教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 377 章

Gregory to Elias, priest and abbot of Isauria. I have received the most sweet writings of your Holiness, in which you have given me satisfaction, that I ought not to be grieved that, according to my desire, you did not come to the threshold of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. And I indeed altogether wished to see you; but if the trouble of the body or the impediment of age was the cause, this suffices me, that wherever your Holiness may be, you pray solicitously for me; for although we are separated in place by the body, we are ever undivided in charity. The Gospels, moreover, we have sent as you directed. And you charged concerning your son Epiphanius (Gratian, part 1, question 1, chapter 122), that we should advance him to holy orders and send him back to you.

But in one thing we have heard you, in the other we could by no means hear you. He has indeed been made a deacon; but whoever has once received holy orders in this Church has no further liberty of departing from it. If therefore I could not see you, from this circumstance I have consolation, that in your son I find repose. You wished, moreover, that fifty solidi be sent to you for the needs of your cell; but, deeming them to be much, out of them you bestowed ten upon us, that we should send forty. But lest perchance even this should be burdensome, you further deigned to bestow yet more upon us from them. But since we have found you very kindly toward our continence, we respond to that same kindness in like manner.

We have sent fifty, and, lest perchance they should be too few, we have added another ten. But lest even this should still be too little, we have caused another twelve to be joined. In this, moreover, we recognize your charity, that you presume concerning us as you ought to presume. But by the almighty Lord I beg that you make constant prayers for me, that I may the more quickly be absolved from the sins by which I am bound and from the tribulations by which I am pressed, and may enjoy the joys of the heavenly homeland. And as to that which you indicated in your letters, how you pray for me, know that it has greatly relieved me. But now, after my petition, do more than you have done even without my asking. As for that most beloved son of mine —

— my Epiphanius the deacon, whom we have bound to this Church by the intervening diaconate — it ought not to grieve your Holiness that, since through your own self you are not able in body to serve blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, you may yourself serve him through your son, and enjoy the gain of a heavenly reward. May the holy Trinity, moreover, keep you under its protection, and in the wilderness of the present life shield you from the enemies that follow after and meet you in the way; and may it both remit whatever past sins of yours there are, and remove from before your face by the hand of its mercy those which yet come before you. May it itself lead you, and itself bring you through, and itself receive you into eternal joy. May it grant you to attain to the lot of the elect, and to pray for me a sinner, that I may be worthy to be absolved.

Given in the month of June, the thirteenth indiction.