Letter 2034: While my mind, thirsting for you, lords of my heart, searches constantly for an occasion to write, long deliberation...

34. To the holy and apostolic lord, to be preferred before all others as my own special patron in the Lord Christ with particular reverence and affection, Bishop Sedatus, from Bishop Ruricius. While the longing of my heart, thirsting after you, lords of my breast, frequently seeks an occasion for writing to you, at length, working it over with long meditation, it has found a suitable letter-carrier, through whom it might both break long silences and request for itself the spiritual delights of your mouth, desiring to be sprinkled with its dew. Of this thirst, I believe, the holy psalmist was speaking: "My soul is unto you as a land without water" [Ps. 142:6], doubtless desiring to quench the dryness of its body with that water by a sober intoxication, of which our Lord deigns to cry out in the Gospel: "If any man thirst, let him come and drink. For rivers of living water shall flow out of his belly" [John 7:37-38]. This same Lord also offered this water to the Samaritan woman, that is, to the Church to be gathered from the nations, saying: "The water that I shall give shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting" [John 4:14]. If any faithful man has not merely tasted this water with the top of his lips at the surface, but, longing for it with the whole inward parts of his soul, has drunk it down as a fellow-guest, he will at once burst forth into the praise of the omnipotent Lord and will begin to belch forth what he has drunk, just as the most blessed evangelist and disciple, who merited to recline upon the breast of the Lord, heard the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom and cried out in that utterance which no one had heard before: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" [John 1:1]. This was that Word which, begotten of the Father without time, is created in time from the mother, that he might become the creator; that the whole fullness of divinity might be able to be a certain portion of humanity; and that the portion itself of humanity, by his own passion, might redeem the fullness of humanity, while the image of the invisible God is made the form of a servant, so that the impassible might be able to suffer, the incomprehensible to be grasped, the immortal to die, who by undergoing death might destroy death, that by rising again he might restore life. But why is it that, forgetful of myself, eager for you as if conversing with you about matters of this kind, and thereby blazing more vehemently into longing for you, hastening to quench my thirst as if by a certain little stream of love, attempting things inscrutable and inaccessible, I do not consider what I am saying, who is saying it, or to whom I am saying it? But, as I trust, the devotion will grant pardon for that which affection commits, since charity beareth all things [1 Cor. 13:7]. And so I bid hearty greetings to your heart, which is undivided from me, and I ask that you may deign to pray unceasingly for me. And at the same time I commend also, with a particular plea, that part of my own body through which I deliver these things to you, that in them you may prove how wholly you love me. I judge that they will be the dearer to you because they carry away with them a portion of myself for you. Know that whatever you may deign to bestow of love upon them, you confer upon us; for if, according to the holy apostle, the lesser member suffers together with the greater in pain, the greater also without doubt rejoices in the prosperity of the lesser [1 Cor. 12:26]. And so it comes about at last that, when all the members everywhere have been set in peace and quiet, the head, as the ruler and lord of the whole body, exults. Toward which head all the members are bidden to look, as the prophet says: "The eyes of a wise man are in his head" [Eccl. 2:14], which another prophet plainly expounds, saying: "My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare" [Ps. 24:15], and again: "Unto thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven" [Ps. 122:1]. Let us therefore raise the eyes of our heart toward Christ, and in the night of this world let us lift up our hands to the Lord with fruitful works; and may he himself deign to be our head, and may we be worthy, by clinging to our head, to be useful members of his body, so that, departing from this world, as at the going out of Israel from Egypt, we may be able to say to our Redeemer: "My soul hath cleaved after thee; thy right hand hath upheld me" [cf. Ps. 62:9], when, in the prison of this body, by day and by night it shall have been occupied in meditation upon it, that, once led forth, it may not be confounded. Pray for me.

