Sunday, August 1, 2004

Christian Heritage - August 1 - The Law and the Prophets Will Nourish You

"Be careful that you too do not become an Egyptian in the grip of famine. Take care not to be so involved in worldly affairs, so bound by the chains of avarice or softened by sensual indulgence, that the food of wisdom, which is always offered in the churches of God, becomes distasteful to you. For if you close your ears to what is read or discussed in church, without doubt you will suffer hunger for the word of God. But if you are of the line of Abraham, and preserve the nobility of the Israelite race, the law and the prophets will always nourish you, and the apostles will also offer you sumptuous feasts. The gospels, too, will invite you to sit at table in the company of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of the Father to eat of the tree of life there, and to drink wine from the true vine, to drink the new wine with Christ in the kingdom of his Father. For it is impossible for the friends of the bridegroom to fast or suffer hunger for this food as long as the bridegroom is with them."

Origen of Alexandra (AD 185-253), Genesis 12, 4: SC 7bis, 382-384

Origen became head of the catechetical school in Alexandria and devoted his life to the study of Scripture. His writings are almost beyond counting, but his devotion to Christ and the heavenly glories above is evident throughout them.

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