24. Let the inner ear of the
virgin also, thy holy child, hear these things. I shall see2284
how
far
she goes before you in the
Kingdom of That King: it is another
question. Yet ye have found, mother and
daughter, Him, Whom by
beauty of chastity ye ought to please together, having
despised,
she all, you second,
marriage. Certainly if there were
husbands
whom ye had to please, by this time, perhaps, you would feel
ashamed to
adorn yourself together with your
daughter; now let it
not
shame you, to set yourselves to do what may
adorn you both
together; because it is not matter of
blame, but of
glory, that ye
be
loved both together by That One. But white and
red, feigned and
laid on with paints, ye would not use, even if ye had
husbands; not
thinking that they were fit persons for you to
deceive, or
yourselves such as ought to
deceive; now therefore That King, Who
had longed for the
beauty of His Only Spouse, of Whom ye are
members, do ye with all
truth together please, together
cleave
unto; she with virginal chastity, you with widowed continence, both
with
spiritual beauty. In which
beauty also her
grandmother, and
your mother-in-
law, who by this time surely hath grown old, is
beautiful together with you. Forsooth whilst
charity carries the
vigor of this
beauty into things that are before, length of years
causeth not in it a wrinkle. You have with you a holy aged
woman,
both in your
house and in
Christ, whom to
consult concerning
perseverance; how you are to
fight with this or that
temptation,
what you are to do, that it may be the more easily overcome; what
safeguard you are to take, that it may not easily again lay wait;
and if there be any thing of this sort, she
teaches you, who is now
by time
fixed, by
love a well-wisher, by
natural affection full of
cares, by age
secure. Do you specially, do you in such things
consult her, who hath made
trial of what you have made
trial of.
For your
child sings that
song,
2285
which in the
Apocalypse none
save
virgins can
sing. But for both of you she
prays more carefully than
for herself, but she is more full of care for her granddaughter,
for whom there remains a longer space of years to overcome
temptations; but you she sees nearer to her own age, and mother of
a
daughter of such an age, as that, had you seen her
married,
(which now is not
lawful, and
far be it from her,) I think you
would have blushed to bear
children together with her. How much
then is it that now remains to you of a
dangerous age, who are on
this account not called a
grandmother, in order that together with
your
daughter you may be
fruitful in
offspring of holy thoughts and
works? Therefore not without reason is the
grandmother more full of
care for her, for whom you also the mother; because both what she
hath vowed is greater, and the whole of what she hath just now
begun remains to her. May the
Lord hear her
prayers, that ye may holily follow her good
deserts, Who in
youth
gave
birth to the
flesh of your
husband,
2286
| 2286 Olibrius, see S. Jerome to
Demetr. Ben. ed. |
in old age travaileth with the
heart of your
daughter. Therefore do ye all, alike and with one
accord, by conduct please, by prayers press upon, That One Husband
of One Wife, in Whose Body by One Spirit ye are living.
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