Jean-Baptiste Berthier

“ Are you, then, ignorant that virtue alone holds the promises of the life that now is, and of the life to come ? It constitutes the bliss of marriage, and it is it that married persons should seek before all things. "A virtuous woman rejoiceth her husband, and shall fulfil the years of his life in peace. A good wife is a good portion: she shall be given, in the portion of them that fear God, to man for his good deeds." ”

“ Evidently, it is not in the maxims of the world, but in Holy Writ, in Catholic tradition, in the works of the fathers, and in the theologians and masters of the spiritual life. And yet, where is the young man or the young woman, who, having to decide about the future, can run over immense volumes, written, for the most part, in an unknown tongue, with a view to draw from them the doctrine that is to enlighten and guide a decision? Absorbed as they are in countless occupations, parents are still less fit than their children for such a study. ”

“ When a soul, under the action of grace, has formed some salutary plan, it is a great cruelty to thwart its resolutions. It is malice like that of Herod, it is Babylonian barbarity, to slaughter newly-born infants ; but greater still is the wickedness of men who crush in souls, even before birth, the holy desires which they have formed. Men of this kind seem to me worse than the infernal dragon standing up before the woman about to bring forth, and ready to devour her offspring as soon as it should come into the world. ”

“ Chrysostom shows the sad consequences that may result from thoughtless and unscrupulous mockery of virginity or celibacy. Let us suppose, says he, that a man who has taken upon himself the severe sacrifices of virginity, should become with impunity the jest of great and small : whose courage, I ask, will not recoil from the prospect of taunts and ridicule ? It is only a soul, superhumanly generous and noble, that could embrace a virtue so loaded with contempt. But allow others, less hardy and less skilled, to receive some mutual assistance from our encouragements. ”

“ Therefore, a young widow, it seems to me, ought to be all the further from a second marriage, because she has known sorrow and widowhood so early in life. In remaining a widow, she is sure of her future, and protects herself against similar misfortunes. Though the state of widow hood is the same for all widows, the rewards differ widely, and are more brilliant for some than for others. The widow who, while yet young, undergoes the yoke of continence, deserves more honor and glory than another who takes up the practice only in her old age. ”

“ We consider marriage lawful; we also admire those who forego it. To keep from what is forbidden does not always betoken a grand and lofty soul. Hence, perfect virtue, not content with shunning faults branded by public opinion, triumphs in the performance of those acts, the omission of which would entail no guilt. But do you not prohibit marriage? God forbid! But, you will add, do you exhort us to keep continence? Yes, I advise it, for I understand the excellence of virginity ”

“ Which of these two states can a man choose in preference to the other, as contributing more efficaciously to acquire purity of conscience, to progress in virtue and the worship of God, and to win eternal life ? From this point of view, there is no doubt that the religious state is better, more perfect, and more advantageous. So that, the more spontaneously and readily we enter religion, the more prudent and perfect is our action ; but, on the other hand, we are all the more secure in the care of souls, the less has been our ardor to enter upon it of our own accord. ”

“ Those who have read the fathers and doctors of the Church, and chiefly SS. Athanasius, Chrysostom, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Bernard, have not to be taught how much these illustrious men labored to make celibacy and virginity known and loved by mankind. These great sons of holy Church spread their wings in eagle flight, and rose to the noblest heights of eloquence, when descanting on this inspiring theme. St. Ambrose ranks among the foremost, and may justly be called the Doctor of perfect chastity. ”

“ He who vents contempt and outrage on the heroism that he cannot rival, justly incurs universal hatred, and passes in the eyes of the world for a senseless being and an enemy to virtue." " Woe to you," says the same doctor, in the words of Isaias, " woe to you who call evil good, and good evil; who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, bitterness into sweetness, and sweetness into bitterness. Now, what is there more lovely than virginity ? What is better or more charming ? ”

