{"id":4183,"date":"2014-08-30T07:55:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-30T06:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2012\/07\/how-to-be-both-hot-and-holy-in\/"},"modified":"2014-09-30T08:37:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T07:37:59","slug":"how-to-be-both-hot-and-holy-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2014\/08\/how-to-be-both-hot-and-holy-in\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be Both Hot and Holy in Old Age"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lionello-spada-st-jerome.jpg\"<\/a>
Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church, in old age, by Lionello Spada (1610)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his commentary on old King Solomon’s need to sleep with a maiden hot enough to keep him warm and holy enough not to arouse his lust, Saint Jerome has this to say:<\/small><\/p>\n

Who is this Shunammite, both wife and virgin, so hot that she could heat the frozen, so holy that she did not rouse to lust him whom she had warmed?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on to explain that wisdom is the maiden who comes to embrace us in old age:<\/small><\/p>\n

In the aged, nearly all the bodily powers wear out,
\nand wisdom alone increases;
\nall the others decrease:
\nsuch as fasting, watching, sleeping on the floor,
\ntravelling from place to place,
\nentertaining travellers,
\ndefending the poor,
\nbeing instant and persevering in prayer,
\nvisiting the sick,
\nmanual labour for the providing of alms.
\nAnd without prolonging my discourse,
\nall those things that are done through the body diminish
\nas the body breaks down.
\nI do not mean to say that wisdom,
\nwhich in many of the aged declines into senility
\nis lacking in the young or in those of maturer age;
\nthat is, in those who by toil or earnest zeal,
\nby holiness of life,
\nand by frequent prayer to the Lord Jesus,
\nso seek after knowledge:
\nbut I mean that many who are young in body
\nhave a battle to fight,
\nand amidst the incentives to sin
\nand the temptations of the flesh,
\nwisdom is smothered as fire is in green wood,
\nso that its flame cannot leap forth.
\nBut when old age comes upon those
\nwho have spent their youth in acquiring knowledge
\nand have exercised themselves in the law of the Lord day and night,
\nthen they become more learned with age,
\nmore skilled through experience,
\nwiser as time goes by,
\nand they reap the most sweet fruit from their diligence.
\nSaint Jerome, Letter to Nepotian<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his commentary on old King Solomon’s need to sleep with a maiden hot enough to keep him warm and holy enough not to arouse his lust, Saint Jerome has this to say: Who is this Shunammite, both wife and virgin, so hot that she could heat the frozen, so holy that she did not <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fathers-and-doctors-of-the-church","category-florilegium","category-saints"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-15t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8079,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/8079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}