Faith And Mountains

Qui confidunt in Domino, sicut mons Sion : non commovebitur in aeternum, qui habitat in Jerusalem. Fides quae ad Deum est, stabilem facit vitam nec ullis tentationibus moveri potest, qui supra firmam petram suam construit domum. Quis est mons Sion nisi Christus, qui est in vertice montium, et elevabitur super colles, et fluent ad eum omnes gentes? Sion est Ecclesia, in qua speculum vitae et aeternitatis visio, cujus caput est Christus. Ecce quaerit iste ascensor spiritalium graduum, qualis sit ista Jerusalem, in qua sanctorum chorus habitat, et respondetur ei: Montes in circuitu ejus, et Dominus in circuitu populi sui, ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum. Isti montes sunt angeli, sunt prophetae, et praedicatores sancti, qui muniunt istam Jerusalem. Et ne hoc tibi parvum videretur, quod tales montes habet in circuitu, statim subjunxit: Et Dominus in circuitu populi sui. Ecce quales habemus muros, quales munitiones, quales defensores! Maneamus intra septa Jerusalem, et non timeamus insidias diaboli, nec sagittas ejus, tales habentes defensores; et hoc non ad tempus, sed in aeternum, ideo dicit: Ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum. Alcuinus, Expositio in Psalmos Graduales, Psalmus CXXIV Source: Migne PL 100.626a-c

They who trust in the Lord are like mount Sion. He who dwells in Jerusalem shall never be moved. 1 Faith in God makes life firm, and he who has established his house on His rock cannot be shaken by any trial. 2 Who is mount Sion but Christ, who is on the peak of the mountain, and is lifted up over the hills, and all the peoples flow to him? 3 Sion is the Church, in which is the mirror of life and the vision of eternity, and of which Christ is the head. Note that he who goes up the spiritual steps asks what this Jerusalem is in which the chorus of the saints dwell, and he is answered, Mountains encircle it, and the Lord is around his people, now and forever. These mountains are the angels and the prophets, and the holy preachers, who make the walls of this Jerusalem. And lest it seem to be a little thing to you, that such mountains surround it, immediately he adds, 'And the Lord is around His people.' Behold what walls we have, what bastions, what defenders. Let us remain in the boundaries of Jerusalem, and let us not fear the plots of the devil, nor his shafts, since we have such great defenders, and not only for a time but forever, and therefore it says, 'now and forever.' Alcuin of York, Commentary on the Gradual Psalms, from Psalm 124 1 Ps 124.1 2 Mt 7.24-27 3 Isaiah 2.2