John Chrysostom: Place the Honycomb of Scripture on the Dinner Table

For your part, for the time being hold on to what was said, remember it, and teach it to those who have not heard it. Let everyone meditate on it in church, in the marketplace and at home; nothing is sweeter than attention to the divine sayings. Listen, at any rate, to what the inspired author says of this, "Your sayings are like honey in my throat, better than honey and the honeycomb in my mouth." So place this honeycomb on your table at evening so as to fill it completely with spiritual sweetness. Have you not noticed how affluent people bring in harpists and flute players after the meal? They turn their house into an auditorium; for your part turn your house into heaven, doing so not by altering the walls or changing the foundations, but by inviting the Lord of heaven to your table. God is not ashamed to be at such meals: in that setting there is spiritual teaching, there also sobriety, gravity and simplicity, there husband and wife and children, harmony and friendship, people linked by the bonds of virtue, there in the midst is Christ.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Sermon 8 on Genesis, in St. John Chrysostom, Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, pp. 142-43 (2004), Robert C. Hill translator.