Where is your dignified appearance, where is the decent disposition and simple clothes befitting a maiden, the beautiful blush of shame and the splendid pallor that blooms with abstinence and vigilance, and shines more pleasantly than any good color? How many times in prayers for the preservation of thy virginity undefiled hast thou shed tears, perhaps. How many letters have I written to the saints and asked them to pray for you, not to enter into human marriage, or rather, to fall into this dishonorable corruption, but not to fall away from the Lord Jesus! How many gifts have you received from the Bridegroom! Shall I speak of the honours which His friends have bestowed upon you for His sake? Shall I also speak of cohabitation with virgins and of intercourse with them, of the friendliness of virgins to thee, of praise for virginity, of virginal blessings, of letters written to thee as to a virgin?

But now, with the little exaltation of the spirit of the air, which now works "in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), you have renounced all this; I have exchanged my precious possessions, which have been worth all my efforts, for a short pleasure, which for a time delights your throat, and later on will prove more bitter than gall. Who will not say lamentably: "How was the harlot the faithful city of Zion" (Isaiah 1:21)?

Will not the Lord Himself cry out to one of those who are now walking in the spirit of Jeremiah: "Do you see, 'What the virgin of Israel has done for Me?' (cf. Jeremiah 18:13). I betrothed her "to Myself in faith" and in incorruption, "in righteousness and in judgment and in mercy and in bounty" (Hos. 2:20:19), as I had promised her through the prophet Hosea. But she has loved strangers, and although I, her husband, live, she is called an adulteress, and is not afraid to belong to another husband."

What then is the bride, the divine and blessed Paul, both ancient and new, through whose mediation and instruction, having left your father's house, you entered into union with the Lord? Both of them, alarmed by such a calamity, will not say: "For fear of which I am terrified, I have come, and fear it, you will devour me" (Job 3:25); "For I betroth thee to one pure virgin husband to present Christ"; and thou hast always feared, "lest thou deceive Eve with thy wickedness, so thy minds shall also be corrupted" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2-3). That is why I have constantly tried to pacify the rebellion of the passions in you with a thousand different sweet songs, and to protect the bride of the Lord with a thousand different cares, and I have always described to you the life of an untrespasser, that "she who does not trespass cares for the things of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:34), so that you would be holy both in body and in spirit, and depict to you the virtues of virginity, and, calling you the temple of God, as if giving wings to zeal, rapturing thee to Jesus; He also helped you with the fear of calamity, so that you would not fall, saying: "If anyone corrupts God's temple, God will corrupt it" (1 Cor. 3:17); added to this that he protected you with prayers: "that your body, soul, and spirit may be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23). But I have tired myself in vain with all this, and my bitterness has come to an end of the sweet labors I have endured for you. Again you should sigh, for whom you should have rejoiced, for behold, you are deceived by the serpent more evil than Eve. Not only are your thoughts corrupted, but your body is corrupted with them; and what is terrible, what I would not want to say, what I cannot keep silent about (because the fire "burns and burns in my bones, and I am weak on every side, and I cannot bear" (Jeremiah 20:9), "let us take up the rods of Christ," you have made "the rods of the harlot" (cf. 1 Cor. 6:15). "Come to the isles of Hittim, and see, and to Kedar, and examine diligently, if such a thing was created, if the tongues change their gods, and they are not gods?" (Jeremiah 2:10, 11). But the virgin changed her glory, and her glory is in the cold. "The heavens were terrified at this, and the earth trembled in great measure" (cf. Jeremiah 2:12). And now the Lord says that the virgin did "two evils": "She forsook me" (cf. Jeremiah 2:13), the true holy Bridegroom of holy souls, and she resorted to the impious and lawless corrupter of soul and body together, departed from God her Saviour and presented her "rods" as "slaves to uncleanness and iniquity" (Rom. 6:19), "but you forgot me, and walked after your lust" (cf. Hos. 2:13). who will not help her.

"He would have had her, if the millstone of the ass lay around his neck, and was cast into the sea, lest anyone offend the virgin of the Lord" (Luke 17:2). The arrogant slave goes to such a frenzy that he invades the Lord's bed! Like some thief, he falls into such madness that even with regard to that which is offered as a gift to God, and not the vessels of soulless bodies, but living bodies, in which dwells the soul, created in the image of God! Has it ever been heard from time immemorial that in the midst of a city on a clear noon someone dared to paint unclean pigs in a royal image? "If anyone has rejected" human marriage, "without mercy in the presence of two or three witnesses, he dies. How many things will be vouchsafed torment, who trampled on the Son of God" and "reproached" the bride promised to Him, and "reproached" the spirit of virginity (cf. Heb. 10:28-29; Deut. 17:5)?

But you will say: "She willed; I did not force her against her will." And the lustful lady, this Egyptian woman, herself was inflamed with passion for the beautiful Joseph, but the fierce passion of the incontinent did not overcome the virtue of the chaste, and although she forcibly restrained him with her hands, yet he was not forced to iniquity.

