p. 26Purity

Purity should be the Christian’s most precious treasure. “No price,” says the Holy Ghost, “is worthy of a continent soul” (Ecclus. xxvi. 20.) Purity renders man similar to the angels and fit to behold God’s infinite beauty; but impurity degrades man to the level of the brute. Whatever remarkable qualities your children may otherwise possess, if they be not pure and chaste, they are, like a costly vase that is broken or cracked, useless or even worse than useless.

From their very infancy children should be taught to love and appreciate chastity as their greatest treasure and their most lovely and ennobling ornament. They should be often told how much God delights in pure and chaste souls, who alone are worthy of beholding the God of infinite holiness, beauty, and loveliness. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God,” says our divine Redeemer. They ought to learn to detest and abhor not only the vice of impurity, but even everything that may endanger the virtue of chastity. They should be carefully trained to have a most tender conscience in all that pertains to holy purity in thought, word, and deed; to be modest and pure in private as well as in public; to prefer a thousand deaths rather than sully their purity by the least unchaste thought, look, word, or act.

You ought to teach your children to keep a constant watch over their thoughts and affections, lest these lead them into danger; to observe the strictest modesty of the eyes, never allowing them to gaze on unbecoming objects, or to indulge in dangerous reading; never wilfully to listen to unchaste discourse; to restrain their tongue, lest it utter impure words or make indecorous allusions; to shun with the greatest horror all companions and amusements that may prove to them a source of temptation; to avoid carefully all that may render them an occasion of temptation to others; to dress with the strictest propriety, discarding all the fashions that accord not with the rules of the most rigid modesty; and ever to behave with the utmost propriety and p. 27reserve in presence of persons of a different sex.

You ought to impress on the minds of your children that they are carrying the inestimable treasure of holy purity in a most fragile vase, and that this angelic virtue is so sensitive as to be tarnished by the slightest wilful, immodest thought. They should guard against all vain curiosity, and not wish to see or hear everything that is going on. They will not long remain pure if they frequent the company of the light-minded and irreligious, or indulge in reading novels or love-stories, or do not shun the detestable sin of idleness, which is appropriately termed the parent of vice.

Most religiously keep your children out of all occasions dangerous to their purity and innocence. Teach them to love holy purity above all earthly wealth and beauty, and to be willing to die a thousand times rather than ever wilfully think, say, do, or permit anything contrary to that angelic virtue, or to imperil it by their levity or dangerous associations. Teach them to have immediate recourse to prayer when tempted against purity, and to invoke with fervor and earnestness the holy names of Jesus and Mary. Procure for them good and pious books and periodicals. Induce them to go at least monthly to confession and holy communion. Inspire them with the most tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the purest of virgins, and persuade them to have recourse with fervor and confidence to her powerful protection in all dangers and temptations. Woe to you, parents, if through your worldliness or neglect the purity of your children is endangered or lost! It were better that a millstone were hung about your necks, and that you were thus cast into the sea, than that the purity and innocence of your children were endangered or lost through your fault!

To inspire your children with a love for holy purity, and at the same time to secure for them the special protection of the most blessed Virgin Mary in time of temptation, you ought to accustom them to recite every morning and every night the “Hail Mary” three times in honor of the purity of Mary. This pious exercise is recommended by St. Alphonsus as a sure and infallible means of obtaining that angelic virtue. That great doctor of the Church maintains that he who remembers having sincerely invoked during temptation the holy names of Jesus and Mary, or even only the name of Mary, may rest assured that he has not yielded to the temptation. By carefully teaching these pious practices to your dear children you will enable them to avoid the abominable vice of impurity, and to lead a chaste and virtuous life.