Bede : Now the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in their cities, etc. The seventh month, which is called October among us, was entirely more solemn than other months due to legal observances; in which even the dedication of the temple was celebrated. Therefore, it was appropriate for the devotion of the faithful, who had come up from captivity, that when they first entered their cities each one with his livestock and the money they had brought, and provided suitable dwellings for themselves and their families, they would all flow together to Jerusalem, and there construct an altar to offer burnt offerings to God; and this at the same time of the year, in which the temple itself, with the altar and all its vessels, was once consecrated, to which they regularly used to come to the day of its consecration annually. In the deeper sense, the seventh month suggests the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is described as sevenfold in the prophet Isaiah and in the Apocalypse of Saint John. In this month, indeed, after captivity from our cities, we come together in Jerusalem, when after having washed away the filth and errors of sins, after beginning the supports of good works, we are enlightened by the greater grace of the same Spirit, and thus in the love of heavenly peace, which is contained in true unity, we are kindled: for Jerusalem is said to be the vision of peace. And it is well said that all Israel congregated as one man in Jerusalem in the seventh month; for this is daily done in the spiritual Israel, when, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, all the elect throughout the globe worship God with one and the same faith, and pant for the joys of perpetual peace and fidelity with one and undivided love; and as much as they can, even now by loving and enduring each other they imitate this. But it is well added: — Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah