The other day I was comforted when reading from A sermon of St Gregory the Great. He writes
“My mind is sundered and torn to pieces by the many and serious things I have to think about. When I try to concentrate and gather all my intellectual resources for preaching, how can I do justice to the sacred ministry of the word? I am often compelled by the nature of my position to associate with men of the world and sometimes I relax the discipline of my speech. If I preserved the rigorously inflexible mode of utterance that my conscience dictates, I know that the weaker sort of men would recoil from me and that I could never attract them to the goal I desire for them. So I must frequently listen patiently to their aimless chatter. Because I am weak myself I am drawn gradually into idle talk and I find myself saying the kind of thing that I didn’t even care to listen to before. I enjoy lying back where I once was loath to stumble.”My mind is torn too, by the cares of life, the pressures placed on me by my employer, my family and my church. I find it hard to find time to pray or study. It was easy when living in a religious community, but it is a challenge when immersed in life. The people I meet in my daily life can be, coarse, rude, disrespectful to God. Although they appear godless, they are not, they too are made in his image. Unless I engage with their lives, meet them where they are, not put myself above them can I hope to carry Christ to them.
I pray that you and I have the grace despite the pressures on our time to give time to God and being in his presence. Also that we have large hearts to tolerate the weaknesses of others and allow Christ to come them through us.
