Listen to this note instead: https://morefrmoore.podbean.com/e/september-03-2026-pastors-note/
A Note from St. Gregory the Great
This week (Thursday, September 03) we celebrated the Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, who was Pope from 590 – 604 AD. On his memorial, every priest and religious in the world reads the below passage from St. Gregory during the Office of Readings. For the past two years of Partners in the Gospel, this passage has been deeply meaningful to me as my administrative burden has greatly increased. I get where St. Gregory is coming from. I get what the administrative distraction feels like. But it is consoling to know that one of the greatest saints in our tradition, one of the original Doctors of the Church, went through the same thing.
What I take from the passage is that fidelity is the most important thing. St. Gregory is doing what the Lord has asked him to do. He would rather be back in the contemplative cocoon of his monastery, but he can endure the distractions and deviations and more powerful temptations to vice because he knows he is where the Lord wants him. I hope all of us can find a similar consolation in our work and especially in our families: we can endure all things if we are faithful to what the Lord has put in front of us. And I hope that we can say with St. Gregory, in spite of all: “because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.”
From a homily on Ezekiel by Saint Gregory the Great, pope
(Lib. 1, 11, 4-6: CCL 142, 170-172)Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Note that a man whom the Lord sends forth as a preacher is called a watchman. A watchman always stands on a height so that he can see from afar what is coming. Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight.
How hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my own preaching.
I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the acknowledgment of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge. Indeed when I was in the monastery I could curb my idle talk and usually be absorbed in my prayers. Since I assumed the burden of pastoral care, my mind can no longer be collected; it is concerned with so many matters.
I am forced to consider the affairs of the Church and of the monasteries. I must weigh the lives and acts of individuals. I am responsible for the concerns of our citizens. I must worry about the invasions of roving bands of barbarians, and beware of the wolves who lie in wait for my flock. I must become an administrator lest the religious go in want. I must put up with certain robbers without losing patience and at times I must deal with them in all charity.
With my mind divided and torn to pieces by so many problems, how can I meditate or preach wholeheartedly without neglecting the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel? Moreover, in my position I must often communicate with worldly men. At times I let my tongue run, for if I am always severe in my judgments, the worldly will avoid me, and I can never attack them as I would. As a result I often listen patiently to chatter. And because I too am weak, I find myself drawn little by little into idle conversation, and I begin to talk freely about matters which once I would have avoided. What once I found tedious I now enjoy.
So who am I to be a watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the valley of weakness? Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.
Fr. Moore 