If then the Word of God is quick and energising Heb. iv. 12., and the Lord did all that He willed Ps. cxxxv. 6.; if He said, Let there be light and there was light, let there be a firmament and there was a firmament Gen. i. 3 and 6.; if the heavens were established by the Word of the Lord and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth Ps. xxxiii. 6.; if the heaven and the earth, water and fire and air and the whole glory of these, and, in sooth, this most noble creature, man, were perfected by the Word of the Lord; if God the Word of His own will became man and the pure and undefiled blood of the holy and ever-virginal One made His flesh without the aid of seed Text, καὶ τὰ τῆς...καθαρὰ καὶ ἀμώμητα αἵματα ἑαυτῷ. Variant, καὶ ἐκ τῶν τῆς...καθαρῶν καὶ ἀμωμήτων αἱμάτων ἑαυτῳ., can He not then make the bread His body and the wine and water His blood? He said in the beginning, Let the earth bring forth grass Gen. i. 11., and even until this present day, when the rain comes it brings forth its proper fruits, urged on and strengthened by the divine command. God said, This is My body, and This is My blood, and this do ye in remembrance of Me. And so it is at His omnipotent command until He come: for it was in this sense that He said until He come: and the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit becomes through the invocation the rain to this new tillage Iren.,bk. iv., ch. 35; Fulg., Ad Monim., bk. ii., ch. 6; Chrys., De prod. Judæ; Greg. Nyss., Catech., &c.. For just as God made all that He made by the energy of the Holy Spirit, so also now the energy of the Spirit performs those things that are supernatural and which it is not possible to comprehend unless by faith alone. How shall this be, said the holy Virgin, seeing I know not a man? And the archangel Gabriel answered her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee St. Luke i. 34, 35.. And now you ask, how the bread became Christ’s body and the wine and water Christ’s blood. And I say unto thee, “The Holy Spirit is present and does those things which surpass reason and thought.”