Bible in a Year with Fr Paul

[Not only by reason of wealth] but also because of political honors do people exalt themselves beyond what is due their nature.… The position they occupy is entirely out of keeping with reason, for they possess a glory more unsubstantial than a dream. They are surrounded with a splendor more unreal than the phantoms of the night, since it comes into being or is swept away at the nod of the populac...

In the previous chapters the Scripture related the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh and did not rebuke him because she was the one wife only who did not secretly practice the religion of her homeland and was no reason of offense for him. But later he took other wives, so that the holy Scripture justly condemned both the previous marriage and these new ones. And there were four reas...

You also therefore should ask nothing worldly, but all things spiritual, and you will surely receive. For so Solomon, because he asked what he ought, behold, how quickly he received. Two things now, you see, should be in one who prays: asking earnestly and asking what he ought, “since you too,” said he, “though you are parents, wait for your children to ask; and if they should ask of you anything...

Another Solomon is signified here: one who is also descended from the seed of David according to the flesh, one whose name means peace, the true king of Israel and builder of God’s temple. This other Solomon comprehends the knowledge of all things. His wisdom is infinite and his very essence is wisdom, truth, as well as every exalted, divine name and thought. [Christ] used Solomon as an instrument...

However, in [David’s] son Solomon libido was not a passing guest; it reigned as a king. Scripture does not pass this over in silence but blames him as a lover of women. His beginnings were redolent with the desire for wisdom; when he had obtained it through spiritual love, he lost it through carnal love—St Augustine

They have been appointed to this, that is, to this made human beings by nature, that they may believe God and obey his will, as Solomon attests when he says, “Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is [the duty of] every human being.” That is, every human being has been naturally made for this purpose, that he may fear God and obey his commandments—The Venerable Bede

“We do not know how to pray as we ought.” [ Rom 8:26 .] He is not so much talking [about prayer] at this point as issuing a command not to theologize thoughtlessly. Indeed, anyone who belongs to this material world and whose thoughts have their origin in this world cannot speak about God without error—or on other matters that elude the senses. That is why he says, “And let your words be few,” that...

But let us philosophize within our proper bounds and not be carried away into Egypt, nor be swept down into Assyria, nor sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. [ Psa 137:4 (136:4 LXX).] By this I mean before any kind of audience, strangers or kindred, hostile or friendly, kindly or the reverse, who watch what we do with great care, and would like the spark of what is wrong in us to become a flame...

The queen of Sheba was a type of our church. She came from her distant land to king Solomon, the church came together from the four regions of the world to Christ. What [the queen] ignored, she learned from Solomon, and she went back to her land with many gifts. Here the mystery which had remained hidden for centuries and generations was finally revealed: after she had been taught to despise earth...

Now notice that Solomon did not only pray for his people but also for the foreigners and the strangers who distrusted the nation of Israel and were often hostile to it, so that the son of David might show the God of David to everyone in general, by praying for his enemies and by speaking ahead of time for us those future words: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute...

Wings when used as a figure of holy people signify their virtues whereby they delight in always flying to heavenly things and passing their lives in preoccupation with these things. But when wings are used to signify angels, what do they more aptly demonstrate than the grace of perpetual and unfailing happiness of those who persevere continually in heavenly things in the service of their Creator?...

These thousands of men employed in the cutting and transportation of the wooden beams and the stones signify the thousands of thousands of assistant spirits sent for our salvation. In the first place, [we see that] God ordered his angels to cut from the rock of the world and to polish and direct accurately the souls of the saints.… Second, in this same symbol, we can observe the toils of the saint...

Thus, here also it calls him a new child who was reborn through the washing of regeneration and educated and made childlike, who is made fit for the kingdom of heaven through this process in the same way. The book of Proverbs, therefore, provides training which imparts perception and understanding to the recently born child who is hungry for rational and genuine milk: a perception of present reali...

For indeed a person who loses by daily distractions of mind and lack of self control what he appears to gain by the conversion of others puts his profits into a bag with holes. And so it is that while they fancy that they can make larger profits by the instruction of others, they are actually deprived of their own improvement. For “there are who make themselves out as rich though possessing nothin...

I know why it is written: “Wealth will not profit in the day of wrath.” This was said about the one who does not employ his wealth for mercy. Is not the power of wealth to be brought forth and used at a time of need? At the hour in which you return your spirit to the hands of God, you will understand that the full utility of your riches is to use them for the sake of mercy. For they were given to...

“Wisdom has built her house, and has set seven pillars.” Since wisdom is the Son of God, once he became man he built his house, that is, the flesh from the Virgin—St John Chrysostom

A proverb is a saying that, under the guise of physical things, signifies intelligible things—Evagrius of Pontus

The two women indicate to us the church and the synagogue. The latter, after it tried to suppress the sacrament of human redemption and persecuted and killed the Redeemer through false accusations, claims, nevertheless, that its child should still be alive, that is, that the Jewish people should still be pleasing and acceptable to God and that he should give eternal life to the Mosaic law, which i...

However, with the other class of unbelievers who either believe that there is no divine power or that it has nothing to do with human affairs, I am not sure that an argument should be undertaken on any subject of dutiful devotion, although hardly anyone can be found nowadays who is so foolish as to dare to say even in his own heart, “There is no God.” [ Psa 14:1 (13:1 LXX, Vg.).] But other fools a...

As a further proof of your [Trypho the Jew, whom Justin is trying to convert to Christianity in this dialogue.] ignorance of the Scripture, I am going to quote another psalm, dedicated to David by the Holy Spirit, which you erroneously think refers to your king Solomon but which in reality refers to Christ. One cause of your error is that you are misled by the false interpretation of equivocal ter...

“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith.” [ Heb 13:7 .] Emperors have not preached the word to you, but apostles and prophets, shepherds and teachers. When God gave commands to David concerning the house David intended to build for him, he said to him, “You may not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior an...

“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the turtledove a nest in which she puts her young.” For the present, let us be satisfied with a simple interpretation. Notice all that the verse implies: I long, O Lord, for your eternal dwelling places; my soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord; I long for some place to dwell, a nest for my soul and my body. The birds that fly about to and fro with no...

Do not flee what you do not need to flee, and do not have recourse to him to whom it is unnecessary. But one thing you must flee: sin; and one refuge from evil must be sought: God. Do not trust in princes; do not be exalted in the uncertainty of wealth; do not be proud of bodily strength; do not pursue the splendor of human glory. None of these things saves you; all are transient, all are deceptiv...

David set up these sections in such a way that the individual high priests, along with the priests who were under them, should minister for eight successive days, that is, from sabbath to sabbath. (2 Chr. 23:8) And although all in the priestly class were equal, yet one of them who seemed to be more worthy of special reverence and more outstanding and in power was to have the name of “high priest.”...

Because he was a man of blood—the reference is not, as some think, to his wars, but to the murder [of Uriah]—he was not permitted to build a temple of the Lord—St Jerome