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the reverend dr jerry Andrews to you, jerry Andrews is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of SAn Diego and has an extensive resume which I will not recap for you this morning. Um I'm doing so

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in the uh in the illness of doctor with wit Bodman who apologizes but his voice is not well yesterday Dr andrews took us on a voyage with Augustine telling us that he was never alone and leading us into

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a discussion and a thought process around theological friendship this morning, Dr Andrews lecture will center around Gregory and it is called Gregory was net was always active. Ladies and gentlemen, the reverend dr jerry Andrews.

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Mhm. Again I want to thank those who invited me. Thank you. You have honored me by that deeply and profoundly and I can't wait to get back home and tell them my family how important I

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really am. Yeah. Yeah. So if you could save some of the bulletins and things like that so I could take home and I did take a picture of the screen in the atrium in which my

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picture appears and sent it to my family. They remain unimpressed. And I would like to thank the women of the Church of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth texas for funding these lectures on behalf and

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honoring their pastor. I want to honor and offer a gift to pastors if it will receive that way . Uh Such a gift offered to me at some point in my uh ministerial life was of help to

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me. I hope to give it again. We've been thinking about Augusta now, we'll think about Gregory . But as we've progressed through them, I want them to be able to reveal their own lives through

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their own writings. Augustine gave us a great gift in the confessions. Nobody gives us a gift like that until modern times and in his letters and sermons as well. And Gregory now, in his letters

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and his sermons, of which there are many and they are to reveal their own thinking on the subject through their more formal essays for Augustine. It's several doctrinal essays and his City of God, that helps

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us. Gregory here is the one who offers the great gift and a short book called the Pastoral Rule and that helps guide our thinking this morning. Here he gives the gift. And then of course,

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I'm adding to that, the revelations that come about their importance and their legacy through the scholarly work which now studies them and surrounds them, I would like to say on behalf of this particular seminary and its

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library, but here at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary library, I found a book and Augustine. It's all in latin that I could not find elsewhere. A lot of the research took place at New College

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in Edinburgh and Scotland, which if you're a scott , is a fine place to be and I love the library, but the book wasn't there, I can't remember if they didn't have it or somebody had

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it out. I was here with President Wardlaw on another occasion a couple of years ago and I wandered into the library to see what he had mostly to razz him about what he didn't have only to discover

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he had the book. And so I got my camera out quickly and I took photos of it because I was about ready to catch a plane. And so some of the translation from the latin comes from

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my iphone, if you will, taking photos of what's here in the library. I'm also aware, can I say almost painfully aware that with the discussions and with the others are using biographical information that I'm

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presenting. Two dead white european males. I would like to say on behalf of dead white european males . That should the Lord Lord Terry, I expect to be one someday. This lecture is about two

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men, two callings And then finally and briefly two brothers, the two men. It's the middle part of the 6th century. Now, when the first man is born, he was born into an aristocratic

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family with ties to well known roman leaders dating back several generations. The place of his infancy in a palatial estate on the Caylee in hill situates him among the few. Not too many, the family knew

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hardships but experience them differently than did most romans of late antiquity, famine was ever near. But no member of this family ever went hungry. Appearances of the plague were sweeping and devastating, but the social

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and more so the physical location of this family isolated them from it. Most often, war was a constant. Only its intensity varied. Yet this family reports few battle deaths over the years By age 33

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, this man young by contemporary standards, was named the Prefect of Rome. This public office was a prized possession, a super mayoral ship of the ancient capital during Rome's republic. In the early years of

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its empire, holders of this office would be assured that their names would become part of Rome's written historical record. They spoke with senators and emperors as part of their daily work. Now the position, though

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still highly competitive to achieve was nothing but hard work . Thankless work most years and they were one year elections. The city's food supply came from a distance Sicily and beyond all. The poor in a large

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part of the urban population depended on its delivery being unbroken and as you may have discovered, people like to eat every day, every day as it turns out. War, plague, crop failure, corruption

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, and competition with other cities with mouths to feed and citizens to placate, made this daily work daily burdensome. And then the Lombard's showed up, described by contemporaries as more violent and foreign and lessen treatable

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and trustworthy than the other Germanic tribes. They marched into the italian peninsula and occupied the central valleys near Rome. For a couple of generations, the city of Rome itself had changed hands at least three times

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between imperial forces and the earlier goths during the youth of this man. But now the Goths had become so sufficiently weakened and assimilated. But in his early adult years, peace had been rumored, but not

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now and never again. In his lifetime. The Germanic tribes did not want Rome, who wants to run a bureaucracy of an oversized and underfunded city. They wanted the wealth that remained hidden in Rome and

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the people as slaves, anything pardonable, constantly threatening violence, ever demanding of tribute and ransom. They're disruptive and disruptive of Rome's attempt to keep connections with the rest of the empire. This tribe determined the

