Sermo ad Sanctimoniales

Sermon of Saint Caesarius To the Nuns. Rejoice and exult in the Lord, venerable daughters, and give Him continual and abundant thanks, who deigned to draw and summon you from the shadowy way of life of this world to the harbor of peace and religious life. Think continually whence you have come and where you have merited to arrive. You have faithfully left behind the darkness of the world, and you have happily begun to see the light of Christ. You have scorned the fire of lust, and you have arrived at the coolness of chastity. You have rejected gluttony, and you have chosen abstinence. You have rejected avarice and luxury, and you have held to chastity and mercy. And although the struggle will not be lacking for you until the end of your life, yet with God’s gift we are confident of your victory. But I ask you, venerable daughters, that as much as you are secure about the past, so much you may be anxious about the future. For all crimes and sins quickly return to us, if they are not daily fought against by good works. Hear the apostle Peter saying: “Be sober, and keep watch, because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes around seeking to devour something” (1 Pet. 5). As long as we live in this body, day and night, with Christ as helper and guide, let us fight against the devil.

For there are some, which is worse, negligent and lukewarm, who boast only of the name of Christianity, and think that it suffices for them to have changed their clothing and to have taken up the woolen garment of religion; not knowing that prophetic saying: "Son, when you approach the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation" (Ecclesiasticus 2); nor considering the sentence of the Psalmist: "Because of the words of your lips, I have kept to hard ways" (Psalm 16); nor that which the Apostle said: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven" (Acts 14). For we can put off secular garments and assume religious ones in the moment of one hour; but we must labor, with Christ as our helper, to retain good habits continually, or to struggle against the evil and sweet pleasures of this world as long as we live, because it is not he who begins, but he who perseveres unto the end who will be saved (Matthew 24). First of all, therefore, every soul that desires to keep to religion must strive with all the strength of faith to overcome the desire of gluttony and to avoid drunkenness; and so should endeavor to have such moderation in feasting and at table that her flesh is neither weakened by excessive abstinence nor provoked to lust by an abundance of delicacies.

Next, having cast aside pride, to which God is opposed, let her lay the foundation of profound humility; let her detest and flee envy as a viper's poison; let her curb her tongue, reject detraction as poison; let her neither utter idle words herself, nor willingly admit to her ears those spoken by others. Let her become accustomed to a habit of dress neither too shabby, nor notably ostentatious, nor dangerously elegant; let her either read more frequently herself, or receive the words of the reader with wholehearted eagerness. Let her continually draw the water of salvation from the fountains of the Divine Scriptures: that water of which the Lord says: He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly (John 7). Let the holy soul also continually strive to adorn herself with the flowers of paradise, that is, the meanings of the Holy Scriptures; let her incessantly hang precious pearls from them upon her ears; let her fashion for herself rings and bracelets from them, while she performs good works. There let her seek remedies for wounds, there the spices of chastity, there the sacrifices of compunction. But she who desires to preserve religion with an immaculate heart and a pure body should either never go out in public, or certainly not unless for a great and unavoidable necessity. Do not, I beseech you, do not give occasion or grant familiarity to anyone.

But she who, with Christ’s help, desires to overcome lust must shun familiarity; and she who has not spurned unworthy familiarity will quickly destroy either herself or another. But perhaps some woman says: “I do not flee familiarity because I wish to have something to overcome, and I desire to hold my adversary captive.” Beware lest the adversary begin to rebel against you; beware lest that captivity lead you captive. Hear the Apostle saying: “Flee fornication” (1 Cor. 6). Against the other vices we must resist with all our strength; but against lust it is not expedient to fight, but to flee. Therefore, be a fugitive from lust if you wish to be a noble champion of chastity. But attend diligently to what I have said. When a woman alone is goaded by the stings of lust, with Christ’s help let her resist as much as she can against herself, because she has nowhere to flee; but when, through another’s companionship, the devil supplies an opportunity for pleasure, let the holy soul flee that very familiarity as much as she can, as we have said. But that we may be able to observe all these things, let us keep a reasonable abstinence, for true is the saying of that most holy man: “As you restrain the belly, so also its venomous motions.” Let us also preserve true humility as much as we can. For the integrity of the flesh is not long preserved where the mind is corrupted by the swelling of pride; especially if the flame of anger rises frequently, it quickly consumes the flowers of chastity and virginity.