"But she herself," you say, "made up her mind to do this, and was no longer a virgin: if I had not consented, she would have been corrupted by another." It is said that the Son of Man also had to be betrayed, but "woe to that man who is" (cf. Mark 14:21); it is said that "by temptation need comes: woe to whom comes" (cf. Matt. 18:7). Moreover, "the food that falls does not rise, or turn away from it?" (Jeremiah 8:4).

Wherefore the virgin turned away shamelessly, although she had heard that the Bridegroom Christ said through Jeremiah: "And he said, when she committed adultery in all these things, turn to me. And be not converted" (cf. Jeremiah 3:7). "Or is Ritina (resin, balm) not in Gilead? Or is there no doctor there? For what reason is the daughter of My people healed?" (cf. Jeremiah 8:22). And in the Divine Scriptures you will find many remedies for this evil, many cures that save from perdition — such are the mysteries concerning death and resurrection, such are the words about the Last Judgment and eternal torment, the teachings about repentance and the remission of sins, the thousandfold examples of conversion, the drachma, the sheep and the son who devoured his possessions with harlots, "bent it and be found, dead and alive again" (cf. Lux. 15:32). Let us make use of these remedies from evil, and with them let us heal our souls.

Meditate, then, on the last day (for surely you will not live forever alone); imagine the confusion of the contraction of breath and the hour of death, the approaching sentence of God, the hastening Angels, the soul in terrible confusion, mercilessly tormented by a sinful conscience, turning pitiful eyes to the there, at last, inevitable necessity of distant migration.

Write in your mind the final revolution in the common life, when the Son of God will come in His glory with His angels. For "he will come... and he will not be silent" (Psalm 49:3), when he comes to judge the living and the dead, and to reward each one according to his deeds, when this trumpet, having sounded something great and terrible, will awaken those who have fallen asleep from eternity, "and those who have done good shall come forth into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29). Bring to mind the vision of Daniel, how he harasses the Judgment before our eyes. "Behold," he says, "until the thrones are set up, and the Ancient of Days is gray, and His garments are white as snow, and the hair of His head is like a pure wave... His wheels are scorching fire. A river of fire flowed forth before Him: thousands of thousands served Him, and thousands of them stood before Him: the judgment seat was sitting, and the books were opened" (Dan. 7:9-10). The good, the bad, the open, the secret, the deeds, the words, the thoughts—all are suddenly clearly revealed to the ears of all, angels and men. In what position will those who have lived badly necessarily be? Where will the soul be hidden, which suddenly appears full of shame before the eyes of so many spectators? What will be the state of the body of one who has undergone these endless and unbearable torments where there is an inextinguishable fire, an immortally tormenting worm, a dark and terrible bottom of hell, bitter weeping, extraordinary wailing, weeping and gnashing of teeth, and there is no end to suffering? There is no deliverance from all this after death, there is no way or opportunity to escape the bitter torments.

This can be avoided now. As long as there is an opportunity, let us raise ourselves from falling and let us not despair of ourselves if we reform ourselves from evil deeds. Jesus Christ came into the world of sinners to save. "Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and let us weep before Him" (cf. Ps. 94:6). The Word, which calls us to repentance, cries out and cries: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). So, there is a way of salvation, if we will. "Thou hast devoured death," but know for sure that "God will take away every tear from every face" of the penitent (cf. Isaiah 25:8). "The Lord is faithful in all His words" (Psalm 144:13). He does not lie when he says: "If your sins are as scarlet, they are as white as snow, but if they are as scarlet, they are as white" (cf. Isaiah 1:18). Ready to heal your infirmity is the great Physician of Souls, this ready Deliverer not only of your soul, but of all souls enslaved to sin. His word, His sweet and saving lips spoke: "They do not require the health of a physician, but he who is sick... For the righteous have not come, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:12-13). What excuse have you or anyone else for crying out? The Lord wants to deliver you from the painful wound and show you the light from the darkness. The Good Shepherd is looking for you, leaving the sheep that have not gone astray. If you give yourself up to Him, the Lover of Mankind will not hesitate to carry you on His shoulders, rejoicing that He has found His sheep bent. The Father has risen and awaits your return from error. Only reform yourself, and when you are still far away, He will flow, fall on your neck, and enclose you in a friendly embrace, already cleansed by repentance. And in the "first garment" (cf. Luke 15:22) He will put on the soul that has put off "the old man with his works" (Col. 3:9), and He will put the "ring" (cf. Luke 15:22) on the hands that have washed away the blood of death, and He will put on the feet that have turned from the path of evil to the path of the Gospel world, and He will declare a day of gladness and joy to Himself, and to Angels and men, and in every way He will celebrate your salvation Amen, "I say unto you,"  He says, "as joy is in heaven" before God for "the only sinner who repents" (cf. Luke 15:7). If any of those who think to stand condemns you that you are soon accepted, then the good Father Himself will say in your defense: "Rejoice and rejoice in the manner befitting you, for this" My daughter "is dead, and is alive, and bent away, and is found" (cf. Luke 15:32).

51 (55). To Parigorius, presbyter

(He inspires this presbyter that he is trying in vain to justify himself in keeping a strange woman in his house, contrary to both Basil's prohibition and the canon of the Council of Nicaea. (Written at the beginning of the episcopacy)