The
Water of the River Gives Joy to God's City
The river of God is in full spate; you have
provided their food, for so you have prepared it. There is no room for uncertainty about the river. For the prophet
says: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. And the Lord himself says in the
gospels, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give, out of his heart shall
flow rivers of living water springing forth to eternal life. And again, He
who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow
rivers of water. Now this he said about the Holy Spirit, which those who
believed in him were to receive. This
river of God, then, is brimful. For we are flooded with the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, and from that spring of life the river of God, in full flood, pours
into us. We also have food prepared.
And what
is this food? That in which we are prepared for society with God: through
communion of a holy body to be thereafter given a place in the communion of a
holy body. That is what the present psalm means when it says, You
have provided their food, for so you have prepared it – for by that
food, though we are saved for the present time, we are none the less also
prepared for the future.
We who
are reborn through the sacrament of baptism have the greatest joy, as we
perceive within us the first stirrings of the Holy Spirit, as we begin to
understand mysteries; we gain knowledge of prophecy, speech full of wisdom,
security in our hope, gifts of healing, and dominion over the devils made
subject to us. These gifts, like drops of liquid, permeate our inner self, and
so beginning, little by little produce fruits in abundance.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of
Readings
From a Treatise of Psalms by Saint Hilary of Poitiers
Image
taken from Wikimedia
Commons
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