And all her streets shall say, Alleluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which has extolled it for ever.
All Commentaries on Tobit 13:18 Go To Tobit 13
Bede
AD 735
Thus our custom is to chant “Alleluia” more frequently and happily during these fifty days in memory of this, our most peaceful and blissful action. Alleluia is a Hebrew word, and in Latin it means “praise the Lord!” Accordingly, where we chant in the psalms, “Praise the Lord,” in place of this expression among the Jews “Alleluia” is always chanted. In his book of Revelation, John the Evangelist mentions that he had heard the throngs of heavenly virtues singing it. And when the venerable father Tobit had understood from an angelic vision what the glory of the citizens on high is, and the great brightness of the heavenly Jerusalem, he said the following with mystical voice, “All its streets are paved with precious and shining stones, and throughout all its districts ‘Alleluia’ will be sung.”
It is most proper and beautiful that a general custom has prevailed in holy church of all the faithful throughout the world singing this word of praise in the Hebrew language, out of reverence for the primitive practice. This has come about so that, through the harmony of such a devotion, the whole church may be admonished that now it ought to consist in one faith, confession and love of Christ, and in the future it ought to hurry to that land in which there is no discord of minds, no disharmony of speech. For just as once in Jerusalem the heart and soul of the multitude of the believers was one and all things were theirs in common, so in the “vision of supreme peace” the heart and soul of the entire multitude of those who see God will be one, loving and praising him by whose grace they see that they have been saved. There everything will truly be theirs in common, for, as the apostle says, “God will be all in all.”
