Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector.

SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs.

The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below.

A Lesson from the Song of Songs, 1.15

Behold, you are beautiful, my friend; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are those of doves. Behold, You are beautiful, my love, and comely. Your couch is full of flowers. The beams of our houses are of cedar, our paneled ceilings of cypress wood.

A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede

When the Bride hears that a two-fold beauty has been brought together in her by the Lord, she then responds with a devout voice: “Behold, you a beautiful, my love, and comely,” as if she should say openly, “Surely whatever I possess of beauty, simplicity, and spiritual grace I have doubtless receive through Your generosity, by which I have come to possess both the remission of sins and the ability to do good. But You are truly beautiful and comely beyond compare, You Who are God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, and when the time for my redemption arrived you were conceived and born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, not only free from every stain of sin but also full of grace and truth, and You came into the world and lived in the world, and to all those who partake of Your grace You have even granted that they might also share in the virtues of Your beauty. Therefore you are beautiful and comely, that is, admirable both in the eternity of Your divine nature and in the dignity of the humanity that You assumed.”

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