XXXIIII. DOMINO SANCTO ET APOSTOLICO MIHIQVE IN CHRISTO DOMINO SPECIALI CULTU AFFECTUQVE CETERIS PRAEFERENDO PATRONO SEDATO EPISCOPO RURICIUS EPISCOPUS. Dum scribendi uobis, domnis pectoris mei, animus uos sitiens occasionem frequenter inquirit, aliquando diuturna meditatione pertractans repperit idoneum portitorem, per quem et silentia longa disrumperet et sibi spiritales delicias postularet oris uestri cupiens rore respergi. de qua, credo, siti sanctus psalmista dicebat: anima mea sicut terra sine aqua tibi, illa nimirum aqua ariditatem corporis sui restinguere sobria ebrietate desiderans, de qua dominus noster in euangelio clamare dignatur: si quis sitit, ueniat et bibat. flumina enim aquae uiuae de uentre eius fluunt. hanc aquam Samaritanae etiam idem dominus offerebat, hoc est ecclesiae ex gentibus congregandae dicens: aquam, quam ego dabo, fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in uitam aeternam. hanc aquam si quis fidelis non gustu tantum summo tenus ore libauerit, sed totis animae uisceribus adpetens conuiua sorbuerit, protinus in laudem domini omnipotentis erumpet et hoc incipiet ructare, quod biberit, sicut beatissimus euangelista atque discipulus, qui super pectus domini recumbere meruit, mysteria regni caelestis audiuit et in illam uocem, quam ante nullus audierat, clamauit: in principio erat uerbum et uerbum erat apud deum et deus erat uerbum. Hoc erat illud uerbum, quod sine tempore a patre genitam in tempore creatur ex matre, ut creator fieret, ut esse posset humanitatis quaedam portio diuinitatis totius plenitudo et 10] Psalm. 142, 6. 13] Ioann. 7, 87. 16] Ioann. 4,14. 24] Ioann. 1, 1.. S preferendo S 5 I;omnis S (d eras.), omnis v 6 ocasione S inon quirit id coni. Mommsenus 7 ideum S 8 longe v dismmperem r dilicias S postolaret S, postulare v 9 site S 11 subria S 16 aqua r KT . 17 salientes S 19 libaberit S sorbueret 81 20 erumpet Kr., prompit S 22 adquem 81 23 auriuit S 27 possit S 28 porcio S plenitudinem humanitatis portio ipsa humanitatis sua passione redimeret, dum imago inuisibilis dei forma fit serui, ut posset inpassibilis pati, inconprehensibilis capi, inmortalis mori, qui mortem occumbendo perimeret, ut uitam resurgendo repararet. sed quid ego oblitus mei, auidus tui quasi de huiuscemodi rebus tecum conloquens et inde in desiderium tui uehementius perardescens restinguere sitim meam uelut quodam dilectionis riuulo festinans inscrutabilia et inaccessa pertemptans, quid loquar, qui loquar, cui loquar, non considero? sed dabit, ut confido, ueniam pietas, quam committit affectus, quia caritas omnia sustinet. Salue itaque plurimum dico indiuiduo mihi pectori uestro et rogo, ut pro me incessanter orare dignemini. simulque etiam partem corporis mei, per quam nobis has trado, peculiari insinuatione commendo, ut in illis, quam me diligatis integre, conprobetis. quos uobis eo arbitror fore cariores, quia meam nobis secum deferunt portionem. quibus quicquid dignati fueritis dilectionis inpendere, nobis uos conferre cognoscite, quia, si iuxta sanctum apostolum minus membrum maiori in dolore conpatitur, et maius procul dubio in minoris prosperitate laetatur. et ita demum fit, ut omnibus usquequaque membris in pace et quiete conpositis caput, totius corporis rector utpote et dominator, exultet. in quo capite omnia membra iubentur aspicere dicente propheta: sapientis oculi in capite eius, quos alius propheta euidenter exponit dicens: oculi mei semper ad dominum, quia ipse euellit de laqueo pedes meos, et iterum: ad te leuaui oculos meos, qui habitas in caelo. 10] 1 Cor. 13, 7. 19] 1 Cor. 12, 26. 24] Eccl. 2, 14. 26] Psalm. 24,15. 27] Psalm. 122, 1. 1 porcio S redemeret 81 2 sit S possit S 4 obcumbendo S peremeret S repararit S 7 perardiscens S 8 riuuluo S iuscrutabilia S (c in ras.) ptimtans S 10 cumittit S 13 dignimini S i ta 17 porcionem S 18 dilectiones S qua S 19 iux 81 dolori S 20 minov S 22 capud S 23 donator S 24 sapientes S 25 eapitae S quod r, fort. recte 26 puellet Kr . 27* Erigamus itaque oculos nostri cordis ad Christum et in mundi istius nocte manus nostras operibus fructuosis extollamus ad dominum et ipse caput nostrum esse dignetur et nos adhaerere capiti nostro utilia corporis sui membra mereamur, ut de hoc saeculo discedentes tamquam (in) exitu Israhel de Aegypto dicere redemptori nostro possimus: adhaesit post te anima mea, me autem suscepit dextera tua, cum ea diebus ac noctibus fuerit in corporis huius carcere meditata, unde non confundatur educta.. ora pro me.