教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 694 章

Gregory to Arigius, bishop of the Gauls. In how great a remembrance the charity of your fraternity is with us, seek in the secret places of your own heart, and from the love which it bears toward us you will gather it. And since in sincere love neither does absence have force nor does forgetfulness find a place, so often is our mind refreshed by the imagined presence of your fraternity, as if we saw you set before us with bodily eyes; for he is not to be thought absent who by the bond of love clings to our souls. Since, therefore, we have beheld in you such ornaments of priestly gravity that we rejoiced altogether over your discipline and character, we have promised many things to our own minds concerning your solicitude.

Wherefore, since you both do those things which are of God, and so watch over the custody of the flock committed to you that you nevertheless dispense with prudent moderation those matters which lie on the side, we commend to you the bearer of these presents, Candidus the presbyter, our common son, that you may bestow help upon him in whatever things shall be necessary for the profit of the poor; to the end that, when he shall have been aided by the help of your fraternity, as we trust, we may feel that we have found in his consolation our own.