Admiring The Clouds

Quid autem nos in vita sanctorum de nostra admiratione dicimus, cum ipsi quoque antiqui patres praedicatorum sanctae Ecclesiae vitam considerantes, valde admirati sunt? An non eorum vitam Psalmista admiratus est, cum dicebat: Mihi autem nimis honorati sunt amici tui, Deus, nimis confortatus est principatus eorum? Quod de quibus ejus amicis dicat Evangelium interroga, in quo Veritas praedicatoribus dicit: Vos amici mei estis. Isaias quoque eorum vitam intuens, ait: Qui sunt isti qui ut nubes volant, et quasi columbae ad fenestras suas? Recte autem praedicatores sancti nubes appellati sunt, quia verbis pluunt, miraculis coruscant. Qui volare quoque ut nubes dicuntur, quia et in terra viventes extra terram fuerunt per omne quod egerunt. Unde et per quamdam nubem dicitur: In carne enim ambulantes non secundum carnem militamus? Priores enim patres conjugiis utebantur, filios procreabant, substantias possidebant, curis rei familiaris intendebant. Istos autem per prophetiae jam spiritum praevidentes substantias deserere, conjugia non appetere, filios non procreare, nil in terra quaerere, nihil possidere, non eos per terram velut homines ambulantes, sed ut nubes volantes nominant. Volant etenim, quia mente ea quae sunt coelestia contemplantur. Qui terram quasi non tangunt, quia in ipsa nil appetunt. Qui et ad fenestras suas quasi columbae sunt, quia per mansuetudinis suae spiritum in hoc mundo per oculos nil concupiscunt. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber II, Homilia VI Source: Migne PL 76.1006c-d

But why do we speak of our own admiration for the life of the holy, when the fathers of old also, considering the life of the holy church, are extremely admiring? Is it not that the Psalmist has admired their life when he says, 'To me they have been excessively honoured, your friends, O God, greatly strengthened is their pre-eminence' 1 Concerning which friends, look to the Gospel in which the Truth says to His preachers: 'You are my friends.' 2 Isaiah also looks on their life, when he says: 'Who are these who are like clouds that fly, and as doves at their windows?' 3 And rightly are the preachers named holy clouds, because they give forth a rain of words and they flash with miracles. And they are also said to fly like clouds because though living on the earth, they were beyond the earth by everything they did. Whence as a certain cloud it is said: 'Walking in the flesh, but not fighting according to the flesh.' 4 The fathers of old made use of marriage, they sired sons, they possessed property, they looked to the cares of their family. But the later ones, through the spirit of prophecy, are foreseen as those who neglect possessions, who have no desire for marriage, who do not sire sons, who seek nothing in the earth, who claim nothing, who do not walk as men do on the earth, but are referred to as flying clouds. And indeed they fly, because with their minds they contemplate heavenly things. And they are as those who do not touch the earth, because they have no care for anything in it. And they are even as doves at their windows, because by the spirit of their meekness through their eyes they desire nothing in the world. Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 2, from Homily 6 1 Ps 138.17 2 Jn 15.14 3 Isaiah 60.8 4 2 Cor 10.3