St. Gregory The Theologian
January 25th
The main message of Gregory’s poetry is the trust in God. It is in his poems and in his letters that we discover the human face of Gregory. Besides the saintly side of him: contemplation, ascetic endeavor, prayer, fasting, deprivations, here we see the common person that he was, very similar to us, with all his pains, doubts, problems, depressions, suffering, struggle…Gregory writes: “It is terrible when love is combined with power”He tells us that “we ought to think of God more often than we draw our breath” since prayer is the encounter of the thirst of God with our thirst. God thirsts that we thirst for him
Dirge
Woe is me! Just now that I press forward
to Heaven, to the place of God, alas!
This body of mine encompasseth me.
Neither is there an end to this much-erring life,
nor yet to loathsome evil, which bindeth me fast
here below, and woundeth me from every side,
smiting me with unexpected cares that consume
the beauty and grace of my soul.
Nonetheless, O my God, King of all,
loose me swiftly from these earthly fetters,
and enroll me henceforth in the celestial choirs.
Source: Our Father among the Saints Gregory of Nazianzos, the Theologian: Selected verses from his poetry.[The original poems are found in Patrologia Græca, Vol. XXXVII, cols. 1399A-1401A (Poem LV); cols. 1384A-1385A (Poem XLIX) — trans.]
https://theodordamian.wordpress.com/english-pages/%E2%80%9Egregory-of-nazianzus%E2%80%99-poetry-and-his-human-face-in-it%E2%80%9C/
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