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Benedictus PP. XV Spiritus paraclitus IntraText CT - Text |
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67. Immense, then, was the profit Jerome derived from reading
Scripture; hence came those interior illuminations whereby he was ever more and
more drawn to knowledge and love of Christ; hence, too, that love of prayer of
which he has written so well; hence his wonderful familiarity with Christ,
Whose sweetness drew him so that he ran unfalteringly along the arduous way of
the Cross to the palm of victory. Hence, too, his ardent love for the Holy
Eucharist: "Who is wealthier than he who carries the Lord's Body in his
wicker basket, the Lord's Blood in his crystal vessel?"[128]
Hence, too, his love for Christ's Mother, whose perpetual virginity he had so
keenly defended, whose title as God's Mother and as the greatest example of all
the virtues he constantly set before Christ's spouses for their imitation.[129]
No one, then, can wonder that Jerome should have been so powerfully drawn to
those spots in Palestine which had been consecrated by the presence of our
Redeemer and His Mother. It is easy to recognize the hand of Jerome in the
words written from Bethlehem to Marcella by his disciples, Paula and
Eustochium: Filled with memories such as these, Jerome could, while far away from Rome and leading a life hard for the body but inexpressibly sweet to the soul, cry out: "Would that Rome had what tiny Bethlehem possesses!"[131]
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128. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum, 125, 20, 4. 129. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 38, 3. 130. Id., Epist. Paula et Eustochium ad Marcellam, 46, 11, 13. 131. Id., Epist. ad Furiam, 54, 13, 6. |
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