Voices and influences
Gregory the Dialogist
The Roman prefect who became a monk, then a reluctant pope, and taught the Middle Ages how to care for souls.
Summary
This site quotes Gregory the Dialogist 628 times across 33 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 604.
- Quoted here most in Job: 384 of 628.
Gregory the Dialogist
- Lived
- died 604
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 628 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Gregory the Dialogist died in 604 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
Kish, who is called harsh, signifies not only his elect, but also the Redeemer himself. For no one was harsher toward himself than he.
The rest of the quotation
For the prophet, indicating the severity of this harshness, says: "Truly he himself bore our infirmities, and he himself carried our sorrows" (Isa. 53:4). For to die is not to suffer for mortals, who are subject to the suffering of a condemned nature.
1 Samuel 9:3 One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.” BSB
There follows: "But as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you." 15.
The rest of the quotation
He speaks these things, to whom the Lord said above concerning those to whom he speaks: "They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them." Behold, the prophet is rejected, and he speaks to those who reject him, saying: "Far be it from me that I should commit this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you."
1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way. BSB
When long afterward David sat against the battle lines of enemies, he wished from desire to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem. His chosen soldiers, breaking through the midst of the opposing forces, brought back unharmed the water the king had desired.
The rest of the quotation
But the man instructed by scourges immediately reproached himself for having desired water at the peril of his soldiers, and pouring it out, he offered it to the Lord, as it is written there: He poured it out to the Lord.
2 Samuel 23:16 So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD, BSB
Behold, His servants are not stedfast, and in His Angels He found folly: How much more in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be consumed as by the moth?
The rest of the quotation
Though the Angelical nature, by being fixed in contemplation of the Creator, remains unchangeable in its own state, yet hereby, that it is a created being, it admits in itself the variableness of change. Now to be changed is to go from one thing into another, and to be without stability in one's self.
Job 4:18–19 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth! BSB
MORAL INTERPRETATION. But he shall save the poor from the sword of their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. For the 'poor' is everyone that is not set up in his own eyes.
The rest of the quotation
And hence 'Truth' saith in the Gospel, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now a person is drawn into sin in two ways. For either he is led on by pleasure, or overcome by fear. For 'the sword of the mouth' is the mischievousness of persuasion, but 'the hand of the mighty' is the opposition of power.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Gregory the Dialogist 628 times across 33 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Gregory was born in Rome about 540, into an old senatorial family with money and land. The Rome he grew up in was a wreck. Plague came through in waves. The Lombards were burning their way down the peninsula. A city that had once held a million people was down to a few tens of thousands, camped among ruins it could no longer repair. About 573 he became prefect of the city — the highest civil office left in Rome. Then he walked away from it. He turned the family mansion on the Caelian Hill into a monastery of St. Andrew and used the family estates in Sicily to found six more. He later said those were the happiest years of his life. He was pulled back out. For roughly six years he served as the pope's representative at the imperial court in Constantinople, learning how empires actually work. He came home to Rome, and in 590 plague killed Pope Pelagius II. The city elected Gregory. He tried to refuse. He called the office a burden and began signing his letters servus servorum Dei — servant of the servants of God. Popes still use the title. He governed like a man who expected no help. He fed Rome out of the church's own estates, kept careful accounts of grain and the poor who received it, and negotiated peace with the Lombard king Agilulf when the emperor in Constantinople would not. In 596 he sent the monk Augustine and about forty companions to convert the English. Bede preserved the story behind it: Gregory seeing fair-haired boys for sale in the Roman market and asking who they were. Angles, he was told. Not Angles but angels, he answered. He wrote the Pastoral Rule, a short and practical book on how a pastor should live and how differently he must speak to the proud man and the frightened one. It became the standard handbook for bishops for a thousand years; King Alfred had it put into English. His Moralia on Job, thirty-five books long, was the most-copied commentary of the early Middle Ages. His Dialogues — four books of stories about Italian holy men, including the only life we have of Benedict — gave him his Eastern name. In Greek churches he is Gregory the Dialogist, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is called by his name. He was ill for most of his working life: gout, and a stomach complaint that often kept him off his feet. He wrote about it plainly in his letters. He died on 12 March 604. Sources: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People; Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule and Dialogues; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. IV; The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).
