“In your bread is hidden the Spirit which cannot be eaten. / In your wine dwells the fire that cannot be drunk. / Spirit in your bread, fire in your wine: / It is a distinct wonder that our lips have received!”

Born in the year 306, Ephrem lived in Nisibis (in modern-day Turkey), at what was then the border between the Roman and Persian empires.

Ephrem was a deacon and a prolific writer. To this day, he remains among the most notable hymnographers in Eastern Christianity. He has been called, in fact, the lyre of the Holy Spirit, and in 1920 he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XV.

This short hymn is one of Ephrem’s Eucharistic hymns, also containing some resonance with Pentecost.

Links

St. Ephrem, Hymns on Faith: https://verbum.com/product/169347/the-hymns-on-faith

Ep. 28—Ephrem, Symbolist—Way of the Fathers with Mike Aquilina: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/27ephrem-symbolist/

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

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