Letter 1007: I have found what your Blessedness has written to be as rest to the weary, as health to the sick, as a fountain to the thirsty, as shade to the oppressed with heat. For those words of yours did not seem even to be expressed by the tongue of the flesh, inasmuch as you so disclosed the spiritual love which you bear me as if your soul itself were s...

Gregory to Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. Your Blessedness, your letter was like rest to the exhausted, medicine to the sick, water to the thirsty, shade to someone burning in the sun. Your words didn't feel like they came from a human tongue at all — it was as though your very soul were speaking directly, laying bare the spiritual love you have for me. But what followed was hard to bear: that same love urged me to take on these earthly burdens. You loved me spiritually first, and then — in a rather more worldly spirit, I think — pressed me down under a weight I didn't ask for. And so I've lost the steadiness of my inner life and the clear sight that contemplation used to give me. I say now, not as prophecy but from plain experience: "I am bowed down and brought low altogether" (Psalm 119:107). The volume of business pressing on me is enormous. My mind simply cannot lift itself toward heaven. I'm tossed about by an endless stream of affairs; after the quiet of my former life, I'm battered by a stormy, turbulent existence. I find myself saying, honestly: "I have come into the depth of the sea, and the storm has overwhelmed me" (Psalm 69:2). You stand on the shore of virtue — stretch out your prayer to me before I go under. As for your calling me "the mouth and the lantern of the Lord" and claiming I benefit so many: that only weighs on me. Where my faults should be corrected, I get praise instead. It doesn't help. How completely I'm consumed by the noise of this place — I don't have the words for it. You can measure it by the brevity of this letter: that I can write so little to the person I love most. One more thing: I've urged our gracious lords [the Emperor and Empress] as forcefully as I can to allow you to come here to Rome — to the threshold of Peter, prince of the apostles — with your full dignity restored, and to live with me for as long as God wills. For however long I am given to be near you, we could ease the weariness of this earthly pilgrimage by talking together about the home that lies ahead.

Book I, Letter 7 To Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. Gregory to Anastasius, etc. I have found what your Blessedness has written to be as rest to the weary, as health to the sick, as a fountain to the thirsty, as shade to the oppressed with heat. For those words of yours did not seem even to be expressed by the tongue of the flesh, inasmuch as you so disclosed the spiritual love which you bear me as if your soul itself were speaking. But very hard was that which followed, in that your love enjoined me to bear earthly burdens, and that, having first loved me spiritually, you afterwards, loving me as I think in temporal wise, pressed me down to the ground with the burden you laid upon me; so that, losing utterly all uprightness of soul, and forfeiting the keen vision of contemplation, I may say, not in the spirit of prophecy, but from experience, I am bowed down and brought low altogether Psalm 118:107. For indeed such great burdens of business press me down that my mind can in no wise lift itself up to heavenly things. I am tossed by the billows of a multitude of affairs, and, after the ease of my former quiet, am afflicted by the storms of a tumultuous life, so that I may truly say, I have come into the depth of the sea, and the storm has overwhelmed me Psalm 68:3. Stretch out, therefore, the hand of your prayer to me in my danger, you that stand on the shore of virtue. But as to your calling me the mouth and the lantern of the Lord, and alleging that I profit many, this also adds to the load of my iniquities, that, when my iniquity ought to have been chastised, I receive praises instead of chastisement. But with what a bustle of earthly business I am distracted in this place, I cannot express in words; yet you can gather it from the shortness of this letter, in which I say so little to him who I love above all others. Further, I apprize you that I have requested our most serene lords with all possible urgency to allow you to come to the threshold of Peter, the prince of the apostles, with your dignity restored to you, and to live here with me so long as it may please God; to the end that, as long as I am accounted worthy of seeing you, we may relieve the weariness of our pilgrimage by speaking to each other of the heavenly country.