Fathers

Psalms 120

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In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me. Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 120:6

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"My soul hath wandered much" [Psalm 120:6]. Lest thou shouldest understand bodily wandering, he hath said that the soul wandered. The body wandereth in places, the soul wandereth in its affections. If thou love the earth, thou wanderest from God: if thou lovest God, thou risest unto God. Let us be exercised in the love of God, and of our neighbour, that we may return unto charity. If we fall towards the earth, we wither and decay. But one descended unto this one who had fallen, in order that he might arise. …

Exposition on Psalm 120 ↗

Jerome

With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they attacked me without cause. Unhappy we, we cannot restrain our tongue, we cannot help slandering the brethren. If someone offends us, we as it were present a peaceful face, but for the rest the heart has poison. We are called monks, and although we are not such as we ought to be, yet we are so called. At the third hour we pray, at the sixth hour we pray, at the ninth, we hold the lamp-lighting, at midnight we rise, then at cockcrow we pray. …

Homily 41, on Psalm 119 ↗

Bonaventure

Which peace our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed and gave; of whose preaching our father Francis was a renewer, announcing peace at the beginning and end of every sermon, wishing peace in every greeting, sighing for ecstatic peace in every contemplation, like a citizen of that Jerusalem, of which that man of peace speaks, who was peaceable with those who hated peace: Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. …

Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Prologue ↗