and in poverty, unanimity itself is more pleasant than wealth. For them, marital ties serve as the key to chastity and wishes, the seal of necessary affection. One “lot... of love” (Proverbs 5:19) warms the spirit with galloping; They have only one drink from a domestic source, which strangers do not partake of, which does not flow out anywhere and does not flow in from anywhere.” “Being one flesh, they have one soul, and through mutual love they equally arouse in each other zeal for piety. For marriage does not remove one from God, but, on the contrary, binds one more, because it has more motives. Like a small ship, even in a weak wind, it moves forward, quickly carried across the waters by outstretched sails, even the hands easily force it to run with the blows of the oars; a large ship cannot be moved by a light breath; on the contrary, when it goes out to sea with its cargo, only a strong and fair wind can give it speed: those who have not entered into marriage, as if they are not burdened with everyday worries, need less help from the great God; and whoever is obliged to be the trustee of a dear wife, estate and children, who cuts through the vast sea of ​​​​life, needs great help from God, he mutually loves God more.” “These are the fruits of marriage! But life without love is incomplete, harsh, invisible, homeless and loves to wander through the mountains; it does not save from suffering, it does not endow decrepit old age, it does not make parents come to life in their children, it does not bind life together with pleasant connections. Those who have not committed themselves to marriage find no consolation either in public meetings or at feasts, but are gloomy and alien to the world; Having been born for life, they do not love the very root of life, and in their hearts they do not have unanimity with people.” “If anyone, out of zeal for virtue, despises marital love; then let him know that virtue is not alien to this love. In ancient times, not only did all the pious enjoy marriage; but even the fruit of tender marital love were spectators of Christ’s suffering or prophets, patriarchs, priests, victorious kings, adorned with all sorts of virtues; because the earth did not give birth to the good from itself, as they say about the monstrous tribe of giants, but they are all both the offspring and the glory of marriage.” “Who showed the Almighty God to people who had moved away from Him? Who filled the mind with divine love and raised us from here to another life? Who purified the soul in all luminous men? Faith moved Enoch. The Great Noah, in a small number of souls and in floating seeds, saved the whole world from drowning. Abraham was the father of cities and nations and offered his bound son to the altar as a sacrifice to Christ. With great miracles, Moses brought the people out of difficult Egypt, accepted the law from above on stone tablets and saw God face to face. Aaron was a faithful priest among the ancients. Courageous Jesus extended the course of the moon and sun to defeat and bury his enemies. And you, blessed, blameless Samuel, “who lifts up the horn of the anointed” (1 Samuel 2:10)! David, most famous of all kings! Solomon is the first glory of wisdom! I will not forget the prophets. Elijah was taken by chariot to heaven. Who has not marveled at the environment of the Law and the Spirit, the great-voiced Forerunner of the Highest Light - John! Who did not later marvel at the twelve glorious disciples! Who did not marvel at the jealousy of the high-spirited, celestial Paul! Should we talk about other excellent men who were and what we have today - about this support of the word, the glory of the world, about this affirmation of people? All of them are given to people by Christ and marriage. And the women who became famous for their piety and of whom we see a great number in the inspired books did not achieve their glory outside of marriage and carnal bonds. I will present my strongest evidence in favor of marital love. And Christ was incarnated, although in a pure, yet in a human womb, and was born from a betrothed wife, taking half of the human marriage into union with the Divine. But my main advantage over everyone is that if virgins prevail, then they, like everyone else, are my kind; because from those who do not trespass what is trespassed, but from spouses come virgins. And I advise the children to stop arguing. If you are not fathers, then you received life from your fathers.” The marriage said so; then virginity appears with a sad look, in a thin hair shirt, with emaciated limbs, without shoes, withered, with eyes cast down to the ground; barely opens his lips with bashfulness, while his cheeks turn purple from the rush of honest blood; moving the blanket from her head, she wraps herself in it, silently. And I turn to him with these pleading words: Daughter of heaven, filled with inner glory, already standing in the great choir of those singing the songs of the Mountain King, although flesh and earth keep you here - come and speak the word! I myself will be your protector. For you, God-given queen, have already come to me, come; and oh, if only she would visit me more often and be kind to me! “Who brings me to this place against my will? Who draws me into empty competition and argument of words, when I burn with the desire to serve my God in silence with my deeds, devoting to Him my daily labors, my nightly chants, sources of tears and holy cleansings? My power is not in the circle of people; I am not quick with words, I do not go to public assemblies, I do not admire the verdicts