Here you will find a compilation of the texts of Pope Pius XII cited or mentioned in the book Paths of Love.
One is who willing to enter religious life should not be discouraged or prevented
- Let
no one who is unwilling be driven to the pursuit of this kind of
consecrated life; but, if one wishes it, let there be no one who will
dissuade him, much less prevent him from undertaking it. (Annus Sacer,
December 8, 1950, AAS 43 (1951), 31)
A vocation may be discovered through God's providence that excludes other choices
- When
one thinks upon the maidens and the women who voluntarily renounce
marriage in order to consecrate themselves to a higher life of
contemplation, of sacrifice, and of charity, a luminous word comes
immediately to the lips: vocation!... This vocation, this call of love,
makes itself felt in very diverse manners... But also the young
Christian woman, remaining unmarried in spite of herself, who
nevertheless trusts in the providence of the heavenly Father,
recognizes in the vicissitudes of life the voice of the Master: “Magister adest et vocat te”
(John 11:28); It is the master, and he is calling you! She responds,
she renounces the beloved dream of her adolescence and her youth: to
have a faithful companion in life, to form a family! And in the
impossibility of marriage she recognizes her vocation; then, with a
broken but submissive heart, she also gives her whole self to more
noble and diverse good works. (Address to Italian Women,
October 21, 1945, AAS 37 (1945), 287).
Virginity is a better means for growing in the love of God than marriage is (from Sacra Virginitas)
- 1.
Holy virginity and that perfect chastity which is consecrated to the
service of God is without doubt among the most precious treasures which
the Founder of the Church has left in heritage to the society which He
established.
…
5. Innumerable is the multitude of those who
from the beginning of the Church until our time have offered their
chastity to God. Some have preserved their virginity unspoiled, others
after the death of their spouse, have consecrated to God their
remaining years in the unmarried state, and still others, after
repenting their sins, have chosen to lead a life of perfect chastity;
all of them at one in this common oblation, that is, for love of God to
abstain for the rest of their lives from sexual pleasure. May then what
the Fathers of the Church preached about the glory and merit of
virginity be an invitation, a help, and a source of strength to those
who have made the sacrifice to persevere with constancy, and not take
back or claim for themselves even the smallest part of the holocaust
they have laid on the altar of God.
…
9. First of all, We think
it should be noted that the Church has taken what is capital in her
teaching on virginity from the very lips of her Divine Spouse.
10.
For when the disciples thought that the obligations and burdens of
marriage, which their Master’s discourse had made clear, seemed
extremely heavy, they said to Him: “If the case stands so between man
and wife, it is better not to marry at all.” Jesus Christ replied that
His ideal is not understood by everybody but only by those who have
received the gift; for some are hindered from marriage because of some
defect of nature, others because of the violence and malice of men,
while still others freely abstain of their own will, and this “for the
kingdom of heaven.” And He concludes with these words, “He that can
take it, let him take it.”
11. By these words the divine Master
is speaking not of bodily impediments to marriage, but of a resolution
freely made to abstain all one’s life from marriage and sexual
pleasure. For in likening those who of their own free will have
determined to renounce these pleasures to those who by nature or the
violence of men are forced to do so, is not the Divine Redeemer
teaching us that chastity to be really perfect must be perpetual?
12.
Here also it must be added, as the Fathers and Doctors of the Church
have clearly taught, that virginity is not a Christian virtue unless we
embrace it “for the kingdom of heaven;” that is, unless we take up this
way of life precisely to be able to devote ourselves more freely to
divine things to attain heaven more surely, and with skillful efforts
to lead others more readily to the kingdom of heaven.
13.
Those therefore, who do not marry because of exaggerated self-interest,
or because, as Augustine says, they shun the burdens of marriage or
because like Pharisees they proudly flaunt their physical integrity, an
attitude which has been condemned by the Council of Gangra lest men and
women renounce marriage as though it were something despicable instead
of because virginity is something beautiful and holy, - none of these
can claim for themselves the honor of Christian virginity.
14.
