blood has the substance. In this way also the rivers, borne along with a rush, being carded by the enclosure of the surrounding air, murmur foam, and our moist mouth is whitened by the breath. What then is the objection to confessing that blood is also changed by the spirit to what is most luminous and most white? It undergoes 1.6.40.2 the change in quality, not in substance. At any rate, you could not find anything more nutritious, nor indeed sweeter, nor whiter than milk. And in every way spiritual nourishment resembles this, being sweet on account of grace, nutritious as life, white as the day of Christ, and the blood 1.6.41.1 of the Word has been manifested as milk. In this way, therefore, milk is supplied to the infant, being managed at the time of birth, and the breasts, which previously looked up erect towards the man, now incline towards the child, being taught to provide the easily received nourishment prepared by nature for the rearing of salvation; for the breasts are not full like springs with ready-made milk flowing in, but by changing the nourishment within themselves 1.6.41.2 they produce milk and exude it. And this suitable and fitting nourishment for a newborn and newly-begotten child is prepared by God the nourisher and father of those who are born and born again, just as the manna flowed down from heaven for the 1.6.41.3 ancient Hebrews, the heavenly food of the angels. Indeed, even now wet-nurses have called the first-poured drink of milk by the same name as that food, manna. But women who are pregnant, having become mothers, gush forth milk; but the Lord Christ, the fruit of the virgin, did not bless the breasts of women nor judge them to be nourishers, but when the tenderly-loving and man-loving Father rained down the Word, 1.6.42.1 He Himself became spiritual nourishment for the temperate. O, mystical wonder! The Father of all is one, and the Word of all is one, and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere, and there is only one virgin mother; I am fond of calling her Church. This mother alone had no milk, because she alone did not become a woman, but is at once virgin and mother, undefiled as a virgin, loving as a mother, and calling her children to her, she nurses them with holy milk, with the infant Word. 1.6.42.2 Therefore she had no milk, because this good and proper child was milk, the body of Christ, nourishing the new race with the Word, which the Lord Himself brought forth with fleshly pang, which the Lord Himself 1.6.42.3 wrapped in swaddling clothes with precious blood. O the holy birthings, O the holy swaddling clothes! The Word is everything to the infant, both father and mother and pedagogue and nourisher. Eat my flesh, he says, and drink my blood. The Lord provides us with these fitting nourishments, and offers flesh and 1.6.43.1 pours out blood; and the children lack nothing for their growth. O paradoxical mystery! He bids us put off the old and fleshly corruption, just as also the old nourishment, and partaking of another, new diet of Christ, receiving Him, if possible, to lay Him up within ourselves and to take the Savior to our breast, that we may bring to naught the passions of our 1.6.43.2 flesh. But you are not willing to understand it in this way, but perhaps in a more common way. Hear it in this way too: the Holy Spirit allegorizes the flesh for us, for the flesh was created by it; the blood signifies the Word for us, for the Word has been poured out upon life like rich blood; and the mixture of both is the Lord, the nourishment 1.6.43.3 of infants; the Lord is spirit and Word. The nourishment, that is, the Lord Jesus, that is, the Word of God, is spirit made flesh, heavenly flesh sanctified. The nourishment is the milk of the Father, by which alone we infants are nursed. For the beloved Word Himself, our nourisher, poured out His own blood for us, 1.6.43.4 saving humanity; through whom having believed in God upon