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annual peace and prosperity of the once eternal city and then all the principal and powerful partners of this first man died in the year of his prefecture. Pope john the third died during the year of his prefecture

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and a very long vacancy followed. The bishops of Rome in the 6th century could usually be counted on to be willing and awfully often able partners in pursuing the peace and prosperity of the city. This man

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and the pope had been more than acquaintances. Rome was christian, now a religion united, secular and sacred authorities and common causes for the common good but not. This year, the papal office became vacant

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and the resources of the church material and personnel were now lost to him. The Narcissus, the Byzantine general, died. He was the emperor's Leggett to the city and the whole italian peninsula. He had

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the power of the sword in the field and around the city walls. The expected reward of friendship and partnership for mutual help ended with his death. So please for a replacement were constant. It is not

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clear to us or them that any of these messages ever got back to the emperor. The Lombard's quite often and for long periods blocked all communications from the ancient capital to the then current capital of Constantinople.

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Further, ravenna was now considered the provincial capital of the italian peninsula, not Rome, and it was favored by the emperor and his resources accordingly, it is not clear that the emperor would, even if

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he could intervene for the prefect of Rome. And he did not in these most difficult years in either case. Yet for all of this, the prefect history tells us did a remarkable job. The citizens

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were fed more often than not. The walls of Rome were fortified and the Lombard is placated sufficiently to prevent open attack. Without depleting Rome's material resources, justice was administered in the courts. Public works were

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continued. Civil services were largely uninterrupted and the city and its prefect survived the most terrible of years. This first man's excellence in leadership during difficult times and his administrative abilities revealed during the crises would become part

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of his widespread spread reputation among his contemporaries and of all historians who come later of roman late antiquity. First Man, the second man, The second man was also of Rome in the 6th century, his

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family had church ties. It was rumored then, and generally accepted by historians now that Pope Felix III of the 5th century, was his great great grandfather . Don't ask. Thank you. Certainly, Agape

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etta's the Rome and the pope. In the years , just prior to his birth, was this just an uncle? His father's three sisters gave up their family inheritance and lived as aesthetics for all their adult

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years. His father was a defensor of the Church of Rome and thus employed as a property and legal manager of ecclesiastical lands. The second man followed his family's faith and their devotion to the church. At

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age 34, he sold all that he owned and endowed six monasteries in Sicily, with the remainder, he established the monastery of ST Andrews near Rome. He then took the extraordinary staff of appointing an abbot

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for it and then entering ST andrews as a novice under the authority of the abbot. The aesthetic life would begin in earnest for him and continue until his death. 30 years later, no private wealth would

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ever be his again. He would never marry or have Children. His task would be assigned for him for the remainder of his life and though he would be given tasks of great responsibility in his later years

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, he seems to have never sought them and often sincerely though unsuccessfully attempted to resist them. Five years after this aesthetic commitment, he would be ordained to the D. A. Can it and be sent

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to constantinople as apocalypse scenarios a papal legate to the court of Rome. He does not seem to have relished this assignment or even to have allowed himself to be influenced by this position of potential influence. He

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brought other aesthetics from ST andrews with him, formed a community apart from the Imperial court, prayed, read and wrote much most of his later writings and there would be many seemed to have begun or at

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least been contemplated during these six years posting in the east. Most importantly, he began his writing on the commentaries on job. This work has an extraordinary length, but it maintains one theme throughout Job was

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a holy man, a man able to detach from the distractions of this life and who, unlike his friends, was devoted entirely to the things of God . He could lose all things of this world and

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yet have all he would ever need or want. That is the contemplation of God and the relationship with God. Has anyone ever been more stab fest and his love of God than job, he asks,

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is anyone more to be envied or emulated? That's not my first thought, when I think about job , job for this writer, Monk is a paradigmatic contemplated who is quite active. A priest and a

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pastor to his generation. When the second man returned to Rome at the age of 45, he would be the Abbot now of ST Andrews, continue his aesthetic life and he would never again be far from

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Rome. His contemporaries and later historians read his works with great interest as they reveal a heart of a man whose persistent great love was the love of God , simply and holy and who effectively called many others

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to that same love. Now, if you haven't caught it by now, here it is the first and the second man are the same man. Gregory . He will be called most often. Gregory the

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great one of only two Popes whose name is almost always accompanied by the title Great. Great. In part because it seems to us, he would reject the title certainly to have been to extraordinary lives lived

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out by one man. At age 50. Gregory would become the Bishop of Rome in an uncontested election , his contemporary seeking and needing the leader, who would have great promise of both skillful administration in an

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era when the church could lose everything and who would also have deep spirituality in a city where it was all too easy to lose the way entirely imagine no better candidate than the former first man of the city