A chaste soul devoted to God ought to have familiarity not only with strangers, but even with her own relatives. For if vessels that are offered to the Church, to be placed on the most sacred altars, are called holy by all, and it is unlawful for them to be afterwards recalled from the church into a lay household or adapted for human uses, what dignity do you think a soul created in God’s image has before God? Therefore, just as sacred vessels destined for human service neither can nor ought to be recalled from the church, so it is not fitting, not becoming, not expedient for any religious woman to be entangled in many obligations to her own relatives or to be constrained by the pernicious familiarity of any strangers whatsoever. Above all, I admonish you to flee the evil of jealousy like viper’s poison, and to preserve among yourselves the sweetness of charity, so that you may prepare spiritual remedies for one another through holy conversations. For there are, what is worse, some women who, when they come together, more often inflict wounds by detracting from one another or murmuring against their superiors than they compose spiritual medicines. But you, holy and venerable daughters, if you see anyone faint-hearted, offer consolation; if you see anyone proud, apply the remedy of humility; if you see anyone wrathful, administer the refreshment of patience.

If you are born of noble stock, rejoice more in the humility of religion than in the dignity of the world. Therefore hold your hands firmly to the plow, and do not look back (Luke 9). Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17), who, looking back, was turned into a pillar of salt. Let no oath, no curse ever proceed from a virgin’s mouth. For not only your bodies, but also your hearts, guard with all diligence, because of what is written: “With all watchfulness keep your heart” (Proverbs 4); and that which the Lord said in the Gospel: “For from the heart come forth evil thoughts” (Matthew 15). For if nothing evil is thought in the heart, whatever is holy is uttered from the mouth; just as it is written: “The mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart” (Matthew 12). For the tongue is accustomed to utter that which the conscience has supplied from the workshop of the heart. And therefore, if you wish to utter good things from your mouth, always think in your heart what is holy. You ought to apply yourselves to reading and prayer in such a way that, above all, you may also be able to exercise something with your hands, according to what the Apostle says: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3). Also, devote the better part of the day to holy work; accustom yourselves to devote time to reading. Let your prayer proceed from the heart with such silence that it is scarcely heard in the mouth. For he who wishes to pray in a loud voice greatly harms both himself and another, while by his own garrulousness he distracts another’s mind from holy and secret prayer.

Despise and reject pompous garments, which serve not utility but vanity. For many women show in their works what they cherish in their habits; preparing worldly ornaments for themselves, they love the world and serve pleasure or luxury. But you should have nothing in common with such women; rather, let all ornaments by which the flesh is adorned for luxury be rejected as hostile and contrary to your purpose. There are even some—and this is worse—who, for the vanity of this present world, strive more to give attention to earthly desires than to divine reading of righteousness, while they wish to prepare beautiful coverlets and painted tapestries, embroideries, and other such things, with great expense and superfluous outlay, for the lust of the eyes; not knowing that which the Lord proclaims through John the Evangelist and says: "Do not love the world, nor those things which are in the world; for everything that is in the world is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and ambition of the world" (1 John 2). What profit is it for a virgin to preserve the integrity of her body, if she is unwilling to avoid the lusts of the eyes? But you, holy and God-worthy souls, act entirely spiritually. Follow Christ, holding persistently to what you have ardently willed.

Again and again, holy souls dedicated to God, I ask, and with all humility I give counsel for preserving the reward of virginity, that you strive with all your might to repel incongruous familiarity from yourselves or from your minds. For to preserve the dignity of holy religion, solitude is the most sacred witness. For familiarity with anyone, if it begins to be frequent, sows nothing but corruption, sprouts vices, conceives lust, begets disgrace, stirs up frenzy, feeds wantonness, nurtures insolence, exalts falls, builds ruins, earns confusion, hoards shame, aggravates accusation, inflames excuses, and heaps them all together into a bundle. For if a holy soul wishes to guard its own secret, and flees the evil of constant familiarity with all the strength of its mind, then holy solitude itself is an invincible rampart of sanctity, a strong repulsion of infamy, an exercise of continence, an evacuation of luxury, a secure peace of virtues, and a restless assault of wars; the summit of purity, and the prison of lust; the harbor of honor, and the shipwreck of disgrace; the mother of virginity, and the enemy of uncleanness; the dignity of integrity, and the abdication of fornication; the will for good works, and the affliction of vices; the refreshment of modesty; the acquisition of triumphs, and the loss of crimes; the rest of salvation, and the exile of perdition; the life of the spirit, and the death of the flesh.

All these evils will be repelled bravely, with God’s help, and those goods of which we have spoken will be acquired happily, if inordinate familiarity is rejected by holy souls. Attend to yourselves, O holy souls, because among all the struggles that are always the companion of Christian warfare, the battles of chastity are the harder alone, where the fight is daily and victory rare. The battles of chastity are hard, but the rewards are greater. No one receives the palm of chastity securely; its outcomes are as difficult as its fruits are glorious. Therefore, so that you may happily receive the rewards of chastity and the crown of virginity, with God rewarding you, always exclude dangerous familiarity from yourselves. Run faithfully, so that you may arrive happily, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.