of favorable judges, who observe justice little and for a few, and most often tilt the scales of justice here and there. I provide others with the benefits of life here; but I have one law, one thought - imbued with love, to move from here to the light-giver God, who reigns in the higher worlds. The desire for other blessings, about which empty people think highly, who are puffed up by vanity, which are quickly acquired and even more quickly destroyed, occupies my heart as much as smoke, or steam, or flowing air, or sand, raised and carried everywhere by the winds, or the trace of a ship on the sea. He does not see honor among people, but has, although small, eternally abiding glory in heaven, for me it is more desirable than to have everything, but to be at a distance from God. However, I come to tremble and fear, lest any of those who have soared and rushed through the ethereal spaces on the newly-feathered wings of virginity, having heard these reasonings, immediately rush to the ground. That’s why I come out on Wednesday to give help to my children with the assistance of God, defending the right word. First of all, I will tell my mother what is only proper for me to say.” “What you said is fair in favor of married life, and I agree; I’ll start with what you recently finished saying that marriage is the root of virgins. Indeed, it is the root and the beginning. For which sane person would renounce his parents? However, not everything you said is true. Although you are a mother, nevertheless accept a wise and reasonable word and regarding birth, listen to the secrets of high wisdom revealed to me in the mysteries of the great God.” “A man is not the father of the whole man, as they say, but only of flesh and blood - that which is in the dying man; the soul, the breath of the Almighty God, coming from outside, forms flesh, as He who united them knows this, Who first breathed the soul and united His image with the earth. My words [end p. 171] are confirmed by your own love, which is incomplete, because you love not the soul in children, but only the body, you grieve when the body becomes weak, and rejoice when it blooms. The father and the venerable mother are more heartbroken about unimportant physical defects in their children than about important vices and great spiritual shortcomings. For they are parents to the body, but not to the soul. If I call you mother, it is in relation to the worst part. Why do you envy children because they have a better Father? So, voluntarily yield to the great Parent of people, honoring the virginity that was given to you from the Father God. I tell you this as a mother, and what I have said so far is enough.” “And I, dear children of all the King God, enter, as it were, into communion with God and leave love for the flesh out of respect for that law of longed-for consent, which in ancient times, the Son of the immortal Father, born from an unbound by marriage, incorruptible from an indestructible Parent, decreed at the time when he introduced the first Adam, not obliged by marriage, into paradise, then, giving The law prescribed purification for the people, cleansed those born with the law, and honored the church by the fact that the priests who performed in it observed bodily purity. My witness in this is the great Father John, who not before having completed God’s mysteries in purity, conceived his beloved son, whom he received inside the church - this harbinger of Christ. The end of the Law is for Christ to enter into communion with humanity in a virgin’s womb, so that marriage might bow its head to the ground and so that it would give way and a better adornment would appear. And death, which entered through the destructible flesh of the first-born into those born from the moist seed and subject to destruction, attacked virginity and died, like a huge wave near a coastal stone or a flame saturated with water.” “Moreover, who admires cities and powerless laws, popular assemblies and unrest? Who admires the struggle that fable has established in memory of the young men who died prematurely? Who praises the army in battles and the abundance of food at feasts? Who extols vain wisdom, which consists in sleight of hand or in webs of words and fabrics woven from torn threads and disintegrating in the air? Who admires the work of a gardener or the running of a fast ship under a fast wind? It was not marriage that taught all this, but this is a small part of the original punishment that befell Adam; in this the evil serpent creeps in, guarding my heel. But if the gifts are marriage, then get away from me with them. They are not my companions, because I am hastening from here to another life, and all these local benefits will perish either now, or along with the fickle flow of the world. And you yourself make up something fluid, you swim across the stream of fluid life, barely touching it and running over something running.” “If you admire the wise because they were born from you, then imagine the vices of the unworthy, for which you also constitute the root. In you is the root of Cain, Sodom and those foolish people whom Christ scattered during the pandemonium, as well as those whose pride was extinguished by the heavenly rain, which cleansed the whole earth and everything breathing on it. Who fed the unreasonable Pharaoh, the insolence of Achaab and the most grievous Assyrian kings? Who nurtured the destroyer and child killer Herod, who gave righteous blood to the voluptuous movements of his daughter, or the murderers of the All-Tsar Christ, as well as all the persecutors who were