Saturday, August 26 : Saint Gregory the Great

Who changeth the lip of the truthful, and taketh away the instruction of the aged. (Job 12:20) When the priest does not do the good that he tells, even the very word of his lips is withdrawn from him, that he may not dare to speak what he does not practise; as where it is said by the Prophet, But unto the wicked God saith, ‘What hast thou to do, to declare My statutes, or that thou takest My covenant in thy mouth? [Ps. 50, 16] Whence also he beseeches, saying, And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth. [Ps. 119, 43] For he reflects that Almighty God gives the word of truth to those that do it, and takes it away from those that do it not. He then that prayed that he might not have it ‘taken out of his mouth,’ what did he else than pray for the grace of good practice? As if he said in plain words, ‘Let me not go astray from good works, lest, while I lose the regularity of good living, I also part with the right rule of speaking.’ For the most part the teacher, who ventures to teach what he neglects to practise, when he ceases to speak the good which he scorned to do, begins to teach his charge the evil things that he does, that, by the righteous judgment of the Almighty, that man may not henceforth have a tongue for a good theme, who will not have a good life; so that whilst his mind is inflamed with the love of earthly things, he should be ever speaking of earthly things. Whence ‘Truth’ saith in the Gospel, For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. [Matt. 12, 34. 35.]
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team