Moreover, the Apostle of the Gentiles, writing under divine
inspiration, makes this point: “He that is without a wife is solicitous
for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. . . And
the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy in body and spirit.”
15. This then is the
primary purpose, this the central idea of Christian virginity: to aim
only at the divine, to turn thereto the whole mind and soul; to want to
please God in everything, to think of Him continually, to consecrate
body and soul completely to Him.
...
19. As for those men
“who were not defiled with women, being virgins,” the Apostle John
asserts that, “they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” Let us meditate,
then, on the exhortation Augustine gives to all men of this class: “You
follow the Lamb because the body of the Lamb is indeed virginal. . .
Rightly do you follow Him in virginity of heart and body wherever He
goes. For what does following mean but imitation? Christ has suffered
for us, leaving us an example, as the Apostle Peter says ‘that we
should follow in his footsteps’.” Hence all these disciples and spouses
of Christ embraced the state of virginity, as St. Bonaventure says, “in
order to become like unto Christ the spouse, for that state makes
virgins like unto Him.” It would hardly satisfy their burning love for
Christ to be united with Him by the bonds of affection, but this love
had perforce to express itself by the imitation of His virtues, and
especially by conformity to His way of life, which was lived completely
for the benefit and salvation of the human race. If priests, religious
men and women, and others who in any way have vowed themselves to the
divine service, cultivate perfect chastity, it is certainly for the
reason that their Divine Master remained all His life a virgin. St.
Fulgentius exclaims: “This is the only-begotten Son of God, the
only-begotten Son of a virgin also, the only spouse of all holy
virgins, the fruit, the glory, the gift of holy virginity, whom holy
virginity brought forth physically, to whom holy virginity is wedded
spiritually, by whom holy virginity is made fruitful and kept
inviolate, by whom she is adorned, to remain ever beautiful, by whom
she is crowned, to reign forever glorious.”
20. And here We
think it opportune, Venerable Brothers, to expose more fully and to
explain more carefully why the love of Christ moves generous souls to
abstain from marriage, and what is the mystical connection between
virginity and the perfection of Christian charity. From our Lord’s
words referred to above, it has already been implied that this complete
renunciation of marriage frees men from its grave duties and
obligations. Writing by divine inspiration, the Apostle of the Gentiles
proposes the reason for this freedom in these words: “And I would have
you to be without solicitude. . . But he that is with a wife, is
solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife; and
he is divided.” Here however it must be noted that the Apostle is not
reproving men because they are concerned about their wives, nor does he
reprehend wives because they seek to please their husbands; rather is
he asserting clearly that their hearts are divided between love of God
and love of their spouse, and beset by gnawing cares, and so by reason
of the duties of their married state they can hardly be free to
contemplate the divine. For the duty of the married life to which they
are bound clearly demands: “They shall be two in one flesh.” For
spouses are to be bound to each other by mutual bonds both in joy and
in sorrow. It is easy to see, therefore, why persons who desire to
consecrate themselves to God’s service embrace the state of virginity
as a liberation, in order to be more entirely at God’s disposition and
devoted to the good of their neighbor. How, for example, could a
missionary such as the wonderful St. Francis Xavier, a father of the
poor such as the merciful St. Vincent de Paul, a zealous educator of
youth like St. John Bosco, a tireless “mother of emigrants” like St.
Francis Xavier Cabrini, have accomplished such gigantic and painful
labors, if each had to look after the corporal and spiritual needs of a
wife or husband and children?
21. There is yet another reason
why souls desirous of a total consecration to the service of God and
neighbor embrace the state of virginity. It is, as the holy Fathers
have abundantly illustrated, the numerous advantages for advancement in
spiritual life which derive from a complete renouncement of all sexual
pleasure. It is not to be thought that such pleasure, when it arises
from lawful marriage, is reprehensible in itself; on the contrary, the
chaste use of marriage is ennobled and sanctified by a special
sacrament, as the Fathers themselves have clearly remarked.
