教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 828 章

Gregory to Cyriacus, patriarch of Constantinople. Considering more diligently, dearest brother, how great is the power of peace, from the Lord's own voice, which says: My peace I give unto you (John xiv, 27), it behooves us so to persist in His love that we ought by no means to give place to discord. But since we cannot live in the root of that very peace otherwise than by holding in mind and act the humility which the very Author of peace taught, with that charity which is fitting we urge that, trampling under the foot of the heart the profane elation which is ever adverse to souls, you make haste to remove from the midst the scandal of the perverse and proud title, lest, divided from the fellowship of our peace, you be found.

But let there be in us one spirit, one mind, one charity, one bond of concord in Christ, who willed us to be His members. For let your Holiness consider how hard, how unseemly, how cruel, and how foreign to a priest's purpose it is for that man not to have the peace which he preaches to others, and let him abstain from scandalizing his brothers through pride. But let him rather be zealous for this: that he may be able to strike down with the sword of humility the author of vain and superfluous elation, so that in such a victory the grace of the Holy Spirit may claim for itself your dwelling as its own, and there may be openly fulfilled in you what is written: The temple of God is holy, which you are (2 Cor. vi, 17).

But the bearer of the present letter, our dearest common son Boniface the deacon, we commend to you in all things, that wherever it may be necessary he may find, as is fitting, the consolations of your Holiness.