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, who has now become the beloved aesthetic whose reputation for holiness had recently grown. Gregory protested this election , citing his desire and calling to attend to his prayers and studies. Though his early biographers maybe reporting

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nothing more than the literary topas of feigned public humility , recurrent theme in the celebrated lives of saints that was built on the narratives of moses and Jeremiah. His own writings suggest some sincerity to his initial reluctance

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and bear testimony to the continuing internal tension of the church's first monk Pope, that internal tension that contest within him for time and attention, the demands of the office, vine with the desires of his aesthetic

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calling for the prime moments of every day. The needs of his soul, agonizing against the needs of the church for the next season of endeavor, the bucolic life of the shepherd, confronted with the wolves

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that would ravish the flock would be the central theme of his writing, his episcopate his life and his legacy. Gregory will confide to a friend in a letter that all of this is a burden on his

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soul, but it is a burden that has been given by God. Pope Gregory I was Bishop of Rome for 14 years until his death in six. So far. The volumes in nature of his writings

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speak to a life of the mind and spirit as pursued by the most dedicated of monks in his or any generation and the accomplishments of his Episcopal see are the stuff of legend. Gregory wrote as many as

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20,000 letters, Over 800 of which survive and they are in your library. His commentaries on Job and Ezekiel are still read with profit beyond the curiosity of the papal historians. His written lives of the Saints

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introduced a brand new, a new kind of religious biography and then he introduced a moral and spiritual and theological argument into the christian library. He authored a participant patient of Sochi Realogy somewhat versus Augusta in appreciation

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of the mystical, of the center of the practical and ecclesial ology. Get this that is able to consider the church apart from its structures and power. This is the pope All of this and more has

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one for Gregory. 2nd place next to Augusta as the most influential writer in the Western Church. But the point here is not so much about so much writing as it is about the thoughtfulness of a careful

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pastor, writing to his flock of the things that mattered and writing these things out of the store of a rich interior life, a life only a monk could possibly live and the legend of his papal leadership

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. He would rebuild even add to the literal defenses of the city of Rome. While Bishop of Rome , its walls and its centuries, he would rebuild the all important aqueducts of Rome, perhaps the single

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most important contribution to life and health of the roman people in his generation. He would re establish with unparalleled effectiveness the feeding of Rome citizens and this is an era of empire white famines. He would negotiate

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unnecessary and advantageous settlement with the Lombard. With no help from, and really to the dismay of the distant emperor, he would advance the right and responsibility of preeminence of the roman see when all things were

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now pointing east to constantinople and to top it all off, at least as judged by those of us who learned the faith in our native english language. He sent the monk Augusta, not that one,

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to the shores of the british isles and the evangelism of England began with an explosion of conversions. Perhaps his testament to his life and legacy Edward Gibbon can be cited with a perverse delight in his decline and

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fall of the roman empire. The atheist historian argues at length, but one of the causes for the fall, the greatest of all historical tragedies is that the new christian faith diverted the greatest minds of the

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times into the service of the church and away from the rightful claimant to their gifts, which is the empire and its culture. He spends a considerable time on Gregory as an example and measure of such a

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waste and the eventual decline into the middle. If you're reading, given the dark ages, Gregory is the first influential christian writer who almost totally neglects the pagan classics. That's true. Gregory expended his life

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teaching the population now how to live for an invisible god rather than for the claims of an all too visible empire. The Rome will have no better servant than Gregory. Whether as prefect or pope in his

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generation, or perhaps ever again given gets it right . It was never first and foremost about Rome Gregory had left at once. For Gregory, it was about his call to be a servant of God to

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Collins that call, and Gregory's called to his contemporaries his best read in his short book, the pastoral rule. This work, almost like almost all his writing, was published in the first year of his

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Papacy, is still somewhat explained how so much was produced in so little time. Most biographers concluded the ideas, the notes, maybe even first drafts were written while he was in his community with ST Andrews

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in exile in constantinople and his later stay at ST Andrews when he was at it. But unlike these others, the pastoral rule seems to have been written from the beginning to its end, shortly after his

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election to the bishopric. There's an urgency about it . Apparently, when you are a pope, the recruitment of pastors is pressing the quality of clergy is critical and the applied expertise of those appointed to office

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is expected to be effective. Gregory does not seem to think any of this was in place. When he began to survey the priests he had inherited, he would call forth the gifts and lives of a

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whole generation of monks and priests, bishops and church workers and leaders. He was actively involved in recruiting and in elections and would famously remove bishops from office . Nothing about Gregory's background would ever suggest ignorance of

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the church and its clergy. Yet the monk had never pastor to perish nor answer to any ecclesiastic other than his own Abbott and Abbott of his own choosing , and then eventually the pope that he succeeded in