before, and after, and in present times, of the latter the first evil is this ditch of the Belials, the terrible power of the destroyer of souls Julian, who was struck down from above because he swore to fight against Christ, and whose dust is still has not cooled down, instilling great horror in the wicked? Who will list all the liars, murderers, treacherous, perjurers, thieves of neighbor's property, desecrators of someone else's bed, whom marriage has produced or will produce? For everyone knows that to the extent that there is more dust than gold, in the same way the vicious ones are more numerous than the virtuous ones, because both of them follow unequal paths: the path of the vicious ones is low and quickly traversed, but the good ones make their way along a difficult path; and therefore the evil ones far outnumber the good ones.” “But if you stop admiring children and calling a life spent in communion with the Divine insufficient, then let’s conclude our word with this. Enjoy dubious fame. I do not envy my earthly parent at all, not at all. If, having received a secondary place as an inheritance from God, you cast your eyes on the primacy, then I will pronounce upon you a fair, albeit regrettable word for you.” “Which of the people took care to conceive the best son? And what kind of art is it to give birth to a worthless son? The painter paints another picture from a picture no worse than the original; the sculptor cuts sculptures similar to the model; art fashions from gold whatever the mind conceives; the farmer reaps a good ear from a good seed, and the desire does not remain unfulfilled. But a mortal, neither good nor bad, does not know the properties of his offspring, what will come out of it. And a good one cannot guarantee that he will produce a better one. Another, being Paul, will give birth to a Christ-killer son - the lawless Anna, or Caiaphas, or even some Judas. And another, himself completely in sin, like Judas, but will be called the parent of the divine Paul or Peter - the indestructible stone to which the keys are trusted. And the father does not know whether he will give birth to a dear son or daughter; but only the rebellion of the flesh is quenched on the marital bed. From one firstborn came both the envious Cain and the virtuous Abel, who made a pleasing sacrifice. Both the evil Esau and the good Jacob are Isaac’s children; and what is most remarkable is that twins and children of the same father are in no way similar to one another. And Solomon was first a sage, then he became the most vicious, following the morals of evil wives. Pavlov’s power is great in both cases: when he humiliated Christ, and when, having changed his fiery zeal into kind love, he began to preach Christ to everyone. What of all this can we attribute to marriage? At least I won’t attribute anything, because those who are mating do not achieve the image that they wanted. Whoever amuses himself with the game depends only on throwing the dice, and to make it even or odd, this is not done by the hands of the player, but by the random transformations of the dice; Likewise, marriage, when begetting children, does not make them prudent or bad, but nature or science instructs them to do so.” “And if you want to know the true reason, then the most perfect are perfect because they are formed by the Spirit or the Word. For a spark of piety is hidden in a person, like the power of fire in some stones. By striking iron, light is extracted from stones; so the Word brings out from mortals the piety hidden in them. But the worst for the most part borrow this quality from marriage, for it produces the worst in greater numbers. And in this transitory world, everyone has the same nail nailing their flesh to the ground and a lonely leaden weight pressing their soul to the ground, the same inheritance goes to everyone born on earth.” “But let’s stop talking about children; and you do not show me the good ones, and I will not point out the bad ones. And for other reasons, how much better is a clean life! You will recognize this if you consider the love of God and the love of heavy flesh, also the nature and twofold limit of the world. For if you cleanse your eyes at least somewhat from the pus with which they become covered when the light shines or from darkness, and you are able to look with an open eye at the brightness of our sun, to resolve everything with a pure mind, then you will find that virginity, taken in its entirety, is an offering to God that is lighter than gold and ivory, that it is prudent, clear as day, light-winged, sublime, light, bright, above dust, not in earthly vales, dwells in a vast heavenly city and far from the flesh, with one hand clings to ageless life, and with the other accepts wealth and unceasing glory, is not like a turtle, which, under the burden of its bone house, with slow steps barely drags its wet body, is not divided between Christ and the ruling flesh, according to the law amphibians, which sometimes stick to land, sometimes remain in the waters day and night, but directs their whole mind to God, and blossoms with births from above, which are better than the children of the earth, with hope and pure thoughts sent from the Pure One. On the contrary, marriage either completely moves away from Christ, due to the disastrous inflammation of the flesh and all kinds of worldly concerns, or slightly touches the divine. Just as someone who suddenly looks at two heads, or at two faces, or sees doubly written letters on pages, does not correctly grasp the whole image, although he wishes to, but