VISIO TERTIA, cap. XIII
From Chastity to Holy Offspring
The body's generative strength, when restrained by chastity and justice, becomes the ground of spiritual fruitfulness and holy offspring.
So the veins of the brain, heart, lungs, and liver, along with the others, bring strength to the kidneys, and the veins of the kidneys descend to the calves and strengthen them, and when the veins of those calves return upward, joining together in turn, whether in male vigor or in the female womb, they channel the powers held in those places toward generating offspring, just as the stomach receives food — the way iron is sharpened by a stone. For once desire has been lulled to sleep, when a person has restrained those same kidneys through chastity, and through the good knowledge that is in him, cleanses them in chastity, and surrounds them with the course of justice and self-control, so in those places where he was once without self-control, now bending himself toward self-control, he strengthens it too, so that he does not collapse into instability. And so, when in that same self-control a person stretches toward God, fortifying himself in both the male and the female sex through it, upheld by various virtues, he brings forth the offspring of holiness, as he walks by the straight path of discernment.
Fasting as the Nourishment of the Whole Person
Fasting contains and directs inner strength, surrounding the soul with groans and good thoughts so that the whole person is nourished in holiness.
For the muscles of the arms and the calves, and the swellings of the legs too, are full of veins and fluids, because just as the belly retains the internal organs and food within itself, so the muscles of the arms and the calves of the legs preserve the veins and fluids within themselves, and with their own strength strengthen the person and sustain him, the way the belly nourishes him. For even fasting is the containment of strength and the support of righteous acts in a person, surrounded by the course of groans and good thoughts, also holding the inner reaches of the soul toward fullness, and preserving them toward the perfection of salvation, nourishing the whole person — in body, that is, and in soul — in holiness.
The Strain of the Body and the Stirring of Pleasure
Excessive bodily strain stirs fleeting pleasure, revealing the moral purpose woven into the body's limits.
Because from the excessive stretching of the nerves and veins throughout the whole body, fatigue strikes a person who is running, and by the compression or impulse of those veins that fleeting pleasure is stirred up, and the moral and useful assignment of these things in the person himself.
Read the original Latin
Ut venae cerebri, cordis, pulmonis et jecoris, caeteraeque renibus fortitudinem afferunt, et venae renum ad suras descendunt, easque confortant, et ita cum venis earumdem surarum sursum redeuntes, seque aut in virili fortitudine, seu in muliebri matrice ad invicem connectentes, quemadmodum stomachus cibos comprehendit, locis illis vires ad gignendum prolem immittunt, velut per lapidem ferrum acuitur; quia postquam, concupiscentia sopita, per pudicitiam eosdem renes homo constrinxerit, per bonam quoque scientiam, quae in ipso est, illos in castitate mundat, tenoreque justitiae et continentiae eos circumdat, et sic in his in quibus incontinens prius erat, ad continentiam se inclinans, ipsam etiam solidat, ne ad levitatem corruat. Unde et cum in eadem continentia ad Deum tendit, se et in virili et in muliebri sexu per eam muniens, diversis virtutibus suffultus prolem sanctitatis profert, cum recto tramite discretionis incedit. Lacerti enim, musculi brachiorum et surae, tumores quoque crurium sunt pleni venis et humoribus, quoniam ut venter viscera et cibos in se retinet, sic lacerti brachiorum, et surae crurium venas et humores in se conservant, et fortitudine sua hominem roborant et portant, quemadmodum venter illum nutrit, quia etiam abstinentia comprehensio fortitudinis ac sustentationis justificationum in homine est, circumdata tenore gemituum bonarum cogitationum, interiora quoque animae ad plenitudinem retinens, et ad perfectionem salutis conservans, totumque hominem corpore, scilicet et anima, in sanctitate nutriens.
Quod ex nimia nervorum et venarum totius corporis distentione homini currenti fatigatio accidat, et quarum venarum complexione vel impulsione delectatio illa momentanea concitetur, et moralis utilisque in ipso homine horum assignatio.
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