Vol: 6 Issue: 9
Tute 1728 / Sept 2012
On Virginity By: St Gregory of Nyssa The holy look of virginity is precious indeed in the judgment of all who make purity the test of beauty; but it belongs to those alone whose struggles to gain this object of a noble love are favoured and helped by the grace of God. Now if the achievement of this saintly virtue consists in making one without blemish and holy, and these virtues are adopted in their first and fullest force to glorify the incorruptible God, what greater praise of virginity can there be than thus to be shown in a manner deifying those who share in her pure mysteries, so that they become partakers of His glory Who is in actual truth the only Holy and Blameless One Deep indeed will be the thought necessary to understand the surpassing excellence of this grace. It is understood in the idea of God the Father; and here at the outset is a paradox, that virginity is found in Him, Who has a Son and yet without passion has begotten Him. It is included too in the nature of this Only-begotten God, Whom it shines forth equally in His pure and passionless birth. Again a paradox; that the Son should be known to us by virginity. It is seen, too, in the inherent and incorruptible purity of the Holy Spirit; for when you have named the pure and incorruptible you have named virginity. This, I think, was the reason why our Master, Jesus Christ Himself, the Fountain of all innocence, did not come into the world by wedlock. It was, to divulge by the manner of His Incarnation this great secret; that purity is the only complete indication of the presence of God and of His