Good, Dust And Ashes

Letter 3,4 - to Boniface, bishop of Reggio. September 592

"I have learnt from certain persons coming to Rome, that your Fraternity is very active in works of charity, and I thanked almighty God, because in accordance with the words of that outstanding preacher, ' we now live, if you stand form in the Lord' .
But I must admit that my mind was greatly troubled by the fact that you ourself have announced these same works to many others.
From this fact i have gathered that your object must have been to please not the eyes of God, but the judgment of man.
Wherefore, my dear brother, when your actions are good outwardly, you must guard those within with great care, to prevent the desire of pleasing men from creeping in, and to prevent all the labor of your good deeds from becoming to nothing.
For who are we, who seek to be pleased by men? What are we other than dust and ashes?"

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 237.