"He who comes to Communion
loses himself in God,
as a drop of water in the
ocean.
They can be no more
separated." - St John Vianney
"His union with those whom He loves surpasses every union of
which one might conceive, and cannot be compared with any
model.
Therefore
even Scripture needed many illustrations to be able to express that connection,
since one would not suffice. In one place it employs the figures of an
inhabitant and a dwelling, in another those of a vine and branch, here that of a
marriage, there that of members and a head. None of those figures is adequate
for that union, for it is impossible from these to attain to the exact truth.
Above all it is necessary that the union should conform to friendship - yet what
could be adequate for divine love?
...So I
come to that which is strangest. To whom else could one be more closely united
than to oneself? Yet this very unity is inferior to that union. For each of
the spirits of the blessed ones is identical with himself, yet it is united to
the Saviour more than to him. It loves the Saviour more than
itself."
Nicholas Cabasilas (+ 1392)
Greek
monk, mystic, bishop
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