Various Forms

'Et circuibat,' inquit, 'Jesus castella in circuitu docens.' Audistis, quemadmodum circuit, quemadmodum te et propter te ubique pietas indefessa perquirit. Et ille qui capit ipse omnia, nec ab ulla capitur ipse creatura, intrat, et tuo angustatur in corpore, tuis in habitaculis se coaretat. Et ille eujus majestatem vox fidelium quotidiana testatur clamans: Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua, tuis propter te circuit, apparet, videtur, et tenetur in locis. Quo se movet immobilis plenitudo: quo accedit, vel unde recedit, quo sunt plena omnia? Et tamen vadit, reddit, descendit, ascendit, et totum te, et propter te homo Deus patitur, quia te nimis diligit, nimis amat. Habitas suscepit, formas variat, commutat officia: et nunc igneus tibi resplendet in rubo, ut perfidia te frigidum fidei calore succendat; nunc elucescit coelesti flammeus in columna, ut remotis ignorantiae tuae tenebris, per solitudines mundi hujus, viam possis scientiae percurrere salutaris; nunc idem tibi nubis vertitur columnam, ut ardentes tuorum temperet aestus animorum: nunc te ut aquila protegit pennis sapientiae, et coelestem provocet ad volatum, dicente Moyse: 'Sicut aquila protegit nidum suum, et super pullos suos confidit, extendens alas sua acceptit eos, et suscepit eos super scapulas suas. Dominus solus lucebat eos et non erat cum eis Deus alienus.' Nunc sicut gallina educit, ducit, vocat, recipit, protegit, portat, fovet, ambit, amplectitur, et sui volatus oblita, suae temporaliter immemor liberatatis, tuis in penetralibus, tuo versatur in pulvere, ut te vernaculis, familiaribus, domesticis alat, erudiat, instituat nutrimentis, nunc ut pastor bonus altissimis errantem solus requirit in montibus, solus invenit, solus suis humeris imponit, et ne amplius in terrenis pascuis luporum morsibus pervadaris, coelestes evehit et perducit ad caulas. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo CLXX

'And Jesus went around,' he says, 'teaching in the villages.' You have heard that he went around, that  on account of weariless piety he sought you everywhere. He who holds all things, and whom no created thing holds, enters into your body, narrowing himself , compressing himself into your little dwelling. That majesty which the voice of the faithful daily cries out: 'Full are heaven and earth of your glory', on account of you went around your places. He appeared, he was seen, he was held to stay. To where does his immovable plenitude move? Where does he approach or withdraw from, all things being full of him? He goes, he returns, he descends, he ascends and the whole you, and on account of you, man, God suffers, because he values you so, because he loves you so. He has taken up a condition, he has varied form, he has changed offices. Now he blazes for you a fire in the bush, that your cold distrust be warmed with the heat of faith; now he glows a fire in a column of heaven that the darkness of your ignorance be removed, that through the desert of the world you are able to pursue the way of knowledge of your salvation; now for you he turns into a pillar of cloud that he temper the sweltering heat of your souls; now like an eagle he guards you with the wings of wisdom, and calls you to heavenly flight, with Moses saying, 'As the eagle guards its nest and is confident over its young, and extending its wings it takes them up and places them on its shoulders. The Lord alone shone on them and there was no strange God with them.' Now like a hen he draws out, he leads, he calls, he receives, he protects, he carries, he favours, he surrounds, he embraces, and his flight forgotten, not mindful of his own temporal liberty, into your innermost heart, into your dust, he wanders, that you with domestic familiar native setting he fledge, he instructs,  he institutes a regimen, now he is the good shepherd alone seeking the wanderer in the high mountains, alone he finds, alone he places on his shoulders, and that no more you wander through earthly fields prey to the jaws of wolves, he carries you away and leads you to the sheepfold. Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 170