Friday, February 4 : Saint Columbanus

My dear brethren, if your soul thirsts for the divine spring I have just been talking about then stimulate this thirst, do not quench it. Drink but do not be satisfied. For the living spring calls to us and the well of life says to us: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink” (Jn 7,37)… See from whence this spring wells up : it comes from that place from where the Bread came down, for the Bread and the spring are one – the only Son, our God, Jesus Christ the Lord for whom we ought always to thirst. Even if we eat and devour him in our love, our longing still makes us thirst for him. Like water from a spring, drink him continually with great love, drink him greedily and delight in the sweetness of his taste. For the Lord is kind, the Lord is good. Whether we eat him or whether we drink him we shall always be hungry and thirsty for him, for he is an absolutely inexhaustible food and drink… Indeed, he is the well of the parched, not of the satisfied. He invites the thirsty, whom he calls blessed (Mt 5,6): those who never have enough to drink but whose thirst is always greater than what they have drunk. Brothers, desire « the source of wisdom, the Word of God in the heights », seek it, love it. As Saint Paul says: “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2,3) are hidden in it… If you are thirsty, drink from the well of life; if you are hungry, eat the Bread of life. Happy are they who hunger for this Bread and thirst for this well!… How good is that which we can always be tasting without ceasing to desire it! King David the prophet says: “Taste and see how good the Lord is” (Ps 33[34],9).

maronite readings – rosary,team