“ Thomas strange inhale the perfume of piety, candor, and grace, which some religious boarding- schools breathe out at the close of a scholastic year; if they could get a close view of the supernatural loveliness which the solitude of a monastery sheds in a few months over these young souls, they would, with the holy doctor, acknowledge that " it is good for a man to bear the yoke of the Lord from his tenderest years." ”

“ We are well aware that there may be men who are the disgrace of the celibacy which they profess ; but, were we to judge of a state of life by the conduct of those who dishonor it, what condition could we esteem, what state could we embrace? Besides, the shortcomings of those living in Christian celibacy might often pass for virtues, if placed alongside the sins of the worldling. Poor slaves of the world ! the Christian maiden whom you laugh at has no contempt for you ; she sacrifices herself, she weeps and prays earnestly for you. ”

“ To call marriage bad, is an injury to virginity; to honor the former, is to praise the latter. A person is not handsome because less ugly than some one else whose body is deformed; but he is truly such, when he excels in beauty those who are whole and free from defect. In this way, marriage, which is good in itself, leads us to admire virginity, that is better, and outstrips it in dignity as much as the captain and the general are above the common soldier and sailor. ”

“ Liguori, after speaking of the pure joy of the religious life, remarks very sensibly that in it one is not out of the reach of the sufferings that are inseparable from life in this world ; still, according to the same doctor, sorrows are there only for unfaithful souls. For fervent religious, the tribulations of their life are sweet consolations. Besides, it is ever true to say that religious receive the hundred-fold during their life. The holy doctor adds, that in the religious state one dies with greater confidence; and that the soul of the religious is sooner purified after death. ”

“ But you will be exposed to the reproaches of many parents whose sons are settled in the world ; for, in seeing you sacrifice your son, some will go into tears, and others will rail at you. And why are you not the first to make light of them, and to mourn over the blindness of such people? Ah! let us not look whether people turn us into mockery, but whether they do so with reason. If we deserve their gibes, we ought to weep before they say anything to us; but if we do not, let us congratulate ourselves, and pity the silly persons who seek to make us ridiculous. ”

“ You act like an officer who would order a raw soldier, that cannot yet stand the brunt of war, to throw himself for that very reason into the thickest of the fight, and to command the action. He who waits for the close of life to embrace virtue, spends the remnant of his days in washing out with his tears the sins of his youth ”

“ Who can doubt that faith daily grows dim in the company of an unbeliever ? How can the wife keep God's law who has constantly at her side a companion of devils ? If there is question of going to the assemblies of the faithful, her husband seeks to draw her to profane places. When there should be fast, he commands a feast for the same day. Will that husband allow his wife to go around visiting the huts of the poor? ”

“ The religious state not only is a state of perfection, but, furthermore, it is an excellent thing to desire it, to ask for it, to embrace it : modus obtinendi ilium, ipsum appetendo, petendo et procurando, optimus est. Hence one acts all the more perfectly and prudently in embracing it, the more spontaneous and free his action is in so doing. It is quite another thing with respect to the cure of souls. The more we fear that burden the greater our security in taking it up, especially when we resign ourselves to it out of obedience to superiors. ”

“ It were easy to show, to any one that is willing to open his eyes, celibacy, in the course of Christian ages, sending apostles into the Old and the New World, evangelizing the poor, teaching children, building hospitals, taking care of the sick, and, as a ministering angel in families, ever ready with consolation where there is a tear to be dried, or any holy work to be done. Ever since Christ and his blessed Mother gave it a consecration, celibacy has been a source of confusion to those alone for whom, as Bernard says, confusion is glory. ”

“ And, indeed, as we have just remarked, a state of Christian life is a fixed and stable manner of living, instituted and ordained for the preservation of grace at present, and for glory hereafter. But this manner of living is twofold. One manner is general and common to all the faithful, since it is necessary for salvation, and God wishes all to be saved. The other is special. In addition to these means of salvation which are necessary, it possesses many others. These two manners of living form two different states of Christian life: the common state, and the state of perfection. ”

