Gregory the Great

03 September

SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT

Pope and Doctor of the Church

(540-604)

St. Gregory the Great's book The Pastoral Rule is a classic work on the ministry.

In The Pastoral Rule Gregory describes the priest’s responsibilities as a combination of the active life of pastoral administration and the prayerful life of the remote ascetic. Here is what he says:

The spiritual director should not reduce his attention to the internal life because of external occupations, nor should he relinquish his care for external matters because of his anxiety for the internal life. Otherwise, he will either ruin his meditation because he is occupied by external concerns or else he will not give to his neighbor what he owes to them because he has devoted himself to the inner life only.

The Pastoral Rule, Part II, Section 7