Nevertheless, it must be equally admitted that as a consequence of the
fall of Adam the lower faculties of human nature are no longer obedient
to right reason, and may involve man in dishonorable actions. As the
Angelic Doctor has it, the use of marriage “keeps the soul from full
abandon to the service of God.”
22. It is that they may acquire
this spiritual liberty of body and soul, and that they may be freed
from temporal cares, that the Latin Church demands of her sacred
ministers that they voluntarily oblige themselves to observe perfect
chastity. And “if a similar law,” as Our predecessor of immortal memory
Pius XI declared, “does not bind the ministers of the Oriental Church
to the same degree, nevertheless among them too ecclesiastical celibacy
occupies a place of honor, and, in certain cases, especially when the
higher grades of the hierarchy are in question, it is a necessary and
obligatory condition.”
...
24. It is first and foremost for the
foregoing reasons that, according to the teaching of the Church, holy
virginity surpasses marriage in excellence. Our Divine Redeemer had
already given it to His disciples as a counsel for a more perfect life.
St. Paul, after having said that the father who gives his daughter in
marriage “does well,” adds immediately “and he that gives her not, does
better.” Several times in the course of his comparison between marriage
and virginity the Apostle reveals his mind, and especially in `these
words: “for I would that all men were even as myself. . . But I say to
the unmarried and to widows: it is good for them if they so continue,
even as I.” Virginity is preferable to marriage then, as We have said,
above all else because it has a higher aim: that is to say, it is a
very efficacious means for devoting oneself wholly to the service of
God, while the heart of married persons will remain more or less
“divided.”
25. Turning next to the fruitful effects of
virginity, our appreciation of its value will be enhanced; for “by the
fruit the tree is known.”
…
29. Virginity fully deserves the name
of angelic virtue, which St. Cyprian writing to virgins affirms: “What
we are to be, you have already commenced to be. You already possess in
this world the glory of the resurrection; you pass through the world
without suffering its contagion. In preserving virgin chastity, you are
the equals of the angels of God.” To souls, restless for a purer life
or inflamed with the desire to possess the kingdom of heaven, virginity
offers itself as “a pearl of great price,” for which one “sells all
that he has, and buys it.” Married people and even those who are
captives of vice, at the contact of virgin souls, often admire the
splendor of their transparent purity, and feel themselves moved to rise
above the pleasures of sense. When St. Thomas states “that to virginity
is awarded the tribute of the highest beauty,” it is because its
example is captivating; and, besides, by their perfect chastity do not
all these men and women give a striking proof that the mastery of the
spirit over the body is the result of a divine assistance and the sign
of proven virtue?
30. Worthy of special consideration is the
reflection that the most delicate fruit of virginity consists in this,
that virgins make tangible, as it were, the perfect virginity of their
mother, the Church and the sanctity of her intimate union with Christ.
In the ceremony of the consecration of virgins, the consecrating
prelate prays God: “that there may exist more noble souls who disdain
the marriage which consists in the bodily union of man and woman, but
desire the mystery it enshrines, who reject its practice while loving
its mystic signification.”
31. The greatest glory of virgins is
undoubtedly to be the living images of the perfect integrity of the
union between the Church and her divine Spouse. For this society
founded by Christ it is a profound joy that virgins should be the
marvelous sign of its sanctity and fecundity, as St. Cyprian so well
expressed it: “They are the flower of the Church, the beauty and
ornament of spiritual grace, a subject of joy, a perfect and unsullied
homage of praise and honor, the image of God corresponding to the
sanctity of the Lord, the most illustrious portion of Christ’s flock.
In them the glorious fecundity of our mother, the Church, finds
expression and she rejoices; the more the number of virgins increases,
the greater is this mother’s joy.”