628 quotations across 33 books
Where this voice is quoted
And when he had assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
“Moreover, to add to the measure of their damnation, Him whom they despise now that He is born, they knew long beforehand would be born. And they knew not only that He would be born, but also where He would be born.”
On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him.
“(Hom. in Evang. i. 106.) Gold, as to a King; frankincense, as sacrifice to God; myrrh, as embalming the body of the dead. (ubi sup.) Something further may yet be meant here.”
And at once they left their nets and followed Him.
“(Hom. in Evan. v. 1.) Peter and Andrew had seen Christ work no miracle, had heard from him no word of the promise of the eternal reward, yet at this single bidding of the Lord they forgot all that they had seemed to possess, and…”
and He began to teach them, saying:
“(Moral. iv. 1.) When the Lord on the mountain is about to utter His sublime precepts, it is said, Opening his month he taught them, He who had before opened the mouth of the Prophets.”
“Lord, my servant lies at home, paralyzed and in terrible agony.”
“A centurion came to the Lord saying: "Lord, my servant lies paralyzed in my house and is grievously tormented." To whom Jesus immediately responds: "I will come and heal him."”
So the demons begged Jesus, “If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
“(Mor. ii. 10.) For the Devil knows that of himself he has no power to do any thing, because it is not of himself that he exists as a spirit.”
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.”
“But consider, dearest brothers, consider what is said: "Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he send laborers into his harvest."”
For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
“"For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to resist or contradict."”
For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
“But since he who does the will of the Father is called sister and brother of the Lord, on account of both sexes who are gathered to the faith, this is not surprising; yet it is greatly to be wondered how one is also called…”
Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings.
“For who would ever have believed me if I had wished to interpret thorns as riches, especially since the former prick while the latter delight?”
and sent to have John beheaded in the prison.
“(Mor. iii. 7.) But not without most deep wonder do I consider, that he who in his mother's womb was filled with the spirit of prophecy, than whom there arose not a greater among them that are born of women, is cast into prison by…”
And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
“(ubi sup.) We must consider whence it is that the Lord declares that He has joy rather over the converted sinners, than over the righteous that stand.”
So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
“(ubi sup.) The sixth hour is that from Abraham to Moses, the ninth that from Moses to the coming of the Lord.”
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
“How many fathers were there before the law, how many under the law, and yet those who were called at the Lord's coming arrived at the kingdom of heaven without any delay.”
On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.
“Hence those who had preceded in labor also say, murmuring: These last worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the heat?”
‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of…
“(ubi sup.) Or; To bear the burden and heat of the day, is to be wearied through a life of long duration with the heats of the flesh.”
Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
“(ubi sup.) And because the attainment of this kingdom is of the goodness of His will, it is added, Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?”
“Lord,” they answered, “let our eyes be opened.”
“And it should be noted what He says to the blind man as he approaches: "What do you want Me to do for you?" Did He who was able to restore light not know what the blind man wanted?”
But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business.
“There follows: "But they neglected it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business." To go to a farm is to devote oneself immoderately to earthly labor; to go to business is to yearn for the profits of worldly activities.”
For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
“Our Lord willed that the final hour be unknown to us so that it might always be regarded with suspicion, so that since we cannot foresee it, we might prepare ourselves for it without ceasing.”
But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps.
“For by oil the splendor of glory is signified; and our vessels are our hearts, in which we carry all that we think.”
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
“But let us hear what he says to the women as they arrive: "Do not be afraid." As if he were saying openly: Let those fear who do not love the coming of the heavenly citizens; let those be terrified who, weighed down by carnal…”