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| 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”
"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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