The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^6. And what follows? “My soul longs and fails for the courts of the Lord”. It is not enough that it “longs and fails:” for what does it fail? “For the courts of the Lord.” The grape when pressed has failed: but for what? So as to be changed into wine, and to flow into the vat, and into the rest of the storeroom, to be kept there in great quiet. Here it is longed for, there it is received: here are sighs, there joy: here prayers, there praises: here groans, there rejoicing. Those things which I mentioned, let no one while here turn from ashamed: let no one be unwilling to suffer. There is danger, lest the grape, while it fears the winepress, should be devoured by birds or by wild beasts....