1 A Canticle in steps: of Solomon. Unless the Lord has built the house, those who build it have labored in vain. Unless the Lord has guarded the city, he who guards it watches in vain.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "When the Lord turned back the captivity of Sion, we became as those that are comforted" [Psalm 126:1]. He meant by this to say, we became joyful. When? "When the Lord turned back the captivity of Sion." What is Sion? Jerusalem, the same is also the eternal Sion. How is Sion eternal, how is Sion captive? In angels eternal, in men captive.
2 It is in vain that you rise before daylight, that you rise up after you have sat down, you who chew the bread of sorrow. Whereas, to his beloved, he will give sleep.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 The Lord our God has granted, to whom we give thanks together, that we might see you and be seen by you. And if this is why our mouth is filled with joy and our tongue with exultation because we have seen each other in mortal flesh, what will our joy be like when we see each other where we fear nothing of each other? The Apostle says: Rejoicing in hope.
3 Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward is the fruit of the womb.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Yea, the Lord has done great things for us already, whereof we rejoice" [Psalm 126:3]. Consider, my brethren, if Sion does not at present say this among the heathen, throughout the whole world; consider if men are not running unto the Church. In the whole world our redemption is received; Amen is answered.
4 Like arrows in the hand of the powerful, so are the sons of those who have been cast out.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Turn our captivity, O Lord, as the torrents in the south" (ver. 4). Consider, my brethren, what this meaneth. ...As torrents are turned in the south, so turn our captivity. In a certain passage Scripture saith, in admonishing us concerning good works, "Thy sins also shall melt away, even as the ice in fair warm weather." Our sins therefore bound us. How?
5 Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from these things. He will not be confounded when he speaks to his enemies at the gate.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 "Blessed are they who weep, for they shall laugh." They, therefore, who spend the days of their life, which is already at its consummation and declining toward its setting, in weeping for their sins, these will be glad in that true morning that is approaching. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy," of course, in the future.
Caesarius of Arles · AD 542 Let no one believe that he possesses any happiness or true joy in this world. Happiness can be prepared for, but it cannot be possessed here. Two times succeed each other in their own order, "a time to weep, and a time to laugh." Let no one deceive himself, brethren; there is no time to laugh in this world.
Bernard of Clairvaux · AD 1153 Whoever among you therefore, after those bitter and tearful beginnings of his conversion, rejoices that he has breathed again into hope and, lifted up on the wings of grace, has flown forth into a certain serenity of heavenly consolation; he indeed already reaps, receiving the temporal fruit of his tears; and he himself has seen God and has heard the voice of him who says: Give…