August 1
The law and the prophets will nourish you
e 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.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
