Cleanse Every Member

So I beg you, virgin, do not flatter yourself on the ground of your purity alone, and do not trust in the perfection of one member; but, as the apostle says, keep your body holy throughout. Cleanse your head from all defilement. It is a disgrace that, after the holy oil has been applied to it, it should be stained with the juice or powder of saffron or any other coloring, or decked out with gold or gems or any other earthly ornament, because it already shines with the radiance of a heavenly adornment. It is without doubt a grave insult to divine grace to prefer any earthly and worldly ornament to it. Next, cleanse your forehead, so that it may blush at human works, not at divine ones, and may show the kind of shame that leads not to sin but to the favor of God, as the sacred Scripture declares: “There is a shame that brings sin, and there is a shame that brings the favor of God.” Cleanse your neck too, so that it does not carry your hair in a golden net, with necklaces hung around it, but rather wears those ornaments of which the Scripture says, “Do not let mercy and faith leave you,” and hang them on your heart as on your neck. Cleanse your eyes, by drawing them away from all lust, never turning them away from the sight of the poor, and keeping them free of all dyes, in the purity in which God made them. [a]

Cleanse your tongue from lying, because “a mouth that tells lies destroys the soul.” Cleanse it from disparaging others, from swearing, and from perjury. Please do not think I have put things in the wrong order by saying the tongue should be cleansed from swearing before perjury. For a person will escape perjury all the more easily if he does not swear at all, so that this saying may be fulfilled in him: “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.” And remember the apostle, who says, “Bless, and do not curse.” Often call to mind these words too: “See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, or cursing for cursing; but on the contrary, bless them, because you were called to this, so that you might inherit a blessing.” And this other passage: “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man.” For it is shameful that the lips with which you confess God, pray to him, bless him and praise him should be defiled by the pollution of any sin. I do not know with what conscience anyone can pray to God with the tongue with which he either tells lies, or slanders, or disparages others. God listens to holy lips, and quickly answers the prayers that an unpolluted tongue pours out.

Cleanse your ears as well, so that they listen only to holy and true speech, never let in obscene or disgraceful or worldly words, and never put up with anyone disparaging another. For it is written, “Hedge your ears with thorns, and do not listen to a wicked tongue.” That way you may have your share with the one of whom it is said that he was righteous in hearing and in seeing; that is, he sinned neither with his eyes nor with his ears. Cleanse your hands too, “so that they are not stretched out to receive and shut tight against giving,” and so that they are not quick to strike but always ready for every work of mercy and godliness. Finally, cleanse your feet, so that they do not follow the wide and spacious way that leads to grand and costly worldly banquets, but rather walk the hard and narrow path that leads to heaven. For it is written, “Make a straight path for your feet.” Recognize that your members were formed for you by God the Maker not for vices but for virtues. And when you have cleansed all your limbs from every stain of sin, and they have been made holy throughout your whole body, then understand that this purity will profit you, and look forward with full confidence to the prize of virginity.