αἷμα ἔχει τὴν οὐσίαν. Τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ καὶ οἱ ποταμοὶ ῥόθῳ φερόμενοι τῇ ἐμπεριλήψει τοῦ περικεχυμένου ἀέρος ξαινόμενοι ἀφρὸν μορμύρουσιν, καὶ τὸ ἐνστόμιον ἡμῶν ὑγρὸν τῷ πνεύματι ἐκλευκαίνεται. Τίς οὖν ἡ ἀποκλήρωσις μὴ οὐχὶ καὶ τὸ αἷμα ἐπὶ τὸ φωτεινότατον καὶ λευκότατον ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τρέπεσθαι ὁμολογεῖν; Πάσχει 1.6.40.2 δὲ τὴν μεταβολὴν κατὰ ποιότητα, οὐ κατ' οὐσίαν. Ἀμέλει γοῦν οὐ τροφιμώτερον ἄλλο τι οὐδὲ μὴν γλυκύτερον ἀλλ' οὐδὲ λευκότερον εὕροις ἂν γάλακτος. Πάντῃ δὲ ἔοικεν τούτῳ ἡ πνευματικὴ τροφή, γλυκεῖα μὲν διὰ τὴν χάριν ὑπάρχουσα, τρόφιμος δὲ ὡς ζωή, λευκὴ δὲ ὡς ἡμέρα Χριστοῦ, καὶ τὸ αἷμα 1.6.41.1 τοῦ λόγου πεφανέρωται ὡς γάλα. Ταύτῃ τοίνυν περὶ τὴν ἀποκύησιν οἰκονομούμενον τῷ βρέφει τὸ γάλα χορηγεῖται, καὶ οἱ μαστοί, οἱ τέως τὸν ἄνδρα περιβλεπόμενοι ὀρθοί, ἤδη κατανεύουσι πρὸς τὸ παιδίον, τὴν ὑπὸ τῆς φύσεως πεπονημένην εὔληπτον παρέχειν διδασκόμενοι τροφὴν εἰς ἀνατροφὴν σωτηρίας· οὐ γὰρ ὡς αἱ πηγαὶ πλήρεις εἰσὶν οἱ μαστοὶ ἐπεισρέοντος ἑτοίμου γάλακτος, ἀλλὰ μεταβάλλοντες τὴν τροφὴν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς 1.6.41.2 ἐργάζονται γάλα καὶ διαπνέουσιν. Ἡ τροφὴ δὲ ἡ κατάλληλος αὕτη καὶ πρόσφορος νεοπαγεῖ καὶ νεοφυεῖ παιδίῳ πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ τροφέως καὶ πατρὸς τῶν γεννωμένων καὶ ἀναγεννωμένων πονουμένη, οἷον τὸ μάννα οὐρανόθεν ἐπερρέετο τοῖς 1.6.41.3 παλαιοῖς Ἑβραίοις, ἡ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἐπουράνιος τροφή. Ἀμέλει καὶ νῦν αἱ τίτθαι τὸ πρωτόχυτον τοῦ γάλακτος πόμα ὁμωνύμως ἐκείνῃ τῇ τροφῇ μάννα κεκλήκασιν. Ἀλλ' αἱ μὲν γυναῖκες αἱ κυοῦσαι μητέρες γενόμεναι πηγάζουσι γάλα· ὁ δὲ κύριος ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ τῆς παρθένου καρπὸς οὐκ ἐμακάρισεν τοὺς γυναικείους μαστοὺς οὐδὲ ἔκρινεν αὐτοὺς τροφεῖς, ἀλλὰ τοῦ φιλοστόργου καὶ φιλανθρώπου πατρὸς ἐπομβρήσαντος τὸν λόγον 1.6.42.1 αὐτὸς ἤδη τροφὴ γέγονεν πνευματικὴ τοῖς σώφροσιν. Ὢ θαύματος μυστικοῦ· εἷς μὲν ὁ τῶν ὅλων πατήρ, εἷς δὲ καὶ ὁ τῶν ὅλων λόγος, καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἓν καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πανταχοῦ, μία δὲ μόνη γίνεται μήτηρ παρθένος· ἐκκλησίαν ἐμοὶ φίλον αὐτὴν καλεῖν. Γάλα οὐκ ἔσχεν ἡ μήτηρ αὕτη μόνη, ὅτι μόνη μὴ γέγονεν γυνή, παρθένος δὲ ἅμα καὶ μήτηρ ἐστίν, ἀκήρατος μὲν ὡς παρθένος, ἀγαπητικὴ δὲ ὡς μήτηρ, καὶ τὰ αὑτῆς παιδία προσκαλουμένη ἁγίῳ τιθηνεῖται γάλακτι, τῷ βρεφώδει λόγῳ. 1.6.42.2 ∆ιὸ οὐκ ἔσχε γάλα, ὅτι γάλα ἦν τὸ παιδίον τοῦτο καλὸν καὶ οἰκεῖον, τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τὴν νεολαίαν ὑποτροφοῦσα τῷ λόγῳ, ἣν αὐτὸς ἐκύησεν ὁ κύριος ὠδῖνι σαρκικῇ, ἣν αὐτὸς 1.6.42.3 ἐσπαργάνωσεν ὁ κύριος αἵματι τιμίῳ. Ὢ τῶν ἁγίων λοχευμάτων, ὢ τῶν ἁγίων σπαργάνων· ὁ λόγος τὰ πάντα τῷ νηπίῳ, καὶ πατὴρ καὶ μήτηρ καὶ παιδαγωγὸς καὶ τροφεύς. Φάγεσθέ μου, φησί, τὴν σάρκα καὶ πίεσθέ μου τὸ αἷμα. Ταύτας ἡμῖν οἰκείας τροφὰς ὁ κύριος χορηγεῖ καὶ σάρκα ὀρέγει καὶ 1.6.43.1 αἷμα ἐκχεῖ· καὶ οὐδὲν εἰς αὔξησιν τοῖς παιδίοις ἐνδεῖ. Ὢ τοῦ παραδόξου μυστηρίου· ἀποδύσασθαι ἡμῖν τὴν παλαιὰν καὶ σαρκικὴν ἐγκελεύεται φθοράν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὴν παλαιὰν τροφήν, καινῆς δὲ ἄλλης τῆς Χριστοῦ διαίτης μεταλαμβάνοντας, ἐκεῖνον, εἰ δυνατόν, ἀναλαμβάνοντας ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀποτίθεσθαι καὶ τὸν σωτῆρα ἐνστερνίσασθαι, ἵνα καταργήσωμεν τῆς σαρκὸς 1.6.43.2 ἡμῶν τὰ πάθη. Ἀλλ' οὐ ταύτῃ νοεῖν ἐθέλεις, κοινότερον δὲ ἴσως. Ἄκουε καὶ ταύτῃ· σάρκα ἡμῖν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀλληγορεῖ, καὶ γὰρ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ δεδημιούργηται ἡ σάρξ· αἷμα ἡμῖν τὸν λόγον αἰνίττεται, καὶ γὰρ ὡς αἷμα πλούσιον ὁ λόγος ἐπικέχυται τῷ βίῳ· ἡ κρᾶσις δὲ ἡ ἀμφοῖν ὁ κύριος, ἡ τροφὴ 1.6.43.3 τῶν νηπίων· ὁ κύριος πνεῦμα καὶ λόγος. Ἡ τροφή, τουτέστιν ὁ κύριος Ἰησοῦς, τουτέστιν ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, πνεῦμα σαρκούμενον, ἁγιαζομένη σὰρξ οὐράνιος. Ἡ τροφὴ τὸ γάλα τοῦ πατρός, ᾧ μόνῳ τιτθευόμεθα οἱ νήπιοι. Αὐτὸς γοῦν ὁ ἠγαπημένος καὶ τροφεὺς ἡμῶν λόγος τὸ αὐτοῦ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐξ1.6.43.4 έχεεν αἷμα, σῴζων τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα· δι' οὗ πεπιστευκότες εἰς τὸν θεὸν ἐπὶ