Letter 1,34 - to Peter, bishop of Terracina. March 591.
"The Jew, Joseph, bearer of this letter, has informed us, concerning a certain place in which the Jews residing in the castle of Terracina had been accustomed to meet together, to celebrate their holy festivals, that your Fraternity had expelled them from it, and that they had migrated to another place to carry out their religious festivities in a similar manner, with your knowledge also, and with your consent.
And now they complain that they are being expelled once again from the same place.
But if that is so, we want your Fraternity to avoid that sort of complaint, and we want them to be allowed to gather as their custom was, at that place which they obtained for their meeting with your consent, as we said above.
For one must bring those who disagree with the Christian religion to the unity of faith, with clemency and kindness, by making suggestions and being persuasive.
Otherwise, they mau be repelled by threats and terrors, when they could be invited to believe in Christ through the sweetness of preaching and the coming terror of the future judge."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 155.
Friday, 11 June 2010
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Considering Divine Judgement
Letter 1,33 - to Venantius, patrician ex-monk. February 591.
"You know that divine judgement will condemn us for idle talk, and will examine our reason for useless words with great care. Consider therefore what this judgement will do concerning a perverse deed, if it will condemn some in its court for their words.
Ananias had solemnly promised to give money to God, but afterwards he withdrew it,overcome by the persuasion of the Devil. But you know with what death he was punished.
If therefore he who withdrew from God the money he had given deserved the danger of death, consider how great the danger you will deserve before the divine tribunal, you who have withdrawn from almighty God not money, but yourself, after devoting yourself to Him in you monk's habit."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 152.
"You know that divine judgement will condemn us for idle talk, and will examine our reason for useless words with great care. Consider therefore what this judgement will do concerning a perverse deed, if it will condemn some in its court for their words.
Ananias had solemnly promised to give money to God, but afterwards he withdrew it,overcome by the persuasion of the Devil. But you know with what death he was punished.
If therefore he who withdrew from God the money he had given deserved the danger of death, consider how great the danger you will deserve before the divine tribunal, you who have withdrawn from almighty God not money, but yourself, after devoting yourself to Him in you monk's habit."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 152.
No Flock Without a Shepherd
Letter 1,32 - to Romanus, patrician and exarch of italy. February 591.
"It has come to our notice that your excellency has already detained Blandus, the bishop of the city of Ortona, in the city of Ravenna for a long time. And it happens that a church without a bishop, and its people, just like a flock without a shepherd, disperse, and in that place infants die without baptism for the remission of their sins. Again, because we do not believe that your Excellency would have held him, unless for some likely case of aberration, it is necessary that a synod be held and the matter be brought out into the open, if any charge would be brought against him."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 152.
"It has come to our notice that your excellency has already detained Blandus, the bishop of the city of Ortona, in the city of Ravenna for a long time. And it happens that a church without a bishop, and its people, just like a flock without a shepherd, disperse, and in that place infants die without baptism for the remission of their sins. Again, because we do not believe that your Excellency would have held him, unless for some likely case of aberration, it is necessary that a synod be held and the matter be brought out into the open, if any charge would be brought against him."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 152.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
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.
"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.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
"Each Day I Groan"
Letter 1,30 - to John ex-consul, patrician and quaestor. February 591.
"I have been made bishop not of the Romans but of the Lombards, whose treaties are swords and whose gratitude is revenge. Just see where your patronage has led me. Each day I groan and oppressed by occupations, I cannot breathe any more.
But you who are still able to do so, flee from the occupations of this world; because the more someone had made progress in it, the more fully, as I see it, he shrinks from the love of God.
Furthermore I have sent over a very sacred key from the body of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, which placed over the sick, normally produces many brilliant miracles."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 150.
"I have been made bishop not of the Romans but of the Lombards, whose treaties are swords and whose gratitude is revenge. Just see where your patronage has led me. Each day I groan and oppressed by occupations, I cannot breathe any more.
But you who are still able to do so, flee from the occupations of this world; because the more someone had made progress in it, the more fully, as I see it, he shrinks from the love of God.
Furthermore I have sent over a very sacred key from the body of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, which placed over the sick, normally produces many brilliant miracles."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 150.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Body and Mind
Letter 1,29 - to the illustrious Andrew. February 591.
"May almighty God inform your most charming heart that, even absent in body, I have not withdrawn from love of you in my mind. For I cannot forget your goodness even if I wanted to.
But as for you knowing that I have obtained episcopal rank, if you love me, weep for me. For here the occupations of this world are so great that I see that I have almost been separated from the love of God by this episcopal rank.
I bewail this incessantly and I ask you to pray to the Lord on my behalf."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 150.
"May almighty God inform your most charming heart that, even absent in body, I have not withdrawn from love of you in my mind. For I cannot forget your goodness even if I wanted to.
But as for you knowing that I have obtained episcopal rank, if you love me, weep for me. For here the occupations of this world are so great that I see that I have almost been separated from the love of God by this episcopal rank.
I bewail this incessantly and I ask you to pray to the Lord on my behalf."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 150.
A Word of Consolation
Letter 1,28 - to Aristobulus, ex-prefect and imperial secretary. february 591.
"I have heard that you labor under some adversities. But I am not all that distressed over this. For very often a ship, able to reach the open sea after a period of good weather, is checked at the very start of its sea-voyage, with the wind against is, and driven back, it is recalled to port."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 150.
"I have heard that you labor under some adversities. But I am not all that distressed over this. For very often a ship, able to reach the open sea after a period of good weather, is checked at the very start of its sea-voyage, with the wind against is, and driven back, it is recalled to port."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 150.
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