⁸If the offering should be one made to all the guests jointly,[126] take your portion from your host [and depart]. ⁹But if all are to eat then and there, do not eat to excess, so that your host may likewise send some of what the saints leave to whomsoever he will and [so] may rejoice in the faith. ¹⁰But while the guests are eating, let them eat silently, not arguing, [attending to][127] such things as the bishop may teach, but if he should ask any question, let an answer be given him; and when he says anything, everyone in modest praise shall keep silence until he asks again. ¹¹And even if the bishop should be absent when the faithful meet at a supper, if a presbyter or a deacon is present they shall eat in a similar orderly fashion, and each shall be careful[128] to take the blessed bread from the presbyter’s or deacon’s hand; and in the same way the catechumens shall take the same exorcised bread. ¹²But if [only] laymen meet, let them not act presumptuously, for a layman cannot bless the blessed bread.[129] ¹³Let each one eat in the name of the Lord; for this is pleasing to the Lord that we should be jealous [of our good name] even among the heathen, all sober alike.[130] 27. ¹If anyone wishes to give a meal to widows of mature years, let him dismiss them before evening. ²But if, on account of existing conditions,[131] he cannot [feed them in his house], let him send them away, and they may eat of his food at their homes in any way they please. 28. ¹As soon as first-fruits appear, all shall hasten to offer them to the bishop. ²And he shall offer them, shall give thanks and shall name him who offered them, saying: ³We give thee thanks, O God, and we offer thee the first-fruits; which thou hast given us to enjoy, nourishing them through thy word, commanding the earth to bring forth her fruits for the gladness and the food of men and all beasts. ⁴For all these things we praise thee, O God, and for all things wherewith thou hast blessed us, who for us adornest every creature with divers fruits. ⁵Through thy Servant Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom be to thee glory, world without end. Amen. ⁶Only certain fruits may be blessed, namely grapes, the fig, the pomegranate, the olive, the pear, the apple, the mulberry, the peach, the cherry, the almond, the plum. ⁷Not the pumpkin, nor the melon, nor the cucumber, nor the onion nor garlic nor anything else having an odour. ⁸But sometimes flowers too are offered; here the rose and the lily may be offered, but no other.