24. Let the inner ear of the virgin also, thy holy child, hear these things. I shall see65    One ms “to see.” how far she goes before you in the Kingdom of That King: it is another question. Yet ye have found, mother and daughter, Him, Whom by beauty of chastity ye ought to please together, having despised, she all, you second, marriage. Certainly if there were husbands whom ye had to please, by this time, perhaps, you would feel ashamed to adorn yourself together with your daughter; now let it not shame you, to set yourselves to do what may adorn you both together; because it is not matter of blame, but of glory, that ye be loved both together by That One. But white and red, feigned and laid on with paints, ye would not use, even if ye had husbands; not thinking that they were fit persons for you to deceive, or yourselves such as ought to deceive; now therefore That King, Who had longed for the beauty of His Only Spouse, of Whom ye are members, do ye with all truth together please, together cleave unto; she with virginal chastity, you with widowed continence, both with spiritual beauty. In which beauty also her grandmother, and your mother-in-law, who by this time surely hath grown old, is beautiful together with you. Forsooth whilst charity carries the vigor of this beauty into things that are before, length of years causeth not in it a wrinkle. You have with you a holy aged woman, both in your house and in Christ, whom to consult concerning perseverance; how you are to fight with this or that temptation, what you are to do, that it may be the more easily overcome; what safeguard you are to take, that it may not easily again lay wait; and if there be any thing of this sort, she teaches you, who is now by time fixed, by love a well-wisher, by natural affection full of cares, by age secure. Do you specially, do you in such things consult her, who hath made trial of what you have made trial of. For your child sings that song,66    Rev. xiv. 3, 4. [See R.V.] which in the Apocalypse none save virgins can sing. But for both of you she prays more carefully than for herself, but she is more full of care for her granddaughter, for whom there remains a longer space of years to overcome temptations; but you she sees nearer to her own age, and mother of a daughter of such an age, as that, had you seen her married, (which now is not lawful, and far be it from her,) I think you would have blushed to bear children together with her. How much then is it that now remains to you of a dangerous age, who are on this account not called a grandmother, in order that together with your daughter you may be fruitful in offspring of holy thoughts and works? Therefore not without reason is the grandmother more full of care for her, for whom you also the mother; because both what she hath vowed is greater, and the whole of what she hath just now begun remains to her. May the Lord hear her prayers, that ye may holily follow her good deserts, Who in youth gave birth to the flesh of your husband,67    Olibrius, see S. Jerome to Demetr. Ben. ed. in old age travaileth with the heart of your daughter. Therefore do ye all, alike and with one accord, by conduct please, by prayers press upon, That One Husband of One Wife, in Whose Body by One Spirit ye are living.

24. Audiat haec virginis etiam sanctae prolis tuae auris interior. Videro quantum te praecedat in regno Regis illius: alia quaestio est. Invenistis tamen, mater et filia, cui contemptis nuptiis, illa omnibus, tu secundis, pulchritudine castitatis simul placere debeatis. Certe si mariti essent quibus placendum esset, jam te fortasse cum filia puderet ornari: nunc non pudeat agere quibus simul ornemini; quia non est criminosum, sed potius gloriosum, ut ab illo uno simul amemini. Simulatum autem candorem ac ruborem et pigmentis illitum non adhiberetis, etiamsi viros haberetis; non putantes dignos quos falleretis, nec vos quae fallere deberetis: nunc ergo illi Regi, qui unicae sponsae, cujus membra estis, speciem concupivit, veraciter simul placete, simul inhaerete; illa integritate virginali, tu continentia viduali, ambae pulchritudine spirituali. In qua pulchritudine etiam illius avia, socrus tua, quae jam certe senuit, est pulchra vobiscum . Vigorem quippe hujus pulchritudinis dum extendit in anteriora charitas, rugam in ea non facit annositas. Habetis vobiscum anum sanctam et in domo et in Christo, quam de perseverantia consulatis; quomodo cum illa vel illa tentatione pugnandum sit, quid agendum ut facile superetur, quod munimentum sumendum, ne facile rursus insidietur: et si quid hujusmodi est, docet vos diuturnitate jam certa, amore benevola, pietate sollicita, aetate secura. Tu praecipue, tu consule in talibus eam, quae experta est quod experta es. Nam proles vestra illud canticum cantat, quod in Apocalypsi nisi virgines cantare non possunt (Apoc. XIV, 3, 4). Pro ambabus tamen vobis sollicitius orat quam pro se ipsa: sed magis pro nepte sollicita est, cui vincendarum tentationum spatium plus restat annorum: te autem videt aevo suo viciniorem, et ejus filiae matrem, quam si nuptam, quod jam non licet, atque absit, vidisses, puto quod parere cum illa erubuisses. Quantum est ergo quod jam tibi periculosae restat aetatis, quae ideo non diceris avia, ut sanctarum cogitationum et operum fetibus cum filia possis esse fecunda? Non itaque immerito magis pro illa sollicita est avia, pro qua et tu mater: quia et majus est quod vovit, et totum ei restat quod modo coepit . Exaudiat Dominus preces ejus, ut sanctae obsequamini meritis ejus, quae carnem 0447 viri tui in juventa peperit, cor filiae tuae in senecta parturit. Omnes itaque pariter atque concorditer univiro unius conjugis, in cujus corpore uno spiritu vivitis, placete moribus, instate orationibus.