Sunday, August 24 : Saint Gregory the Great

For we cannot have a fixed stay here, whither we are come only to pass on; and this very circumstance of our living is to be daily passing out of life… This liability to change man suffers, not only without, but also within him, when he strives to arise to better works. For by the weight of its changeableness the mind is always being driven forwards to some other thing than it is, and, except it be kept in its stay by stringent discipline in self-keeping, it is always sliding back into worse. For that mind which deserted Him, lost the stability in which she might have continued. Henceforth now when he strives after better things, he has as it were to strain against the force of the stream. But when he relaxes in his bent to ascend, without effort he is carried back to the lowest point. Thus whereas in ascent there is effort, in descent rest from effort, the Lord warns us that we have to enter by a narrow gate, saying, Strive to enter in at the strait gate [Luke 13, 24]; for when about to mention ‘the entering in of the narrow gate,’ He premised, Strive, since unless there be an ardent striving of the heart,’ the water of the world is not surmounted, whereby the soul is ever being borne down to the lowest place.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team