embraces one part, and the other runs away from weak, scattered vision: so is love weak if it is divided between the world and Christ; but on the contrary, it is firm if it is directed towards the One. A man, either possessing Christ entirely, does not care about his wife, or, having given place to earthly love in himself, forgets about Christ. It happened to see how a stonecutter or someone who carves something out of wood, if he is a smart and sensible person, when it is necessary to cut along a straight line, closes one eye with his eyelashes, and with the other strains all his vision, combined together, and correctly determines where the tool has made a mistake. So love, concentrated much closer, brings us to Christ, Who loves the one who loves, sees the one who turns his eyes to Him, sees and goes out to meet the one approaching. The more someone loves, the more constantly he looks at his beloved, and the more constantly he looks, the more deeply he loves. This creates a beautiful circle.” “And I, having loved Christ, left my life here; I cannot turn my attention to other objects. Sweet bonds hold me, captivating me with beauty, which amazes every looking thought, and a bright flame arises in me and makes me all beautiful and radiant. For only the one who loves Christ in the very love of his beloved draws beauty for himself; and blessed is he who accepts. On the contrary, you nourish a different kind of love in your chest and think a lot about yourself, as if you are getting closer to heaven because, as you say, of caring about children, about property, or about parents, because this is easy. But wise love does not mean that it is easy.” “The ship is small, the journey is not far, and the acquisition of something perishable does not matter. But for you it is an endless voyage; and if you cross the bay, then, having gathered your sails, you will boast of sailing on the Ionian waters. Here everything is moved by the breath of the wind, and the more favorable the wind, the better the sailing. And if the wind is contrary, it’s a small problem to die in the waters. But the voyage of the soul is distant; it needs a good wind. Therefore, I come into trembling and hold on to Christ even more tightly, and not only in the storm, but also in times of silence, I seek Him - my pure desire, for Christ is a strong refuge for those who love Him. He who, in need, only turns his eyes to God’s right hand, leaves his temporary love as soon as he considers himself not in need. But if Christ from above wounds your heart and pierces you through with a saving arrow, then, having examined each love separately, you will know how much sweeter it is to be wounded by the King.” “What else are you saying? Parents live a new life, seeing their sons caring for them around them; A wife blooms with a caring husband, and a husband with a caring wife. They have common joys, and sorrows and worries are easier. The one who has healthy legs is the greatest support for the lame.” “But for me - those parents who taught goodness, and those children who were taught by me. I have one Christ as my spouse, who loves virgins primarily, although he became a man for everyone and took the cross for everyone. I look at Him with joy, even when He sends me sorrows; I rejoice that through sorrows it makes me lighter, like gold that was mixed with dust and then purified. And if chastity is protected in you by marriage and marriage, then I have made it its guardian, not the flesh, but the Word and love, which, possessing me, drove away all extraneous affection, just as a lion drives away the weakest animals. Flesh and flesh have the same passions; and therefore they know how to please each other in other ways. Your table is laden with dishes; and a small piece of bread satisfies me, with which the great Christ fed thousands in the deserts. Your drink is prepared with art; and my drink always flows abundantly from springs, rivers and deep wells. Your face is full and your clothes are light; and my attire is unkempt hair and a dark robe. But I have clothes with golden robes that clink - this is Christ, the best inner adornment of my soul. Your bed is soft; and my bed is grass, tree branches and earth, moistened with tears. You value gold highly; but for me flesh is more desirable. You are more indomitable than a calf; I lower my bashful gaze to the ground. You burst out laughing; I never even had a smile on my cheeks. You crave fame; but my glory is not on earth.” “But having examined and seen all this, look again at how many difficulties there are in marriage for those who serve the flesh. The wife buys herself a husband, and what’s worse, often an unkind one. And the husband has a purchased wife, and often hated; This is an evil that he imposed on himself and which he cannot put aside. For if the spouses are good, then they are unanimous, because they have everything in common; and if they are thin, then they have trouble at home, an incessant quarrel. Let us assume that they are not bad and unanimous; but a difficult fate often befell newlyweds. Today a groom, tomorrow a dead man; Today is the marriage bed, and tomorrow is the coffin; sorrows are mixed with joys; a cheerful song comes shortly before lamentation. One has lit the family hearth, while the other has already extinguished it. One baby began to call his father, and the other suddenly became sad, like a branch knocked down by the wind. First a virgin, then a wife, and then a widow; and all this sometimes in one night and one day. She tears off her curls, throws her bride's outfit far away, tears her