Note: these excerpt threads are subject to continual revision and updating as opportunity and priority permits

Harp and Bowl: Intercessory Worship with the Word & Restoration of the Tabernacle of David

Pliny the Younger: "They asserted however that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a God..."  Letters 10:96

Philo of Alexandria: "And in every house there is a sacred shrine which is called the holy place and the monastery in which they retire by themselves and perform all the mysteries of a holy life bringing in nothing neither meat nor drink nor anything else which is indispensable towards supplying the necessities of the body but studying in that place the laws and the sacred oracles of god enunciated by the holy prophets and hymns and psalms and all kinds of other things by reason of which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to perfection... They have also writings of ancient men who having been the founders of one sect or another have left behind them many memorials of the allegorical system of writing and explanation whom they take as a kind of model and imitate the general fashion of their sect so that they do not occupy themselves solely in contemplation but likewise compose psalms and hymns to god in every kind of metre and melody imaginable which they of necessity arrange in more dignified rhythm... |  And these explanations of the sacred scriptures are delivered by mystic expressions in allegories for the whole of the law appears to these men to resemble a living animal and its express commandments seem to be the body and the invisible meaning concealed under and lying beneath the plain words resembles the soul in which the rational soul begins most excellently to contemplate what belongs to itself as in a mirror beholding in these very words the exceeding beauty of the sentiments and unfolding and explaining the symbols and bringing the secret meaning naked to the light to all who are able by the light of a slight intimation to perceive what is unseen by what is visible..." [25-29|78] On The Contemplative Life

Athanasius of Alexandria: "It seems to me moreover that because the psalms thus serve him who sings them as a mirror wherein he sees himself and his own soul he cannot help but render them in such a manner that their words go home with equal force to those who hear him sing and stir them also to a like reaction... every other psalm is spoken and composed by the spirit in the selfsame way just as in a mirror the movements of our own souls are reflected in them and the words are indeed our very own given us to serve both as a reminder of our changes of condition and as a pattern and model for the amendment of our lives... we must not omit to explain the reason why words of this kind should be not merely said but rendered with melody and song for there are actually some simple folk among us who though they believe the words to be inspired yet think the reason for singing them is just to make them more pleasing to the ear... those who do sing as I have indicated so that the melody of the words springs naturally from the rhythm of the soul and her own union with the spirit sing with the tongue and with the understanding also and greatly benefit not themselves alone but also those who want to listen... the priests by their singing contributed towards the calming of the people's spirits and helped to unite them with those who lead the heavenly choir... must be sung and chanted in entire simplicity just as they are written so that the holy men who gave them to us recognizing their own words may pray with us yes and even more that the spirit who spoke by the saints recognizing the selfsame words that he inspired may join us in them too for as the saints' lives are lovelier than any others so too their words are better than ever ours can be and of much more avail provided only they be uttered from a righteous heart..." Letter to Marcellinus - On The Psalms

Saint John Cassian: "And thriving on this pasture continually he will take in to himself all the thoughts of the psalms and will begin to sing them in such a way that he will utter them with the deepest emotion of heart not as if they were the compositions of the psalmist but rather as if they were his own utterances and his very own prayer and will certainly take them as aimed at himself and will recognize that their words were not only fulfilled formerly by or in the person of the prophet but are fulfilled and carried out daily in his own case. For then the holy scriptures lie open to us with greater clearness and as it were their very veins and marrow are exposed when our experience not only perceives but actually anticipates their meaning and the sense of the words is revealed to us not by an exposition of them but by practical proof. For if we have experience of the very state of mind in which each psalm was sung and written we become like their authors and anticipate the meaning rather than follow it. Gathering the force of the words before we really know them we remember what has happened to us and what is happening in daily assaults when the thoughts of them come over us and while we sing them we call to mind all that our carelessness has brought upon us or our earnestness has secured or divine providence has granted or the promptings of the foe have deprived us of or slippery and subtle forgetfulness has carried off or human weakness has brought about or thoughtless ignorance has cheated us of. For all these feelings we find expressed in the psalms so that by seeing whatever happens as in a very clear mirror we understand it better and so instructed by our feelings as our teachers we lay hold of it as something not merely heard but actually seen and as if it were not committed to memory but implanted in the very nature of things we are affected from the very bottom of the heart so that we get at its meaning not by reading the text but by experience anticipating it. And so our mind will reach that incorruptible prayer..." [10:11] Conferences - 2nd Conference of Abbot Isaac - On Prayer

Augustine of Hippo: "I shall not however follow the Septuagint translators who being themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their translation seem to have altered some passages with the view of directing the reader's attention more particularly to the investigation of the spiritual sense and hence some passages are more obscure because more figurative in their translation but shall follow the translation made from the Hebrew into Latin by the presbyter Jerome a man thoroughly acquainted with both tongues... | Now if the passage were translated thus ... the ear would no doubt be gratified with a more harmonious ending but our translator with more strictness preferred to retain even the order of the words and how this sounds in the Greek language in which the apostle spoke those who are better skilled in that tongue may determine. My opinion however is that what has been translated to us in the same order of words does not run very harmoniously even in the original tongue and indeed I must confess that our authors are very defective in that grace of speech which consists in harmonious endings. Whether this be the fault of the translators or whether as I am more inclined to believe the authors designedly avoided such ornament I dare not affirm for I confess I do not know. This I know however that if any one who is skilled in this species of harmony would take the closing sentences of these writers and arrange them according to the law of harmony - which he could very easily - will learn that these divinely inspired men are not defective in any of those points which has been taught in the schools of the grammarians and rhetoricians to consider of importance and will find in them many kinds of speech of great beauty beautiful even in our language but especially beautiful in the original none of which can be found in those writings of which they boast so much but care must be taken that while adding harmony we take away none of the weight from these divine and authoritative utterances. Now our prophets were so far from being deficient in the musical training from which this harmony we speak of is most fully learnt that Jerome a very learned man describes even the metres employed by some of them in the Hebrew language at least though in order to give an accurate rendering of the words he has not preserved these in his translation I however to speak of my own feeling which is better known to me than it is to others and than that of others is to me while I do not in my own speech however modestly I think it done neglect these harmonious endings am just as well pleased to find them in the sacred authors very rarely..." [IV:15|40-41] On Christian Doctrine

"If therefore you [pl] are the body of christ and his members, your own mystery is placed on the lord's table, your own mystery you [pl] receive, to what you [pl] are amen you [pl] respond, responding you [pl] are subscribed, you [sg] hear for instance body of christ and reply amen be/eat member of body christ so true may be the amen..." Homily 272

Saint Leo the Great: "Nothing else is aimed at in our partaking of the body and blood of Christ than that we change into what we consume, and ever bear in spirit and in flesh Him in whom we have died, been buried, and have risen"
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