Poverty January 4
Let not your mouths alone take nourishment but let your hearts too hunger for the word of God (Rule of St. Augustine, 15).
The Eucharist is a meal in two courses. It is the same food, that is, the Christ, which is served, but in two different ways. The best known Eucharistic course is the bread become the Body of Christ and the wine become his Blood. This is real nourishment taken by the mouth to feed the heart. It fills the whole person with Divine Love and builds the community. The other course is the Word. It is taken by ear for digestion in the heart. The Word is real bread, the Christ, which feeds and strengthens the spirit by an illumination leading to an authentic Christian life. The tradition of the Church extends this second course by the personal or communal practice of “lectio divina,” or Bible reading. The reason is clear: taking this nourishment deepens hunger like gas inflames fire. In the case of the Word, if one is not hungry after having eaten, one has not eaten sufficiently. Take and eat again.
Do not let yourself get caught by a blade of grass, without understanding that it plunges its roots in the earth from where it gets its force. (Toucouleur)
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