Cânticos 5
Ambrose of Milan · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Cânticos 5:1
"I have eaten my bread with my honey." This solid is gathered from the flowers of various virtues by the cooperative work of those bees that proclaim wisdom. Holy church puts it in honeycombs so that it may be the food of Christ. — Concerning Virginity 16:98
Cânticos 5:1
But this drunkenness makes the sober; this drunkenness is of grace, not of intoxication. It generates joy, not stumbling. Do not fear that in the banquet of the Church there will be lacking pleasant smells, sweet foods, different drinks, or noble guests, or respectable attendants. What is more noble than Christ, who both serves and is served in the banquet of the Church? — On Cain and Abel 1.5.19
Cânticos 5:1
The groom descends, and delighted by the diversity of its fruits, he rejoices that he has found a stronger food, he has also found a sweeter one. For it is like a certain bread of the word, and honey: one speech is more forceful, another more persuasive. And there is another faith, more ardent, like wine: another, more clear, like the juice of milk. Christ feasts on this food within us, drinks this cup, and by the intoxication of his drink, he incites us to surpass lower things and strive for better and best things. — On Isaac and the Soul 5.49
Cânticos 5:2
As the dew from the heavens removes the dryness of the night, so the dew of our Lord Jesus Christ descends as the moisture of eternal life into the nocturnal shadows of the world. This is the head that knows nothing of the dryness caused by the heat of this world. — Concerning Virginity 12:70
Cânticos 5:2-5
She is now awakened from sleep by him, although she was keeping watch with her heart so that she might hear his voice at once when he knocked. But while she was rising, she experienced a delay, because she could not match the swiftness of the Word. While she was opening the door, the Word passed by. She went out at his word, sought for him through wounds, but wounds of love, and, finally and with difficulty, found him and embraced him, so that she might not lose him.…Even though you are asleep, if only Christ has come to know the devotion of your soul, he comes and knocks at her door and says, "Open to me, my sister." "Sister" is well put, because the marriage of the Word and the soul is spiritual. For souls do not know covenants of wedlock or the ways of bodily union, but they are like the angels in heaven. "Open to me," but close to strangers. Close to the times, close to the world, do not go out of doors to material things, do not abandon your own light and search for another's, because material light pours out a dark mist, so that the light of true glory is not seen. "Open," therefore, "to me"; do not open to the adversary or give place to the devil. "Open yourself to me," do not be confined, but expand, and I will fill you. And because, in my passage through the world, I have found very much trouble and vexation and have not readily had a place to rest, do you then open, that the Son of man may rest his head on you, for he has no rest save on one who is humble and quiet. The soul, hearing "Open to me," and "My head is wet with dew," that is, the soul that was suddenly disturbed by the temptations of the world and was bidden to rise, and indeed is on the point of rising, as it were, speaks: fragrant with aloe and myrrh, signs of burial. — On Isaac and the Soul 6.50-52
Cânticos 5:3
In this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world. — Concerning Virginity 9:55
Cânticos 5:5
"I sleep, but my heart is awake." Let us learn what food and produce God feasts upon and in which ones he takes pleasure. He takes pleasure in this, if anyone dies to his sin, blots out his guilt, and destroys and buries his iniquities. The myrrh represents the burial of the dead, but sins are dead, for they cannot possess the sweetness of life. Moreover, some wounds of sinners are moistened with the ointments of Scripture and the stronger food of the word as with bread, and are treated with the sweeter word like honey. — DEATH AS A GOOD 5:20
Cânticos 5:6
"I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had gone." What is this going? Simply that he has penetrated into the center of the mind as it was said to Mary, "And his sword will pierce your soul." For the living Word of God, as piercing as a sharp sword, comprehends both the limits of bodily thoughts and the secret places of the heart. — Concerning Virginity 11:67
Cânticos 5:10
"My beloved is white and ruddy." It is fitting, O virgin, that you should fully know him whom you love, and should recognize in him all the mystery of his divine nature and the body which he has assumed. He is white fittingly, for he is the brightness of the Father; and ruddy, for he was born of a Virgin. The color of each nature shines and glows in him. — Concerning Virginity 1.9.46
Cânticos 5:15
Who indeed but Christ could dare to claim the church as his bride, whom he alone, and none other, has called from Libanus, saying, "Come here from Lebanon, my bride; come here from Lebanon"? Or of whom else could the church have said, "His throat is sweetness, and he is altogether desirable"? And seeing that we entered upon this discussion from speaking of the shoes of his feet, to whom else but the Word of God incarnate can those words apply? "His legs are pillars of marble, set upon bases of gold." For Christ alone walks in the souls and makes his path in the minds of his saints, in which, as upon bases of gold and foundations of precious stone the heavenly Word has left his footprints ineffaceably impressed. — Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.10.74
Cânticos 5:16
The pure soul revolves around this, contemplates it, and sees God, and abounds in all good things. Therefore, it says: The throat sweetens, and the whole desire. For God is the author of all good things, and whatever exists, all of it indeed belongs to Him. — On Isaac and the Soul 7.61