Monday, 10 January 2011

Gregory of Nyssa January 10

Night Office Reading

Gregory of Nyssa (fresco in Chora Church) Istanbul.
ST GREGORY OF NYSSA. January 10
St Gregory of Nyssa was born in the year 330. He was a brother of St. Basil and together with St. Gregory Naazianzen and St. Basil formed the trio known as the Cappadocians. St. Basil was the outstanding administrator of the group, St Gregory Naazianzen its orator, and St .Gregory of Nyssa its mystic and philosopher. He was ordained Bishop of Nyssa, though a married man. He lacked administrative talent and was relieved of his responsibilities by an Arian-dominated Synod in 376. During the last ten years of his life he gave himself up to monastic pursuits as a widower and wrote his greatest works on Mysticism. He died in 394.
In the thought of Gregory perfection consisted in movement, in constantly going forward to meet God, because God Himself is infinite. In his life of Moses he writes:
"In truth the finest aspect of our mutability is the possibility of our growth in good; and this capacity for improvement transforms the soul, as it changes more and more into the divine. And so ... what appears so terrifying (I mean the mutability of our nature) can really be a pinion in our flight towards higher things, and indeed it would be a hardship if we were not susceptible of the sort of change which is towards the better. One ought not then to be distressed when one considers this tendency in our nature: rather let us change in such a way that we may constantly evolve towards what is better, being transformed from glory to glory, and thus always improving and ever becoming more perfect by daily growth, and never arriving at any limit of perfection. For that perfection consists in our never stopp­ing in our growth in good, never circumscribing our perfection by any limitation. "
This teaching of St .Gregory is reflected in the works of our own Cistercian Blessed Guerric of Igny who wrote:
"However far you journey upon it, the way is always waiting to be prepared
so that you must start afresh from the place you have reached and advance along what lies ahead. You are led to do so "because at every stage you meet the Lord, for whose coming you are preparing the way, and each time you meet Him in a completely new way and as a much greater figure than you have met before”

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