Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 479

Gregory to Dynamius and Aurelia, in Gaul. The page of your writing, struck through by our reading, has by your zeal brought us great joy at its message; because by the fact that it announced that you seek the food of holy reading and desire the joys of the heavenly homeland, it has shown that your Charity not only loves the religious life in name, but also holds to it in practice. And since we are confident that you will attain what you have desired, our heart rejoices together with you in vehement exultation. For that divine grace does not abandon a desire of this kind, Truth Himself instructs us by the testimony of His own voice, saying: 'Everyone who seeks, finds; he who asks, receives; and to those who knock, it shall be opened' (Matthew 7:8; Luke 11:10).

Supported therefore by this certainty, we ought to have no doubt about the mercy of our same Redeemer, but to presume upon it with undoubting hope. For He who granted the will to obtain will by no means frustrate it by withholding the bounty of His gift, but rather bestows the very strength of obtaining; for even to long ardently for this is itself a gift. Yet, because we ought so to presume upon the grace from above that we be not negligent in prayer or in work, it is expressed by the voice of that same Truth: 'It behooves us always to pray, and not to faint' (Luke 18:1). Let us therefore ask by praying, seek by reading, knock by working. Let the mind therefore be vigilant, be wary on every side, be careful in all things, that it may always be able to guard against the snares of the one who lies in wait.

But because, the more our enemy perceives each one to be on guard against him, the more he contrives by subtle art to subvert the hearts of those who resist him, let us beseech the almighty Lord with unceasing tears and supplication, that He may not permit us to be corrupted by the infusion of his venom; but against the conflicts and hidden suggestions which he brings upon us, let Him cover us round about with the shield of His power, upon which his darts, striking, may be shattered, and the touch of his blow may not wound our heart; but by the gift of His grace may He grant us both to understand his snares and to overcome them. But such a codex as we might send you, one that would instruct you as you have requested, we by no means had ready; yet we will send it in what follows. Gregory to Dominica, the wife of John.

Your letters have made us exceedingly glad, in that we have learned that, by God's protection, you have been joined to the unity of the Church. And indeed, as you yourself write, you ought to have done this before, for it was not fitting that the wife of such a man should be separated, even for a little while, from the unity of communion. For you ought to have considered, glorious daughter, how great a multitude of the faithful abides in the bosom of Mother Church, and with how great virtues the priests who have died in this faith have shone, and how many miracles they work at their own bodies; and that we ought not to judge them, but that you ought to have believed such great men and priests rather than yourself.

Amid these things, however, we give thanks to almighty God, that He has so poured into your heart the light of His truth, that, the darkness of your error being driven away, He has shown you the right way, which you ought to follow and to hold. But we are unwilling to let your glorious husband depart from us as long as we live, and therefore do not by any means expect that he will return to you. And indeed he himself desires to come to you, but since he is in the city of Rome, he cannot, nor is it permitted to him, because he is held wholly bound by the bonds of our love. It is better, therefore, that you hasten by every means to come to him, since the members ought rather to follow their head, and to accompany it wherever it may be.