ACC ~ Mark 6 v43

THE FEAST OF THE CREATOR

PRUDENTIUS:

The banquet ended, plates still overflow,

And with the crumbs twelve baskets then they fill.

The stuffed boy strives with undigested fare,

The waiter groans beneath his heavy load.

Who can a great feast spread from stores so few?

Who but the maker of our frame and all

That nurtures it, who shaped the world from nought?

Almighty God without the aid of seed

Fashioned the earth, not as the sculptor works

To lift the block of bronze from metal fused.

All that now is was nought: that nothing-ness

Was into being brought and bidden grow.

Small was the first creation, but it grew

Till it became the mighty universe.

Therefore, when I behold that meager fare

Thus multiplied within the hands of Christ,

Can I doubt that the elemental forms

First made by him from nothing, by degrees

Have grown to that perfection we now see?

Lest fragments should be trodden on and lost,

When men had fed, or should become the spoil

Of wolves or foxes or of petty mice,

Twelve men were charged to heap in baskets full

The gifts of Christ to keep and spread afar.

A HYMN ON THE TRINITY.[1]

Mk

[1]Cetedoc 1439, 712; FC 52:28-29**. The one we meet in the breaking of bread is the creator and redeemer of all.