Bede : But it seems to be in accord with the solemn celebration that we are observing to recall something about the building of the temple and to search out how appropriately its adornment suits the significance of the church. Scripture tells how Solomon ordered that "they should take very great costly stones for the foundation of the temple and should square them off." These great and costly stones that were laid as a foundation and that supported the entire bulk of the temple built on them suggest the extraordinary teachers of the holy church: "great" because of the outstanding quality of their merits; "costly" because of the splendor of the signs that those who heard the word from the Lord himself produced by their preaching as the fabric of the growing church. — Homilies on the Gospels 2.25