[3] Honor widows who are truly widows. [4] But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let these first learn to perform their religious duty to their own family and to make recompense to their parents, for this is pleasing to God. [5] The real widow, who is all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. [6] But the one who is self-indulgent is dead while she lives. [7] Command this, so that they may be irreproachable.
(CCC 922) From apostolic times Christian virgins and widows (Vita consecrata 7), called by the Lord to cling only to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the Church's approval to live in a state of virginity or perpetual chastity "for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:12; cf. l Cor 7:34-36). (CCC 2349) "People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single" (CDF, Persona humana 11). Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence: There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others.... This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church (St. Ambrose, De viduis 4, 23: PL 16, 255A).
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