Vows And Value

Tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Omnia autem superstitionum genera quae extra religionem Dei sint condemnat. Plures enim sunt in demersissimo erroris profundo locati, qui doctrinae suae perversitatem quadam inanis laboris probitate commendent. Cernimus namque nudis philosophos corporibus algere: ipso etiam conjugiorum usu magistri abstinent: haeretici sicco panis cibo vivunt. Sed qui tandem otiosi hujus propositi profectus est? totum hoc inane atque ridiculum est, et cum ipsis superstitionis causis miserabile. Deo ergo vovenda sunt contemptus corporis, castitatis custodia, jejunii tolerantia. Atque ideo ait: Et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Vota enim tantum ecclesiasticae religionis utilia sunt. Quae cum et dignis Deo cantionibus, et propositae in Ecclesia observantiae studio probabuntur, tum digni erimus pro quibus Deum sanctus Spiritus interpellet. Idem namque per Prophetam loquitur, et docet. Ipse autem, secundum Apostolum, pro nobis inenarrabilibus gemitibus interpellat. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum LXIV Source: Migne PL 9.414b-c

And a vow shall be paid to you in Jerusalem 1 He condemns every type of belief which is outside the religion of God, for there are many deeply sunk in error who by some perversity of their own teaching commend the good of vain labours. For we see the shivering of the naked bodies of philosophers, and that they abstain from the bonds of marriage, and that heretics live on dry bread, but who is improved by these useless resolutions? There are utterly vain and ridiculous and wretched on account of the causes of their beliefs. Contempt of the body, and guardianship of chastity, and endurance of fasts must be vowed to God, and thus he says, 'And a vow shall be paid to you in Jerusalem,' for only the vows of the holy Church are useful, which when approved by songs worthy of God and the zeal of the observance established in the Church, shall make us worthy of the Holy Spirit's crying out to God for us. For this is spoken and taught through the prophet as it is according to the Apostle, that He shall cry out for us with inexpressible groans. 2 Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 64 1 Ps 64.2 2 Rom 8.26