Meir Soloveichik Quotes

For the standard of Christian life was to be strained to a higher pitch; more fasting was required, and more careful separation from the manners and enjoyments of the world; celibacy and martyrdom had great value set upon them, and second marriages were prohibited.

He was seriously thinking of becoming a monk. He thought he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument, but my instrument needed tuning, and we had to split.

In the early days of Christianity the exercise of chastity was frequently combined with a close and romantic intimacy of affection between the sexes which shocked austere moralists.

When you really see how much God loves you, there's no greater love than that, and I had to match that amount of love He had for me, which is the reason why I decided to take a vow of celibacy.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

I was a Christian. I didn't want to have sex before marriage, I was a bit uptight and not very self-confident. I was a virgin until I was 26.

That's the great thing about entering a convent: There are things that you simply can't do, so you don't have to worry about them.

The truly longstanding tradition in the church is that some are called to celibacy. Some feel called to it. But the church has never supported that celibacy be mandated for someone not called to it. It's never imposed on someone.

Tell me who is able to keep his bed chaste, or which goddess is able to live with one god alone?

The vow of celibacy is a matter of keeping one's word to Christ and the Church. a duty and a proof of the priest's inner maturity; it is the expression of his personal dignity.

Young people are told that they are standing up for Christ and resisting America's sexualized culture by claiming virginity as a countercultural, radical stance.

Christian priests refusal to marry is unnatural and destined to lead to fornication.

That clerical celibacy doesn't guarantee asceticism is obvious, any more than attending Mass guarantees prayerfulness (trust me on that one). But it preserves the call even when the system is corrupted.

I was by no means a nun.

Asceticism and celibacy can conceal many incapacities.

I’ve remained a virgin for you.

Because monks come from the midst of purity, they consider as good and pure what does not arouse desire among other people.

In every possible instance Saint Paul begged Christians to restrain themselves to contain their carnal yearnings to live solitary and sexless lives on earth as it is in heaven. "But if they cannot contain " Paul finally conceded then "let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn." Which is perhaps the most begrudging endorsement of matrimony in human history.

Jesus was a bachelor and never lived with a woman. Surely living with a woman is one of the most difficult things a man has to do, and he never did it.

I'm a virgin and I brought up all my children to be the same.

Of all the sexual aberrations, perhaps the most peculiar is chastity.

I see no room in holy Scripture for any sexual activity outside of matrimony.

I was a virgin. People find that hard to believe, but when you're raised in a church, that was just the way it is.

I want to wait to have sex until I'm married.

The moral code of Heaven for both men and women is complete chastity before marriage and full fidelity after marriage.