“ However, if it is inconsiderate to allow the vow of chastity to be taken without discretion, would it not be far more grievous to make it a maxim and an invariable rule to stifle and repress always the holy desire to consecrate one's self to God which grace begets in Christian souls ?
What has been said should teach persons who have vowed their chastity to God, how much they ought to be in dread of sins which their sacred engagements render still more terrible. "He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall." ”

“ Prosper says that charity is the strongest of all affections. Hence it unites us to God more forcibly than any other; and in this life we cannot be more bound to him by anything than by love, because charity tends to God considered in himself, it subjects man to him in a wonderful manner, and makes him conformable to his ever-adorable will. Wherefore the entire perfection of the Christian life is in charity. [1] Still, charity is not so all-sufficing for perfection, as to include everything else. ”

“ The moral goodness of the religious state is greater than that of the parish priest s state, because the religious binds himself to consecrate all his life to striving after perfection, whereas the pastor does not bind himself, as does the bishop, to devote all his life to the care of souls. Wherefore, in regard to parish clergy, the religious state is as the holocaust to a mere sacrifice. A sacrifice is less perfect than a holocaust. ”

“ Have all who live happily in virginity or the religious life resisted grace, and perchance missed their vocation, because, though fit for marriage, they felt, at certain times in their lives, a leaning which they put away as a temptation? Who does not see that aptitude and inclination for marriage do not prove any more a supernatural call to that state, than the appetite and vigorous stomach of a man arc evidence that God does not wish him to fast or mortify his tastes. ”

“ The ways of society, bad example, bad language, are so many baits that attract us to earth, and draw us away from God. Every one is aware that dangerous occasions are the ordinary cause of the ruin of souls." [4]
It is indeed true that, with the grace of God, we may sanctify ourselves everywhere, just as, in the holiest places, we may fall under the weight of our weakness and the malice of the devil ; but the same St. Liguori tells us that the souls lost in the world are many in number, while but few come to eternal ruin in religion. ”

“ Men and women who keep virginity are angels, and not of a common kind, but of a very high and noble class. Free from the bonds of the flesh, the heavenly spirits observe virginity in the kingdom of God. Standing near the throne of the Lord of the universe, they are in a place and of a nature that save them from the slightest stain. But the virgins of earth are still more astonishing in their virtue and angelic purity ”

“ A child is never bound to renounce the religious state to help his parents, who, on account of his separation from them, might have to bear some privations, but yet would not be reduced to misery or loss of rank in society. Do not parents every day make immense sacrifices to set their children up in the world ? They would, therefore, be very much in the wrong, if they refused to make a sacrifice when their children have a desire to embrace a state the most perfect and the most advantageous for their salvation. ”

“ Thus, for instance, frequenting theatres is fashion ; enriching one's self by every kind of means is to secure independence ; desire of glory is greatness of soul ; insolence is frankness ; extravagance is charity ; injustice is courage. After that you travesty virtue, by presenting it under names that make it ridiculous. You call rusticity temperance, imbecility justice, frugality meanness; and, what is most frightful, to your words you add the teaching of example." [3]
" The atmosphere of the world is poisonous for the soul," says St. Liguori. ”

“ Shall not those who take a man for their husband be allowed to give the preference to God? Why do to me what is done to no one else, and cast up to me, as a disgrace, that which is the glory of other priests, namely : to scatter in souls the seed of virtue, and entice them to a life of virginity ? " [5] St. Augustine, who was trained in the school of Ambrose, wished such as had tasted the pure joys of chastity to share them with others. ”

“ Marriage is the conjugal, legitimate, and indissoluble union of man and woman, raised by our Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.
"Jesus Christ himself merited for us, by his passion, the grace which sanctifies spouses, perfects their mutual love, and strengthens the indissolubility of their union." [2] "If any one says that marriage is not, truly and properly, one of the seven sacraments of the New Law, and that it does not confer grace, let him be anathema." ”