The Word, leaving his Father in heaven, came down to be joined to his Wife, and slept in the trace of his Passion, and willingly suffered death for her, that he might present the Church to himself, glorious and blameless, having cleansed her by the laver, for the receiving of the spiritual and blessed seed which is sown by him who, with whispers, implants it in the depths of the mind, and is conceived and formed by the Church, as by a woman, so as to give birth and nourishment to virtue. For in this way, too, the command "Increase and multiply" is duly fulfilled, the Church increasing daily in greatness and beauty and multitude by the union and communion of the Word who now still comes down to us and falls into a trance by the Memorial of his Passion.
Methodius: Banquet of the Ten Virgins.
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