32. This doctrine of the
excellence of virginity and of celibacy and of their superiority over
the married state was, as We have already said, revealed by our Divine
Redeemer and by the Apostle of the Gentiles; so too, it was solemnly
defined as a dogma of divine faith by the holy council of Trent, and
explained in the same way by all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the
Church. Finally, We and Our Predecessors have often expounded it and
earnestly advocated it whenever occasion offered. But recent attacks on
this traditional doctrine of the Church, the danger they constitute,
and the harm they do to the souls of the faithful lead Us, in
fulfillment of the duties of Our charge, to take up the matter once
again in this Encyclical Letter, and to reprove these errors which are
so often propounded under a specious appearance of truth.
…
41.
We feel it opportune, moreover, to touch somewhat briefly here on the
error of those who, in order to turn boys and girls away from
Seminaries and Religious Institutes, strive to impress upon their minds
that the Church today has a greater need of the help and of the
profession of Christian virtue on the part of those who, united in
marriage, lead a life together with others in the world, than of priest
and consecrated virgins, who, because of their vow of chastity, are, as
it were, withdrawn from human society. No one can fail to see,
Venerable Brothers, how utterly false and harmful is such an opinion.
42.
Of course, it is not Our intention to deny that Catholic spouses,
because of the example of their Christian life, can, wherever they live
and whatever be their circumstances, produce rich and salutary fruits
as a witness to their virtue. Yet whoever for this reason argues that
it is preferable to live in matrimony than to consecrate oneself
completely to God, without doubt perverts the right order. Indeed We
earnestly wish, Venerable Brothers, that those who have already
contracted marriage, or desire to enter this state, be properly taught
their serious obligations not only to educate properly and carefully
whatever children they have or will have, but also to help others,
within their capacity, by the testimony of their faith and the example
of their virtue. And yet, as Our duty demands, We cannot but censure
all those who strive to turn young people away from the Seminary or
Religious Orders and Institutes, and from the taking of sacred vows,
persuading them that they can, if joined in marriage, as fathers and
mothers of families pursue a greater spiritual good by an open and
public profession of their Christian life. Certainly their conduct
would be more proper and correct, if, instead of trying to distract
from a life of virginity those young men and women, who desire to give
themselves to the service of God, too few alas today, they were to
exhort with all the zeal at their command the vast numbers of those who
live in wedlock to promote apostolic works in the ranks of the laity.
On this point, Ambrose fittingly writes: “To sow the seeds of perfect
purity and to arouse a desire for virginity has always belonged to the
function of the priesthood.”
43. We think it necessary,
moreover, to warn that it is altogether false to assert that those who
are vowed to perfect chastity are practically outside the community of
men. Are not consecrated virgins, who dedicate their lives to the
service of the poor and the sick, without making any distinction as to
race, social rank, or religion, are not these virgins united intimately
with their miseries and sorrows, and affectionately drawn to them, as
though they were their mothers? And does not the priest likewise, moved
by the example of his Divine Master, perform the function of a good
shepherd, who knows his flock and calls them by name? Indeed it is from
that perfect chastity which they cultivate that priests and religious
men and women find the motive for giving themselves to all, and love
all men with the love of Christ. And they too, who live the
contemplative life, precisely because they not only offer to God prayer
and supplication but immolate themselves for the salvation of others,
accomplish much for the good of the Church; indeed, when in
circumstances like the present they dedicate themselves to works of
charity and of the apostolate, according to the norms which We laid
down in the Apostolic Letter “Sponsa Christi,” they are very much to be
praised; nor can they be said to be separated from contact with men,
since they labor for their spiritual progress in this twofold way.
Marriage is a Sacrament
- Have you ever thought, beloved newly-wedded couples, that among the different states and the different forms of Christian life, there are only two for which our Lord instituted a sacrament? Priesthood and Marriage? You certainly admire the great phalanxes of the religious Orders and Congregations of men and women, whose merits and glory give so much splendor to the Church. And yet, religious profession, that very moving ceremony, so rich in profound symbolism, and even in sublime nuptial symbolism, although highly praised by our Lord and by the Church, who have exalted virginity and perfect chastity, and whatever be the place occupied by the religious men and women who consecrate themselves to God in Catholic life and the apostolate -- religious profession, We say, is not a sacrament (Allocation to Newlyweds, January 15, 1941).
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