Love & the Burdens of Office

Letter 1,31 - to Philip, count of the imperial guard. February 591.

"I was not worthy to take on the burdens of the episcopate, yet I subjected myself to the command of almighty God and to your wishes, you who wanted me to preside over this office more through generosity or your kindness than by the reckoning of your judgment.
For God, because of whom you love me, unworthy as I am, has the power to recompense you for ever for this payment, so that you can find the kindness which you bestow on his unworthy servants repaid by Him many times over."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 151.