A Question About Lasting Chastity

Now that you have finished your discourse on perfect chastity, we would like also to ask a little more freely about the goal of chastity. For we do not doubt that those lofty heights of love, by which, as you have explained so far, we climb to the image and likeness of God, cannot possibly exist without perfect purity. [a]

But we would like to know whether a lasting grant of it can be secured, so that no stirring of lust may ever disturb the calm of our heart. Then we might be able to pass the time of our stay in the flesh free from this fleshly passion, so as never to be inflamed by the fire of arousal.