Adornment of the Soul

But perhaps you will say, “Why did the apostles not lay these things on virgins?” Because they did not think it necessary, in case such advice given to virgins should seem more an insult than a help. Nor, in fact, would they have believed that virgins could ever be so brazen as to claim for themselves fleshly and worldly ornaments that are not allowed even to married women. Without doubt the virgin ought to adorn and dress herself; for how can she please the one she is engaged to if she does not come out neat and adorned? Let her be adorned, by all means, but let her ornaments be inward and spiritual, not fleshly; for God desires in her a beauty not of the body but of the soul. [a]

You, then, who want your soul to be loved by God and lived in by him, dress it with all diligence and adorn it with spiritual garments. Let nothing unbecoming, nothing repulsive, be seen in it. Let it shine with the gold of righteousness, gleam with the gems of holiness, and glitter with the most precious pearl of purity. Instead of fine linen and silk, let it be clothed in the robe of mercy and godliness, as it is written, “Put on, then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of mercy, kindness, humility,” and the rest. And let the virgin not seek the beauty that comes from white lead or any other coloring. Let her have instead the brightness of innocence and simplicity, the rosy hue of modesty, and the purple glow of an honorable bashfulness. Let her be washed with the natron of heavenly teaching and cleansed with every spiritual face wash. Let no stain of malice or sin be left in her. And so that she may never give off the foul smell of sin, let her be soaked through and through with the sweetest ointment of wisdom and knowledge.