Selected quotes from Saint Gregory the Great

"So the active life is to give bread to the hungry, to teach the ignorant with the word of wisdom, to set aright the lost, to recall a proud neighbor to the life of humility, to care for the weak, which services each of us should perform, and provide the wherewithal of subsistence for those entrusted to us. Truly the contemplative life is to hold fast with the whole mind, at least to the charity of God, our neighbor but to abstain from external action; to cleave to the sole desire for the Creator, so that the only recourse for the spirit is, scorning all cares, to burn to see the face of the Creator, so that it now understands how to bear the weight of corruptible flesh with grief; to seek with all its desires to be among those hymn-singing choirs of Angels, to mingle with the citizens of Heaven, to rejoice at the eternal incorruption in the present of God."

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"It is easy, now, when we see everything heading to its destruction, to distance our hearts from the world around us. In our Lord's time it was very difficult. The disciples were sent to preach the unseen kingdom of heaven at the very time when everyone far and wide could see the realms of the earth flourishing. For this reason the preachers of His word were granted the gift of working miracles. The power they wielded was to lend credence to their words. Those who preached something new were to perform something new, as the gospel itself says when the disciples were told to 'cure the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse lepers, to cast out demons.' "

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"What then do we say about our admiration of the life of the Saints when the Ancient Fathers themselves, considering the life of the preachers of Holy Church, admired them exceedingly? And did not the Psalmist admire their lives when he said: 'But to me, exceedingly honorable are Thy friends, O Lord; their principalities are made exceeding strong' (Ps. 138:17)? Ask what it says about His friends in the Gospel in which Truth says to the preachers: 'Ye are My friends' (Jn. 15:14)."