In Honour of a Great Soul — Gregory the Great
It is evil to throw away the memory of our fathers and our forebears, either in the Faith or in the Family. It would amount to ingratitude to forget those who made us; those who laid the foundations on which we build. It would be a sin against virtue and charity, not to celebrate greatness and guts. To fail to acknowledge goodness and greatness is to put out the light, wittingly or unwittingly. It is impossible to be silent on the memorial of a great soul. It is only fitting that we keep alive the commemoration of those persons who imparted our lives and changed the world.
September 3rd, in the West and March 12th, in the East, are the MEMORIAL DAYS of ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, pope and doctor of the Church, the greatest of the Latin Fathers, founder and father of the medieval papacy. The first pope to exercise both spiritual and secular authority, father and succour of the Roman people. On these dates we celebrate a man clothed with wisdom and light. A man whose strength was in his soul, whose authority was bigger than his body, whose heart overflowed with pastoral solicitude.
Monk and maestro in the house of our God; he revised and revived medieval liturgy and ecclesiastical worship; he established sacramental spirituality and turned his people to prayer. Fount of new strength, source of new light, Pope St. Gregory Great; he revamped the Church and reordered the world. He founded monasteries and built up the monastic way; he caused the sound of chants to be heard in sacred worship. He put prayers into songs and turned songs into worship. He enacted laws and engraved them upon the tablets of nature itself. He fed the poor. He strengthened the weak.
He was both a reformer and an innovator. He expunged bad elements from ecclesiastical ranks and cleansed the house of his God, His authority as ruler of God’s people was on his face and in his voice, so that both priests and princes harkened to him. His writings were the musings of the heart of a shepherd whose intent was to shield his many flock, far and near. From Rome he sent forth the light of Faith to many nations and shielded this light with unceasing prayers. He desired nations and won many over to Christ. He conquered England with the light of the True Faith. He inspired missionaries and mentored saints.
Though he lived in a time of unending crisis and chaos, his charism was to steady and to make straight. Though he was a man of frail stature and poor health, his influence were beyond borders. Though he sat on the chair of St. Peter for only 14 years, his decrees and decisions will live forever. Though he was Catholic and belonged to the Church of Rome, not a few Anglicans and Lutherans rightly honour the only man who was made both pope and saint by popular acclaim and not by election or bureaucratic ascendancy.
May Pope St. Gregory the Great come to our aid, who live in a time of upheaval and uncertainty. In a time when leaders lack both vision and virtue, when men no longer have courage, when morals are corrupted, when the Faith is fading away, may Pope St. Gregory the Great intervene again. In a time when values are cheap and virtue has become rare, in a time when fame is tied to riches and riches are nothing but money; in a time when mediocrity is normalcy and debauchery is rife; in a time when sacrifice is snubbed but selflove is celebrated; may the Saints come to our aid with their light and their strength. Amen.
Michael Richmond Duru
September 3, 2020
Memorial of St. Gregory the Great
