CAPG's Blog 

"Incorruption," says Holy Scripture, "bringeth near to God." (Wish. vi, 20.) Virginity has received in woman, through Mary, an almost divine consecration; it receives in the priest a still more striking glorification. It is by virginity that the priest and the divine Lamb meet daily at the hour of sacrifice; that they walk along the same rivers of purifying grace; that they repose under the same roof; that they sit at the same table and are separated neither day nor night. Chastity is likewise the primary condition of our (the priest's) strength; and it is to this virtue that the priesthood owes its greatest conquests.

'Oh, how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory thereof is immortal, because it is known both with God and with men. It triumpheth, crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts. (Wisdom iv, 1,2.)

Chastity raises the priest's to a level with the angels: "Just as purity makes man equal to the angels, indeed makes him more than an angel," says Eusebius, "so does sensuality brutalize man, aye, degrade him even below the brute."

"If you persevere in unsullied chastity," says Sixtus III, "you shall be as an angel in the sight of God, and like a God in the sight of men."

Chastity raises the priest to the understanding of the highest mysteries: "Chastity," says St. Ambrose, "soars above the clouds, the skies, nay above the very angels, above the stars of heaven. The chaste soul finds the Eternal Word in the bosom of the Father and drinks in his sweetness with her whole heart."

"The faithful soul that preserves her chastity," says St. Basil, "is so far advanced that she forms in herself, as in a most clear mirror, a likeness of the God of all purity."

Chastity fills the (priest's) soul with joy. "How sweet," says St. Augustine, "was it at once to me to be without the sweetness of those trifles! I dreaded to renounce the sweetness of those trifles, and now at once it was a great sweetness for me to give them up. Thou didst cast them forth from me, Thou true and highest Sweetness, and in place of them Thou didst thyself enter into my heart, sweeter than every pleasure." "Nothing so delights the faithful heart," says St. Cyprian, "as a conscience untarnished by any impure stain. To have overcome sensual pleasure is the highest pleasure: not is there any victory greater than that which is won over the passions."

Chastity unites (the priest) to Jesus by a certain mysterious tie. "Although all the just are spouses of Christ," says St. Anthony of Padua, "yet virgins are his spouses in a far more special manner; for as husband and wife are one flesh, so are virgins one flesh with Christ, their Spouse."

"Jesus," says St. Fulgentius, "is the fruit born by holy virginity; He is its glory and its reward. Holy virginity brought Jesus into the world; he is the spouse of virgins. He alone made virginity fruitful; He crowns the virgins with a special glory in heaven."

Source: The Catholic Priesthood, by Rev. Fr. Michael Muller 1885