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this. Gregory was unlike the clergy of his day and the pastoral rule. He shows little empathy for the common excuses and failings of his contemporaries. The morale of those who bore the face of the church

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to the lay public was downcast in Gregory's day, the challenges cited above famine, plague war would be sufficient to explain it, but there was more financially able families hired their own chaplains and provided for them

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quite generously and with little expectation of effective ministry in return, just presence and loyalty. High offices in the church were openly contested money and connections made the difference. Some poor parishes could not secure any clerical

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leadership at all. Those who accepted these lower positions were overwhelmed by the needs. Almost all were ill equipped to pastor. The recruitment was haphazard at best , with the majority being commissioned, ordained having followed

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only their own sense of call, and with little confirmation of that call by any other guidance, was lacking on what manner of the life this public servant of God was to live, and it showed,

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and the simple skills needed to provide practical assistance to the genuine spiritual needs of the catholic laity were unthought and therefore rarely exercised, or at least that is how Gregory saw it. Gregory began his Episcopal see

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with a strong and ready sense for the need of reform. The pastoral rule was written to meet that need. It has been used for that continuing purpose through the centuries, and it is suggested that this

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text will help prove useful to us in our own generation, though in a very different context, allow the following outline of the sum and suggestions of the first section of the pastoral rule section that sets forth

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the qualifications needed in the one who has set forth as a spiritual leader. The first of four sections as both common sense suggestions so rudimentary that one wonders why it would need to be set at all,

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and it has some commands. So surprising that we are left wondering just what it was with which he was confronted. It starts simply enough by considering who it is that has come to church orders. No

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one presumes to teach an art that he has not first mastered through study. He says how foolish it is. Therefore, for the inexperienced to assume pastoral authority when the care of souls is the art of

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arts. This is a near quote of Gregory Nagy Kansas who in an earlier work had addressed some of the same needs. This reveals a tragic irony. The work of a church leader is humble work.

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The pastor is primarily a teacher. Gregory says. The primary lesson is to teach The Lady the humble life how to live humbly, to walk humbly with your God. This teaching is to be offered humbly

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by the truly humble this he assumes throughout the essay is the work of humility. But now that religion is highly valued and all throughout society, people value it highly. Many succumb now to the temptation of

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authority and aspire to the glory of honor and thus put themselves forward as clerical teachers, they lust to be superior to others. Gregory says, this is vanity, humility is opposite arrogantly. They claim the

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humble office, his condemnation is severe. Those who do not know the Lord, the Lord does not know well. Gregory will always applaud, applaud loudly the effort to perfect the heart by the contemplate of

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life of the mind and the mortification of the flesh . But he will be relentless in his insistence that it is all for not if those who are called to serve neglect the call by this neglect the contemplate

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of one will have neglected a necessary part of the process of his own sanctification, which is service to others for the common good. At the very moment they may think they are serving God best by withdrawing

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from the world and attending to the matters of God most directly. That's the moment at which they are serving God at least, and the loss will be theirs. Others are even more at fault. He

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says they study humility. No, it's salutary effect , teach it with some skill, but don't practice it. They corrupt the study of holy meditation with an evil life. His analogy is apt. I

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think they are like the shepherd who drinks from the clearest waters yet steps into the same water and thus muddies it before he offers it to the sheep. No one does more harm in the church than the

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one who has the title of holiness and then acts . Perversely, their punishment would be less in hell . He's a catholic. Their punishment would be less in hell if they had not caused the falling of

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others. Remember Friends? This is the new bishop of Rome describing his own clergy. Mm. The rest of the first section considers the troubles, trials and temptations of those who perhaps relatively innocent at their

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investiture fall from the grace of humility during the years of their service to the church. Of course, those temptations are ever present as well, jesus, he says, is the model for all of us

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. He the creator declined an earthly kingdom that he might redeem us by his suffering, teach us by his conversation, offering himself to us as an example . Cross not Kingdom. This is not merely the

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experience of jesus, it is his choice adversity because it purges even longstanding faults is to be preferred over prosperity. For prosperity tempts us away from even remembering who we are. We forget our calling. Think

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of David, who on the run spares Saul and who when in a palace murder is your idea? This same man who had previously been known to spare the wicked, learned afterwards to crave without impediment or

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hesitation the death of the Good. The sheer multiplicity of concerns can distract us. Also, with authority comes broad responsibilities, Not only may the many and petty dissipate the attention due to the singular and significant

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. The never ending concerns of this world are always at war with the peaceful contemplation of the self before the savior. Think of nebuchadnezzar, he says. Who though he had knowledge of God as God later

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exalts himself as the greatest human when he considered all his varied kingdom, and thus by the judge, judgment of God was made less than human. Indeed , like an animal. So what kind of person

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did Gregory prefer for pastoral leadership? And how would he describe that person? Those fit for ministry? Are those who he says spotless in the pursuit of chastity, stout in the vigor of fasting, satiated

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in the dark feasts of doctrine, humble in the long suffering of patients, erect in the fortitude of authority, tender in the grace of kindness, strict and severity of judgment. Well, that may not

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be your list, but now I know he's talking about I think such people, while they may not abound, can be found, and I love this . Do you know where you find such people in

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libraries who would have thought for the simple reason that they are people who have practiced long the disciplines of bible reading, prayer, self examination, confession of sin, and have spent their lives up till now

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contemplating God. They Gregory has no doubt love God , But and here's the difficulty. They are usually averse to accept positions of authority. They know that by taking on these new responsibilities they will no longer

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be able to pursue their studies. Uninterrupted. The work that has made them what they are, will now diminish. It may even come to an end . So great are the distractions of pastoral work.

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So what to do? The misfit desire the offices . The fit declined them. Alas, is the admissions officer. Here, am I speaking to your heart? This sad fact is aggravated by the knowledge

00:29:00.950 - 00:29:12.260

that those who are fit and therefore call to service . Well. If they do not accept the call to serve forfeit the gifts they have for these gifts were given not for their sake, but for the

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sake of others. I am to know God that I may help. You know God, cities not set on a hill lights now under a bushel. They prefer the mystery of stillness to preaching to their

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neighbors. The greater their gifts, the greater the judgment upon them, Jesus had given up so much more to lower himself so much further. And the refusals they think themselves humble and many arts really humble

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if they at first declined because of a sense of unworthiness and soon enough except a desire to be useful . But others, many others sometimes think themselves even more humble for having refused entirely. And finally,

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not so argues Gregory. They act without humility when they declined the wisdom of others the call of God , and thus refused to serve others. Some of those who are fit for ministry, answer the call

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immediately like Isaiah. Others are compelled like Jeremiah. But both these profits have been formed by a love of God, Jeremiah, who zealously clings to the creator through the contemplate of life opposes being sent to

00:30:26.630 - 00:30:37.990

preach. Fair enough, Isaiah volunteers to be sent because he had previously seen himself cleansed by a coal from the altar. He takes that experience a little more positive than me. After an angel flies at

00:30:37.990 - 00:30:47.040

me and puts a coal in my life tongue and the Lord says, whom shall I send? I will be first to offer to get out of there . It is this experience and contemplation of the Holy

00:30:47.040 - 00:30:57.320

one, that both provides a hesitation to leave the presence and compels one to be useful in the service of the Holy one. Now, many will offer themselves for the offices of the church, believing themselves

00:30:57.320 - 00:31:08.200

to be dedicated to good works. Look at yourself Now, Gregory says, If you are doing good works now, then you may be right about your motivation. But beware of the new temptations that inevitably

00:31:08.200 - 00:31:22.430

come with authority, it will more powerfully tax you . Some sailors who steer well in the calm are overwhelmed in the storm. If conversely, you are not doing good works. Now, seminary student,

00:31:22.440 - 00:31:37.490

I'm speaking to, you do not think you will begin when you come into office, for no one is able to acquire humility while in a position of authority. If they did not refrain from pride when

00:31:37.490 - 00:31:52.120

in a position of subjection, those who ale are not healed by pretending to cure the sick. That's just wise. I wish I had heard it when I was younger. So again we ask just what

00:31:52.120 - 00:32:07.170

kind of person is that the bishop wants? Serving with him Now a longer list. Let Gregory's own words describe the one who assumes spiritual leadership that he will place an office must be the model for everyone

00:32:07.540 - 00:32:16.520

must be devoted entirely to. The example of good living. Must be dead to the passions of the flesh, and live to. The spiritual life must have no regard for rural prosperity, and never cower

00:32:16.520 - 00:32:27.180

in the face of adversity must desire the internal life . His intentions should not be thwarted by the frailty of the body, or repelled by the abuse of the spirit, should not lust for the possession of

00:32:27.180 - 00:32:37.220

others, but freely give of his own, should be quick to forgive through compassion, but never so far removed from righteousness as to forgive indiscriminately. You want to think about that. One must perform no

00:32:37.220 - 00:32:47.830

evil acts, but instead deplore the evil perpetrated by others, as though it was his own in his own heart. He must suffer the affliction of others , and likewise rejoice at the fortune of his neighbor

00:32:47.890 - 00:33:00.020

, as though the good thing was happening to him , set a positive example to others that has nothing for which he should ever be ashamed, should be such a student of how to live that he is

00:33:00.020 - 00:33:13.510

able to water the arid hearts of his neighbors with the streams of doctrinal teaching. I like that, should have already learned by the practice and experience of prayer that he can obtain from the Lord what he

00:33:13.510 - 00:33:28.420

requests, as though it was already said to him specifically by the voice of the Almighty. When you are speaking. I will say here I am. Such a person, became such a person, by

00:33:28.430 - 00:33:44.220

undistracted contemplation of the things of God. Such a person would value being such a person as evidenced by discipline so far and by the fruits of that life which are listed above. And again, here's the

00:33:44.220 - 00:34:00.320

rub. Such a person will not want to give up being such a person and such a life. Nonetheless, that is the person desired for spiritual leadership in the church. Notice that these things are a

00:34:00.320 - 00:34:12.330

combination of the private life of the pastor and the public duties of the pastor. Doing both well is the dual foundation of the life of the pastor. Reading Gregory carefully reveals that this is not about the

00:34:12.330 - 00:34:22.330

balance of the two. I think our minds would run to that quickly though some balances balances advised of course the pastor has only so many hours in a day and days in a week and ultimately years in

00:34:22.330 - 00:34:34.870

the life. The mark of the righteous pastoral life though is less about balance than it is about the quantity and quality of both. Mm This may or may not be Gregory at his best, but it

00:34:34.870 - 00:34:45.470

is Gregory at his heart. When the Savior says Love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind , and love your neighbor as yourself. It is

00:34:45.470 - 00:34:59.870

doubtful Jesus meant us to balance the two. Yes , he got that right. I think when the Savior says, if you love me then feed my sheep, The Savior connects the two seamlessly, he

00:34:59.870 - 00:35:14.860

argues it is not helpful to conclude that one is to do them best by alternating them. Gregory I think would say we would say got this perfectly right is the heart of the pastor's heart, loving God

00:35:15.440 - 00:35:30.570

, loving neighbor, loving jesus, serving his sheep . Think of paul, he will say often. Was anyone more knowledgeable and thus show the excellent fruits of study than was the apostle. No was anyone

00:35:30.570 - 00:35:42.290

ever more useful in the building up of the church than was paul? By his direct engagement with the people of God? That's what I'm talking about. Okay, I got it. Now, all I

00:35:42.290 - 00:35:57.560

need to do is become the apostle paul, which frankly is easier than being jesus as it turns out at his best and perhaps most inspiring Gregory attempts to think through the relation of the to the and of

00:35:57.560 - 00:36:09.420

love God and love neighbor, the then of love me then feed my sheep. Gregory may have been uniquely positioned to think through these matters. The first man of Rome, when the prefect was now again

00:36:09.420 - 00:36:21.600

, the first man of Rome is the bishop. The monk, fully dedicated to the pursuit of the holy in his studies and prayers, was now again negotiating treaties with the hostel, Lombard's feeding the citizens

00:36:21.600 - 00:36:31.000

and feeding his soul. He began to think we're connected in such a way that one was not to choose between the one or the other nor was one to choose both in balance though that's somewhat better.

00:36:31.280 - 00:36:45.160

But he now thought that one could not choose one without the other. Consider first christ called to the fishermen on the shores specifically the command to drop the nets. You know how these works? These texts

00:36:45.160 - 00:36:55.580

had been interpreted by his predecessor preachers like we use them most often as calls to abandon the worlds of cares and the cares of the world and to instead contemplate christ without the distraction of the work of the

00:36:55.580 - 00:37:10.170

world. Like running the family fishing business, drop your naps to follow jesus, they preached was to let go of engagements with all other things and monasticism . Remember Gregory's a monk was built on such ideas

00:37:10.170 - 00:37:22.080

and practices, but when preaching on this text at the feast of ST Andrew it, is the election erI reading for the day he asks the question, how do we know if we have dropped our nets

00:37:22.310 - 00:37:37.530

and followed? We can. No. He argues with a surprising answer. We can answer yes to these questions. If we can answer yes to these questions, we have dropped our nets. Have we

00:37:37.530 - 00:37:51.710

learned to fear for the well being of our neighbor more than for our own? Do we seek their game? Yes. Worldly gain included not our own . Do we desire the suffering of our enemies to

00:37:51.710 - 00:38:02.580

become our own? He thinks here probably more of church based opposition than the Lombard. And do we offer our souls to God as sacrifices for them? There is no other or better way to do this

00:38:02.580 - 00:38:20.420

than to leave the nets of our self serving, self soul edifying, self satisfying separated study of the Savior. I love that sentence I wrote mm I tried to pretend in the text that he wrote it

00:38:20.420 - 00:38:36.840

, but and instead follow him into the world of worldly cares. He had turned the longstanding interpretation on its head and he will not stray from this message . Did not the Savior say, and I will

00:38:36.840 - 00:38:49.830

make you fishers of men. What is this interesting as the fresh interpretation is the audience for this? The lady that's who he's preaching to that day. While monk sermons, rare entities and priest delivered sermons

00:38:49.840 - 00:39:01.730

a bit more common, always exhorted the laity to aspire to the contemplate of life. Be like me closer to jesus than you are holding that life out as a near impossible goal for others. Gregory invites

00:39:01.730 - 00:39:19.270

the laity to live lives full of service to each other, contemplate God in his beauty and engage the neighbor in her need. He points out following jesus is following, jesus, a man of prayer and

00:39:19.270 - 00:39:34.090

of action. This becomes an aid to you that love to contemplate God. A further aid to the disciple is found in this active service activity helps the memory learning spiritual principles is deepened. When you actually

00:39:34.100 - 00:39:52.050

exercise those principles, you cannot be a complete christian in a library. That's so disappointing to me. Learning is retained by activity. Mm. The activities that Gregory suggested. He's pope, let's say commanded

00:39:52.060 - 00:40:04.380

are varied and often highly specific. The remainder of the second section of the pastoral rule describes and argues for them. But again, the life of the pastor is to be the constant is that daily movement

00:40:04.380 - 00:40:15.240

from one to the other, the vertical and the horizontal, the inward and the outward God and neighbor . Jesus and his flock. The life of the pastor should be as a humble companion to the good

00:40:15.710 - 00:40:30.520

. It exercises authority against the vices of centers equal to the good man, authoritative over the perverted man . And prefer to find the former. The fathers are remembered not because they were rulers, but because

00:40:30.520 - 00:40:45.950

they were shepherds. A mother with respect to kindness and a father with respect to discipline. How does the active shepherd know these things by previous and serious study Of the Holy 1? Again, Gregory points

00:40:45.950 - 00:40:59.920

out the fault of some of his clergy. They seek secular assignments. They are depressed in their absence . They do not know what to do with quiet quiet wearies them. What is worse? They spoil

00:40:59.930 - 00:41:13.780

any desire of the laity by their non contemplated lives . It is abandoning the flock. So you see the opposite errors. Full engagement with the flock without full engagement with the Savior. Contemplation of the holy

00:41:13.780 - 00:41:24.700

minute you abandon the flock, what gift do you think you're offering them? But gaining that gift and not sharing it? Is this common a fault? And he points out opposite faults. Those who attend

00:41:24.700 - 00:41:38.380

exclusively to their spiritual life. They discovered that the lady do not listen to their sermons. Yeah, they do not respect or trust the one who does not attend to their needs. Doctor does not penetrate

00:41:38.380 - 00:41:50.570

the mind of the needy. He says, if the hand of compassion does not commend it to the soul, I think he's got that one right. A painful lesson that many of us learned early in

00:41:50.570 - 00:42:01.380

most wise of Gregory. To warn us. A third in the last section has exacting details. They tell us the spiritual guides how to guide. The details need not concern us here. But reading this

00:42:01.380 - 00:42:13.400

will be a delight to anyone interested in the care and cure of souls. I judge this still to be good advice like Augustine. The psychological insights of those who attend to the needs of the flock are

00:42:13.400 - 00:42:24.700

well developed beyond those of their contemporaries. And it will be until modern times that we catch up with such insights into the heart. What does interest us in this section is the insistence that great care must

00:42:24.710 - 00:42:38.020

be given to offer spiritual advice to the person who is known well by the pastor. The differences among congregants is so great. That is important as to make one spiritual counsel directed to each one differently.

00:42:38.400 - 00:42:52.620

When you preach, preach to every individual there, knowing every individual in your congregation and what is more even in teaching larger groups. It is important to know each one that is present, so that one

00:42:52.620 - 00:43:09.290

sermon can reach equally well, all the listeners well , Good luck with that one. The long remainder of the third section is an explication of how best to approach. Speak to entreat, admonish worn and

00:43:09.290 - 00:43:22.880

courage. Absolve condemn each person and each proclivity again . This is best not summarized, but red for oneself. Or should I say influenced by Gregory? Read it for the sake of others. The final

00:43:22.880 - 00:43:36.620

, very brief section is a warning, simply put the one who practices these things and even masters these things. Now, of course, is at the risk of pride. Nothing can make you more proud

00:43:37.270 - 00:43:58.390

than to be very humble. A pride which will disqualify the pastor from the work of spiritual leadership. The congregation will grow healthy from the sermons, but the preacher will become ill. The seducer flatters what

00:43:58.390 - 00:44:08.720

to do. It is necessary. He says that when we are flattered by a wealth of virtues, we must turn the eye of our mind to our infirmity and allow it to humble it oneself. Nobody

00:44:08.720 - 00:44:20.240

channeled Calvin better before Calvin and Gregory. At this point, it should not look at the good things that it has done, but those things which that it has neglected, so that when the heart reflects

00:44:20.240 - 00:44:37.180

upon its infirmity, it will be all the more strongly established before the author of humility. The picture of the Pope's preferred partners in Gospel Ministry has now been painted fully humility is central to that portrait humility

00:44:37.180 - 00:44:47.990

, painted by Gregory, with shades and tones unused by any of his predecessors. The humble act of the one who pleases God is not only in the denial of the world within the self, but with

00:44:47.990 - 00:45:01.250

the pursuit of the contemplate of life. It is also the denial of the contemplate of life to re enter the world and offer the self in service. Gregory lee Gregory will tenderly conclude the pastoral rule this

00:45:01.250 - 00:45:15.010

way, behold good friend, being compelled by the necessity of your request to state these things. I have tried to show that the qualities of a spiritual director, what they ought to be. Alas,

00:45:15.580 - 00:45:28.630

I am like a poor painter who tries to paint the ideal leader, but I'm trying to point others to the point shore of perfection, yet I am tossed back and forth by the waves of sin and

00:45:28.630 - 00:45:44.400

the shipwreck of this life. I beg you to sustain me with the plank of your prayers so that your merit filled hands might lift me up, since my own weight causes me to sink. That's the

00:45:44.400 - 00:45:55.490

Pope. The pastoral rule will become most widely read , and thus the most influential work of pastoral care and spiritual direction in the history of christendom. Gregory will be the only latin author and late antiquity to

00:45:55.490 - 00:46:07.410

have a work translated into greek in his lifetime. There had been earlier important authors who wrote on the subject. Ambrose Augustine Chrysostom naciones, is they too spent time discerning who should and who should not assume

00:46:07.410 - 00:46:20.610

office. But Gregory will offer the most detailed description of the skills needed in the one who was called . And Gregory will be the only one to argue at length so persistently and effectively that the call given

00:46:20.610 - 00:46:37.300

to the contemplated must be lived out in active service in the church for the sake of others and for the sake of the one thus called. Finally, Two Brothers, Gregory will be faulted by our contemporaries

00:46:37.300 - 00:46:50.290

for the writing of the dialogues, a companion of Stories of the Saints. They are without intellectual challenge or the result of careful research or even a critical judgment. It seems just stories of which the Middle

00:46:50.290 - 00:47:01.550

Ages and Gregory's debt will tell too many. But Gregory used the form of hagiography to teach what he had more rigorously expounded in sermons, letters and commentaries , and in the pastoral rule. The values of

00:47:01.550 - 00:47:15.580

the Act of Life among the aesthetics by the dialogues . Gregory will show like no one writing of the Saints before him, both the virtue and the vice in the life of the Saints, and thus being

00:47:15.580 - 00:47:29.710

able to show the distinction between those lives wholly, though they all maybe which were expended on the self and those which were expended for others. Let this one story illustrate and conclude. Two men. Inertia

00:47:30.280 - 00:47:40.420

, you think yes and Florent Ius brothers perhaps were both holy, says Gregory, and then he tells the story to his deacon. Peter, you think this was called to be the abbot of a local

00:47:40.420 - 00:47:57.230

community. He was faithful to his task of serving others, laboring by exhortation constantly to win souls to God. Floor. India's free from such obligations, developed an extraordinary spirituality as Gregory tells the story.

00:47:57.240 - 00:48:08.960

A bear. Yeah. The kind you find in the woods bowed before him and on assignment from the spiritually great florentine as this bear became the shepherd of the same flock of sheep that he had formerly been

00:48:08.960 - 00:48:29.610

devouring. That's good stuff. Mm. The fame of Florence ius living a strictly contemplated life grew far and wide, but jealousy in the Abbotts community grew four monks slew the bear. This is Hollywood.

00:48:29.610 - 00:48:50.890

Now, monks killing bears florentines was so angry. He cursed the four months well, he's spiritually powerful . They died shortly after and miserably from leprosy. Apparently that will teach them the hermit floor India's had

00:48:50.890 - 00:49:06.810

acted badly. You think he is? However, councils for India's wisely and did not curse. In return for the Abbot had long practiced the humility of serving others. Gregory is sure to add this is

00:49:06.810 - 00:49:19.850

important to him that you think this was also able to perform miracles, miracles of greater meaning because of greater service to the people. She actually don't need bears to be the shepherd. But people do need

00:49:19.860 - 00:49:32.580

protection against the Lombard miracles that continue to protect the citizens of the city even into this day of the Lombard. He notes this with great care. But here at the stories end, Gregory gives the highest

00:49:32.580 - 00:49:49.280

praise to the active Abbott. Highest praise because his holiness had stooped to serve. Thank you. Mhm