Verse 8. — Whom the showers of the mountains water, and having no covering they embrace the rocks. 64. We are watered by the sentences of the holy Fathers as by streams. The invocation of the holy martyrs. — The showers of the mountains are the words of the teachers. Concerning which mountains it is said by the voice of holy Church: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains (Psalm 120:1). These showers of the mountains, then, water us, because the streams of the holy Fathers leap forth. But the covering, as we have already said before, we take to be the covering of good work, wherewith each one is covered, so that before the eyes of Almighty God the foulness of his depravity may be covered. Whence it is written: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Psalm 31:1).
But whom do we take by the name of rocks but the strong men within holy Church? To whom it is said by the first shepherd: And you also, as living stones, are built up (1 Peter 2:5). These, therefore, who trust in no work of their own, run to the protection of the holy martyrs, and press with weeping at their sacred bodies, praying that they may obtain pardon by their intercession. What, then, do these do in this humility, but, because they have not the covering of good action, embrace the rocks? There follows: