Continued. A Vow of Celibacy Once Given Must Be Held Firm. The Greatness of Virginity

I hasten to add a few more thoughts on the same subject.

The holy Apostle Paul, who had planted the faith of Christ in Corinth, fearing that the Corinthians might turn aside onto some wrong path, wrote to them: ”For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2–3). I too am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, as you have seen from the very beginning of our conversations. Behold—you stand before Christ the Lord as a pure virgin who has surrendered herself to Him! But your espousal to the Lord was not accomplished by me. It came about apart from my efforts and even my intentions. In writing to you, I had nothing in view other than setting you on the course of a truly Christian life—a firm course on which, as in a reliable vessel, you might sail across the uncertain sea of temporal existence. Yet something greater has come to pass. Glory to God! A predisposition toward it was in you by nature—God gave it. The grace of God breathed upon it. And behold—a resolution!

A resolution! But the matter is still far off. How many accidents may arise that could turn everything upside down. One cannot therefore help but fear, lest your mind too be corrupted from simplicity, lest the enemy beguile you too through his craft, as once the serpent beguiled Eve. May the Lord deliver you from such accidents. Yet if the servants of Christ must always be sober and watchful (1 Pet. 5:8), must watch and pray (Matt. 26:41), how much more necessary is this for you now, after the intention you have taken on. I cannot tell you anything definite beyond: be on guard. The enemy can attack in an instant. Write to me then without delay. But in the meantime—stand firm.

Root more deeply the conviction that the way of life you are choosing is one blessed by God. The Savior approved it by His words about those who are eunuchs ”for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 19:12). He gave it preference when He said of Mary, who sat at His feet and listened only to His word, that she had chosen the ”good part” — had chosen that which is ”the one thing needful” (Luke 10:41–42). Bright examples of it you see in the persons of many prophets and apostles, of the holy Forerunner of the Lord, and above all of the Most Pure Lady Theotokos—the receptacle and source of purity. May Her maternal protection overshadow you always. Virgins are a special object of Her care.

Virgins, like those who are celibate men, were established in the Church of Christ already in the time of the Apostles and have remained in it continuously from that time and will remain until the Holy Church endures—that is, until the end of the age. For this way of life is not foreign to our nature, and it is favored by the spirit of the Christian faith. In Corinth many young women did not wish to marry, having loved Christ the Lord—the one Husband of all souls—with all their love. The fathers brought their question to Saint Paul, asking how they should proceed. Saint Paul advised them to give their daughters the freedom to serve the Lord and not to compel them to marry. The fathers heeded this advice, and the young women remained virgins. Other churches followed the example of the Corinthians, and virginity blossomed everywhere. In some places young women gathered to live together in one house—they worked and prayed to God, not mingling with the rest. Many of them were crowned with the crowns of martyrdom as well, as their authentic lives attest.

See what a company you are entering, whose footsteps you are following, under whose protection you are sheltered, and to whose word you are attending. Take care, then: having put your hand to the plow, do not look back. Learn well the Apostle’s words about those who have renounced marriage and turn them over in your mind often: ”the unmarried woman” — that is, the one who has not married — ”careth for the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord: that she may be holy both in body and in spirit” (1 Cor. 7:34). About holiness of body there is nothing to say. But about holiness of spirit one cannot help but speak at length and take great care. It can be lost in an instant. ”See then that ye walk circumspectly” (Eph. 5:15). What must be guarded? The heart—so that it clings to nothing: not only to a person (about that there is nothing even to say), but to no thing whatsoever. Every such clinging will be a violation of your espousal to the Lord, an unfaithfulness to Him. And He is jealous. And He holds strictly to account those hearts that are unfaithful to Him.

I write this not to frighten you. What kind of power is fear, after all! But I am reminding you of one possibility: that you yourself may sometimes have to bring yourself to reason through fear, if other means of correction fail to take hold. We cannot rely on our own zeal and constancy. Today things are one way, and tomorrow—who knows what will be. So keep in mind how badly it will go if you turn back from what you have set out to do.

The Lord bless you!