Archeologists have dug up evidence of half the resources that filled the Promised Land with milk and honey: beekeeping. That phrase, “milk and honey,” had an interesting effect on early Catholic liturgy. At Easter Vigil, new Christians, as a sign of their entry into the Kingdom, received a chalice of milk and honey along with the sacraments — a custom that has wide attestation (Hippolytus, Tertullian, Jerome, maybe pseudo-Barnabas, and many others). It seems to have lasted in some places till the late seventh century.

I hasten to add that I’m not advocating a retrieval of the practice! Pope Pius XII warned against an “exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism,” and I say amen to that. I’m all for ressourcement; but part of that process should be an appreciation of the wisdom of our Fathers in retiring some very ancient practices — like, perhaps, chalices of milk and honey — and the office of deaconess?

(The custom comes up for discussion in my book The Mass of the Early Christians.)