cheeks with weak hands, forgets her girlish shame in bitter suffering, calls for her unfortunate husband; mourns the empty house, and the lot of widowhood, and untimely grief. I will keep silent about the diseases of childbirth, about carrying a dead burden in the womb, about the pitiful and motherless fetus, when the woman giving birth first becomes a coffin for it, and then gives birth; about the death of babies before their birth, about barren pregnancy; I will keep silent about the birth of premature, feeble-minded and deformed people - about this distortion of the human race, about this play of the flesh. If someone weighs this and looks where the scales are drawn, then it will be clearly revealed to anyone who is prudent that my life is strongly pulling upward, towards God, who reigns in the higher worlds.” “We won’t even talk about shameful things for us, because the honest lips of virginity are accustomed to avoiding reproaches. If, in reproach for godlike virginity, you point to the one who disgraced my path and covered Christ’s undefiled tunic with shame, in sinful seduction chose the first of your blessings and, fleeing a pure, high life, entered into a late marriage; then I will remind you of the vile betrayals of the marriage bed, when they lawlessly violate marital fidelity, trampling on God’s threats. For this is one of the most destructive evils for mortals and eats the insides stronger than the all-consuming fire, then a cunning adulterer, approaching someone else’s bed, makes both the family and the bonds of love doubtful. But you are not kept from the bond of marriage by adulterers and wicked people. Both the one who has not yet washed away human blood from himself, plunging a sword into the enemy’s heart to avenge adultery, and the one who barely escaped the dagger, enter into marriage.” “Will some crazy passion distract me from Christ? Can a small stone really block a wide river? It would be both indecent and unfair. It is much better if, out of many who soar upward, some fall (if I may say such a word, which is difficult to pronounce), than when everyone remains on the ground for fear that the wings may melt and fall down. For the good are the glory of Christ; and the vicious ones... may he who threw a stone to heaven accept sin and shame on his reckless head! The devil was formerly an angel; but after his fall the inhabitants of heaven did not lose their glory. And Judas did not reproach his disciples with his fall; on the contrary, he was removed from among the elect, and the eleven apostles remained perfect. One was destroyed by the sea, and the other, having spread his white sails, sails, where he sees in front of him the coffin of a dead sailor, or a ship is separated from one tomb in order to tie the stern to another.” “Will you command me, my mother, to leave life, aspiring grief, or will we put an end to the word, because the upper hand is on the daughter’s side? If those who gave birth to me can boast of anything, then this is my praise. You admire that you are the mother of virginity; what is my glory? Don’t you know that all the most perfect people you have listed, although they came from parents, are more righteous and better than their parents? And Christ, although Mary’s Son, is much higher than Mary, and not only Mary, but all those covered with flesh, and even higher than those minds that the vast sky covers within itself. And from the young seed an ear grew; and from the grains of sand a piece of precious gold was formed.” “But to put the crown of speech, let the word for both kinds of life, both celibate and married, acquire some similarity in which you would see the end of my word!” “Snow belongs to winter, and flowers belong to spring, gray hair belongs to wrinkles, and strength belongs to youthful years. However, flowers also appear in winter, and snow appears on spring days, and youth produces gray hairs; and it happened to see a vigorous old age, and an old man with much greater strength than a barely blossoming young man. So, although marriage has an earthly beginning, and celibate life displeases the All-King Christ; however, it happens that virginity brings you down to heavy earth, and married life leads you to heaven. Therefore, if they began to blame: one on marriage, and the other on virginity, then both would tell a lie.” But, my friends, and you, parents, and you, celibate youths and virgins, how long will you, like a despised turtle, or an eight-legged crab that does not walk straight, or a long snake that creeps on its belly, how long will you drag out a life burdened with the terrible burden of the flesh? Let us finally listen to Christ’s advice, rejecting beauty, glory, wealth, race, happiness and all the seductive products of disastrous sin, let us leave here, ascend into an easy life, purify ourselves, be unanimous with the heavenly pure Powers, so that, having entered into the host of those who stand before the great God, we will joyfully sing a festive song to the King! As those cast out from the bright paradise, we received marriage as our inheritance, and a difficult land, and everything that accompanies the lost; So, through a life that knows no worldly bonds, we will ascend again to glory, to that good tree of paradise, which we lost for recklessness.” Thus spoke the godlike virginity. Judges, although they were more attached to married life, nevertheless crowned the head of virginity. And Christ, who rewards both, will place them next to Him, one on the right hand, the other on the left. But even that is great glory! You might be interested in: