Quote from Letter 9.162 to Mastalonis. May-June 599
Therefore, offering thanks to the heavenly mercy with ineffable praise, we exhort and comfort your Beloved with all our strength, so that, just as the punishment of the man who received one talent and then buried it is disturbing, even so, the Lord's invitation to those who made great profit and rejoiced at receiving thereby the heavenly kingdom, should strengthen you to seek those things that are desirable.
For it is right for you to know, most beloved son, that there is no end to the reward for the fruit of pursuit than you have undertaken. For that reason, no annoyance caused by those show shackle you should disturb you, if it ever arises, since the more difficult it is to complete a good deed, with the cooperation of the Lord, the more glorious will your hope of recompense be.
For a victory born from desperation is more exalted when it has been achieved with the sweat of very hard labor.
Therefore, offering thanks to the heavenly mercy with ineffable praise, we exhort and comfort your Beloved with all our strength, so that, just as the punishment of the man who received one talent and then buried it is disturbing, even so, the Lord's invitation to those who made great profit and rejoiced at receiving thereby the heavenly kingdom, should strengthen you to seek those things that are desirable.
For it is right for you to know, most beloved son, that there is no end to the reward for the fruit of pursuit than you have undertaken. For that reason, no annoyance caused by those show shackle you should disturb you, if it ever arises, since the more difficult it is to complete a good deed, with the cooperation of the Lord, the more glorious will your hope of recompense be.
For a victory born from desperation is more exalted when it has been achieved with the sweat of very hard labor.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 645.
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