The river whose streams gladden
From a discourse on the psalms by Saint Hilary of Poitiers, bishop (d. c. 368)
The river whose streams gladden the city of God
The river of God is brimming with water. You have provided their food, for this is your way of preparing them. There can be no doubt about the river referred to, for the prophet says: There is a river whose streams gladden the city of God; and in the gospel the Lord himself says: Streams of living water welling up to eternal life will flow from the heart of anyone who drinks the water I shall give him. He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. The river of God is brimming with water; that is to say, we are inundated by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and from that fountain of life the river of God pours into us in a full flood.
We also have food prepared for us. And who is this food? It is he in whom we are prepared for life with God, for by receiving his holy body we receive a place in the communion of his holy body. This is what is meant by the words of the psalm: You have provided their food, for this is your way of preparing them. For as well as refreshing us now, that food also prepares us for the life to come.
We who have been reborn through the sacrament of baptism experience intense joy when we feel within us the first stirrings of the Holy Spirit. We begin to have an insight into the mysteries of faith, we are able to prophesy and to speak with wisdom. We become steadfast in hope and receive the gift of healing. Demons are made subject to our authority. These gifts enter us like a gentle rain, and once having done so, little by little, they bring forth fruit in abundance.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Hilary was born at Poitiers, Gaul, of a noble family. He was a convert from paganism to Christianity by his study of the Bible and was baptized when well on in years. He was elected bishop of Poitiers about 350. He actively opposed the Arian heresy and refused to attend a synod at Milan called by Emperor Constantius in 355 in which required the bishops present to sign a condemnation of St. Athanasius for his refutations against Arianism. Hilary refused and was condemned for his orthodoxy by the synod of Arian bishops at Beziers in 356. He was exiled by the Arian Emperor to Phrygia later that year. Hilary was so successful in exposing Arianism as a heresy at a council of Eastern bishops at Seleucia in 359 and in encouraging the clergy to resist the heresy that the Arians requested the Emperor to send him back to Gaul.
Hilary was instrumental in the excommunication of Arian Bishop Saturninus. In 361, the death of Constantius ended the Arian persecution of the Catholics. Hilary died at Poitiers in 368 leaving numerous treatises, notable among which were his De Trinitate written while he was in exile, De synodis, and Opus historicum. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1851.
Narrated by Frank Dugan