Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 757

Gregory to Savinella, of the parents of Columba and Agnella. Sufficiently, glorious daughter, do the tidings of your work gladden me, in that you are reported to do those things by which, while you mercifully succour the needy, you yourself may obtain mercy, and, by nourishing others temporally, may be satisfied with good things celestial for eternity. And therefore, since He is faithful to whom you entrust, commit securely the things you bestow, that in the day of tribulation you may receive what you expend. For the excellent preacher says: I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that He is able to keep my deposit unto that day (2 Tim. 1:12). Behold, glorious daughter, consider how great is the certainty of good works, and let your hand be always generous in the work, that there may be fulfilled in you what is written:

Hide alms in the bosom of the poor, and it shall entreat for thee (Ecclus. 29:15). Whosoever, therefore, desires to have abundant fruit in heaven, let him not neglect to sow while it is time, that he may gather the sheaves with gladness in the day of harvest. For they that sow in tears shall reap in joy (Ps. 126:5). But of what sort the harvest from such sowing shall be, let the Apostle say: He that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh shall also reap corruption; but he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting (Gal. 6:8). Lest indeed the want of destitution find us, let us prepare for ourselves this harvest by manifold sowing; and the more abundantly we desire to be satisfied, the more generously let us confer upon Him from whom we have received all.

For the Lord Himself says of Himself: For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you covered Me (Matt. 25:35), and so forth; and in the conclusion it is subjoined: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me. This, therefore, do the more studiously, and in doing these things seek nothing to be repaid you on earth, since to those who desire heavenly things temporal things are nothing. But there fix your desires, where whatever is repaid receives no end. Being good therefore, do not fail, that there you may be able to lay up for yourselves treasures, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal (Matt. 6).

Moreover, greeting your Glory with fatherly affection, we make known, by the bearer of these presents Hilarus our chartulary, that we have transmitted to you a key from the most sacred body of blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, in which is contained also a blessing from his very chains. Which, suspended from your neck, may become for you, by his intercession, a grace of absolution—that which for him was the cause of martyrdom. May Almighty God keep you in His fear, and so kindle your heart always to good work, that both here He may grant you His grace, and afterward lead you to eternal joys.