Dear brothers, listen to my words about a matter very important: quench the thirst of your spirit with water from the divine spring, but do not satisfy it! Drink, but in such a way that you remain eager. The living spring calls us to itself, the source of life, saying: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink!” (…) He drinks from it who loves; he drinks who is nourished by the word of God. He who loves much has a great desire. He drinks who burns with love for wisdom.
Look where that spring flows from. Surely from where the bread also descends. After all, the bread and the spring are one and the same. This spring belongs to the thirsty, not to the satisfied. And therefore it calls the hungry – whom he has elsewhere declared blessed –, who always drink and never have enough, but the more they drink, the more they thirst.
(Columban of Bobbio /540–615/, Instruction on Christ the source of life)
