Dear Greg, What God asks of us is not always to our liking, but it is always better than what we may like.\u00a0 You may prefer to spend your days playing tennis and your nights studying philosophy, but the Lord would like you to be squeezing in as well some activities to serve your neighbor.\u00a0 You would do well to follow in the footsteps of today\u2019s saint, who led a comfortable and easy life for a few years, but God knew that he could give so much more, and so he spent the rest of his life exhausting himself for the good of the Church. He was of patrician birth (that\u2019s the high society of ancient Rome), and his family was devoutly Christian.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Rome (and the rest of the former Roman Empire in western Europe) was in ruins by the time he became a young man.\u00a0 Barbarian invasions and plagues and widespread anarchy had reduced the \u201cmistress of the world\u201d to a broken down backwash.\u00a0 Having received the best education available, Gregory took up a career in civil service, doing all he could to restore order and prosperity to the Eternal City and its surrounding townships.\u00a0 He rose quickly to the position of city prefect (i.e. mayor), and made solid progress.\u00a0 But soon the call to serve God alone became too strong to resist, so he gave his fortune to the city and retired to his family villa, which he turned into a monastery.\u00a0 He was happy there for three years, praying, studying, and disciplining his spirit and body in imitation of Christ.\u00a0 But he was soon brought back into public affairs, when the Pope sent him as ambassador to the Emperor\u2019s court in Constantinople.\u00a0 Again his efforts met with success, but his heart remained in the cloister.\u00a0 Upon returning to Rome, however, he was made a deacon, and given care of the Roman Churches.\u00a0 His zeal, intelligence, and charity made him the obvious choice for Pope, which he became in 590. As Christ\u2019s Vicar, his spiritual and practical leadership led the suffering city through plagues, invasions, and famines, while at the same time he turned the papacy into a rock of stability and order that would give Christendom a dependable foundation throughout the Middle Ages.\u00a0 He combined the prudence and shrewdness of an administrator with remarkable eloquence in both speech and writing.\u00a0 Above all, he strived to please and honor God by pouring himself out in service of his Kingdom.\u00a0 Indeed, it was Gregory the Great who coined the papal title still in use today, \u201cservus servorum Dei\u201d or \u201cservant of the servants of God.\u201d\u00a0 He never rested, he suffered from chronic health problems, and by the time his 13-year pontificate came to a close he looked more like a skeleton than a man.\u00a0 To the end, however, he remained the faithful pastor.\u00a0 One of his last actions was to send a heavy cloak to a poor bishop who had difficulty making it through the cold winters.\u00a0 His epitaph says it all: \u201cAfter having conformed all his actions to his doctrines, the great consul of God went to enjoy eternal triumphs.\u201d And just think, my talented young nephew: for all those years, what he really would have liked<\/u> to be doing was praying and gardening in his monastery.\u00a0 I hope you see my point. Sincerely, your Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Greg, What God asks of us is not always to our liking, but it is always better than what we may like.\u00a0 You may prefer to spend your days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n