breastfeeding

¹⁰Rejoice with Jerusalem, and exult in her, all you who love her! Rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her! ¹¹So may you nurse and be filled, from the breasts of her consolations. So may you receive milk and overflow with delights, from every portion of her glory. ¹²For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will turn a river of peace toward her, with an inundating torrent: the glory of the Gentiles, from which you will nurse. You will be carried at the breasts, and they will caress you upon the knees. ¹³In the manner of one whom a mother caresses, so will I console you. And you will be consoled in Jerusalem.

²⁷And it happened that, when he was saying these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.”

²Like newborn infants, desire the milk of reasonableness without guile, so that by this you may increase unto salvation,

³GHIMEL. Yet even savages expose their breast and give milk to their young. But the daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostrich in the desert.

¹⁶Gather the people, sanctify the church, unite the elders, gather together the little ones and infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom depart from his bed, and the bride from her bridal chamber.

²⁵The God of your father will be your helper, and the Almighty will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the abyss that lies beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

¹⁵Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to take pity on the child of her womb? But even if she would forget, still I shall never forget you.

¹⁰For you are the one who has drawn me out of the womb, my hope from the breasts of my mother.

⁷And although we could have been a burden to you, as Apostles of Christ, instead we became like little ones in your midst, like a nurse cherishing her children.

⁸And the boy grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning.

²¹Now her husband Elkanah ascended with his entire house, so that he might immolate to the Lord a solemn sacrifice, with his vow. ²²But Hannah did not go up. For she said to her husband, “I will not go, until the infant has been weaned, and until I may lead him, so that he may appear before the sight of the Lord, and may remain always there.” ²³And her husband Elkanah said to her: “Do what seems good to you, and stay until you wean him. And I pray that the Lord may fulfill his word.” Therefore, the woman remained at home, and she breastfed her son, until she withdrew him from milk. ²⁴And after she had weaned him, she brought him with her, along with three calves, and three measures of flour, and a small bottle of wine, and she led him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. But the boy was still a young child.

¹⁴Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.

¹⁶And taking up the boy, Naomi placed him on her bosom, and she took on the duties of carrying him and nursing him.

²³And kings will be your caretakers, and queens will be your nursemaids. They will reverence you with their face to the ground, and they will lick the dust at your feet. And you will know that I am the Lord. For those who hope in him will not be confounded.

¹²For even though it is the time when you ought to be teachers, you are still lacking, so that you must be taught the things that are the basic elements of the Word of God, and so you have been made like those who are in need of milk, and not of solid food. ¹³For anyone who is still feeding on milk is still unskillful in the Word of Justice; for he is like an infant. ¹⁴But solid food is for those who are mature, for those who, by practice, have sharpened their mind, so as to discern good from evil.

⁷And again, she said: “Hearing this, who would believe Abraham, that Sarah breast-fed a son, to whom she gave birth, despite being elderly?”

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth: ¹⁹a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.

¹¹He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.

¹²Why was I received upon the knees? Why was I suckled at the breasts?

²⁶And as they were leading him away, they apprehended a certain one, Simon of Cyrene, as he was returning from the countryside. And they imposed the cross on him to carry after Jesus. ²⁷Then a great crowd of people followed him, with women who were mourning and lamenting him. ²⁸But Jesus, turning to them, said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me. Instead, weep over yourselves and over your children. ²⁹For behold, the days will arrive in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed.’ ³⁰Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall over us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ ³¹For if they do these things with green wood, what will be done with the dry?”