Saints Laurence Ruiz and his Companions, Martyrs

From a treatise on the psalms by Saint Hilary of Poitiers

The water of the river gives joy to God's city

St. Laurence Ruiz

 

The river of God is in full spate; you have provided their food, for so you have prepared it. There is no room for uncertainty about the river. For the prophet says: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. And the Lord himself says in the gospels, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water springing forth to eternal life. And again, He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of water. Now this he said about the Holy Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. This river of God, then, is brimful. For we are flooded with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and from that spring of life the river of God, in full flood, pours into us. We also have food prepared.

  And what is this food? That in which we are prepared for society with God: through communion of a holy body to be thereafter given a place in the communion of a holy body. That is what the present psalm means when it says, You have provided their food, for so you have prepared it – for by that food, though we are saved for the present time, we are none the less also prepared for the future.

  We who are reborn through the sacrament of baptism have the greatest joy, as we perceive within us the first stirrings of the Holy Spirit, as we begin to understand mysteries; we gain knowledge of prophecy, speech full of wisdom, security in our hope, gifts of healing, and dominion over the devils made subject to us. These gifts, like drops of liquid, permeate our inner self, and so beginning, little by little produce fruits in abundance.