Vigils Reading

THE VIRGINITY OF SPIRIT

By Thomas Merton

◊◊◊

The monastic life of humility, obedience, liturgical prayer, lectio divina,

penance, manual labor, contemplation, tends to ever purify the soul of the monk

and lead him to intimacy with Christ in that sacred virginity which makes him

worthy of marriage with the Word of God. This spirit of virginity is the true

essence of the contemplative life which is our vocation.

We are not contemplative by the mere fact of living an enclosed and

penitential life. We can indeed be more active, more restless and more

distracted in the cloister than we would be in the active life, if we do not possess

the interior virginity of spirit, the silence and peace of soul, which enable us to

find God in His word, to listen to the words of Christ, to move with the

breathings of the Holy Spirit within us.

The virginity of spirit to which we are called is a purity of heart in which

our souls preserve their baptismal innocence, or the innocence of the second

baptism of our vows, and offer themselves in perfect purity to God. Virginity of

soul does not preclude temptation and trials, but the deep spirit of faith which it

implies enables us always to rise above the flesh and its storms in order to

meditate on the incorruptible beauty of the Word. St Augustine defines

virginity as: “Perpetual meditation, in corruptible flesh, of what is

incorruptible.” The life of the virgin soul that is the spouse of Christ is a life

lived in the pure, limpid radiance of the Word Himself.

The virginity of spirit which keeps us united to the Word is the perfection

of the monastic life. By it, the monk not only renounces human marriage, but

rather lays hands upon the supernatural and mystical reality of which marriage

is only an external symbol – the union of love which joins the soul to God “in

one spirit.

” Virginity of spirit keeps the soul in constant contact with the Holy

Word of God, the sanctity of God Himself. Above all, sacred virginity makes

visible the union of the Church with Christ her Divine Spouse. Pope Pius XII

says:

“The most delicate fruit of virginity is this: that virgins make

tangible as it were the perfect virginity of their Mother the Church

and the sanctity of her intimate union with Christ. The greatest

glory of the virgins is undoubtedly to be the living images of the

perfect integrity of the union of the Church and her Divine

Spouse.”

This is the end and the perfection of the monastic vocation: to find Christ,

the Word, to cling to Him in the purity of perfect love and unalterable peace, and

to say with the Bride in the Canticle: “I found Him whom my soul loves: I held

him: and I will not let Him go”

.