Cânticos 7
Ambrose of Milan · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Cânticos 7:2
Small, too, are the navel and belly of the soul that ascends to Christ. Therefore it is praised in the words of the spouse, who says, "Your navel is like a round bowl never wanting wine, your belly is like a heap of tiny wheat among lilies." It is polished by all kinds of learning, and it is a spiritual draught never failing in fullness and in the knowledge of heavenly secrets. The belly of the soul is mystic, like the navel, and it receives not only strong food to strengthen hearts but sweet and fragrant food by which it is delighted. Perhaps Moses meant that this sacrilege needs to be atoned for by many pious prayers. - "Letter 77, To Laymen"
Cânticos 7:2
"Your navel is like a round bowl, not wanting tempered wine. Your belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are a pool in Heshbon." The good navel of the soul, capable of receiving all virtues, is like a bowl, fashioned by the author of faith himself. For in a bowl wisdom has mixed her wine, saying, "Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." This navel, therefore, fashioned with all the beauty of the virtues, does not lack mixed wine. His belly also was filled not only with the wheaten food of justice, as it were, but also with that of grace, and it bloomed with sweetness like a lily. — CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 69
Cânticos 7:6-7
The church is beautiful in [those recently baptized]. So that God the Word says to her: "You are all fair, my love, and there is no blemish in you," for guilt has been washed away. "Come here from Lebanon, my spouse, come here from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith you will pass through and pass on," because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ. And again, God the Word says to her, "How beautiful and sweet are you made, O love, in your delights! Your stature is become like that of a palm tree, and your breasts like bunches of grapes." — On the Mysteries 7:39
Cânticos 7:7-9
Therefore, imitate her, o man, so that it may be said of you as well: "Your stature has become like a palm tree." Preserve the greenness of your childhood and that natural innocence which you received from the beginning, so that, being planted beside the flowing waters, you may have your fruit prepared in your time, and your leaf may not wither. ... Therefore, remain planted in the house of the Lord, so that in His courts you may flourish like a palm, and let the grace of the Church ascend in you, and let the fragrance of your nostrils be like apples, and your mouth like the best wine, so that you may be intoxicated in Christ. — The Six Days of Creation
Cânticos 7:8
The laurel and the palm are the symbols of victory. The heads of the victors are crowned with laurel, and the hand of the conqueror is adorned with a palm. Hence the Church says: "I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches." Seeing the excellence of the Word and hoping that she can ascend to His height and the summit of knowledge, she says: "I will go up to the palm tree," so that she may leave behind all lower things and strive for higher things, for the reward of Christ, so that she may enjoy and taste the sweet fruits of His love. For the fruit of virtue is sweet. — The Six Days of Creation
Cânticos 7:12-13
Actually, what has always been condemned by the church is the perverse opinion of those who dare to dissolve the unity of marriage. Listen again to the voice of holy church: "Come, my brother, let us go forth into the fields, and lodge in the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards, and see whether the vines have budded." A field may produce many fruits, but the best field is one richly productive of both fruits and flowers. The church is a field of this sort, fecund in diversity. — Concerning Virginity 6:34
Cânticos 7:12-13
I have preserved for you, my brother, the new and the old; that is to say, I hold on to all the commandments of the new and the old Testament. Only the Church can say this: no other congregation says it, nor does the Synagogue, nor does it hold on to the new according to the literal meaning; nor does it hold on to the old according to the spirit. The heresy of Manichaeus does not say it, 'I have preserved for you the Old,' which does not accept the prophets. It is rightly called white, which shines with the grace of both Testaments. — Commentary on the Song of Songs 7.21