Augustine of Hippo

But thou who both hast sons, and livest in that end of the world, wherein now is the time not of casting stones, but of gathering; not of embracing, but of abstaining from embracing; when the Apostle cries out, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short; it remains, that both they who have wives be as not having;" assuredly if thou hadst sought a second marriage, it would have been no obedience of prophecy or law, no carnal desire even of family, but a mark of incontinence alone. …

On The Good Of Widowhood 11 ↗

Jerome

"A time for dispersing stones and a time for collecting stones." I marvel how an learned man could have said this ridiculous note about this passage: "this passage speaks about the destruction and killing of Solomon's houses, because men first destroy, then build". Some amass stones to construct buildings, others destroy those buildings which have been erected, according to Horace's lines "he demolished, he builds, exchanges squares with wheels, he fluctuates and disagrees with the whole order of life itself." [Horat. Epist. I. I. …

Commentary on Ecclesiastes ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

According to Solomon's words, there is "a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them." Because the end of the world presses upon us, it is necessary to gather living stones for the heavenly building, in order to make our Jerusalem grow to its full stature.

Dialogues, Book 3, Chapter 37 ↗