SEPTEMBER: Saint / Pope Gregory the Great -- patron of teachers
Feastday: September 2 --604
St. Gregory, born at Rome about the year 540, was the son of Gordianus, a wealthy senator,
who later renounced the world and became one of the seven deacons of Rome. After he had
acquired the usual thorough education, Emperor Justin the Younger appointed him, in 574,
Chief Magistrate of Rome, though he was only thirty-four years of age.
After the death of his father, he built six monasteries in Sicily and founded a seventh in his
own house in Rome, which became the Benedictine Monastery of St. Andrew. Here, he
himself assumed the monastic habit in 575, at the age of thirty-five.
After the death of Pelagius, St. Gregory was chosen Pope by the unanimous consent of
priests and people. Now began those labors which merited for him the title of Great. His
zeal extended over the entire known world, he was in contact with all the Churches of
Christendom and, in spite of his bodily sufferings, and innumerable labors, he found time to
compose a great number of works. He is known above all for his magnificent contributions
to the Liturgy of the Mass and Office. He is one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church.
He died March 12, 604. He is the patron of teachers.
September Virtue : Prayer
An act of the virtue of religion which consists in
asking proper gifts or graces from God
Oportet semper oras et non deficere----We must always pray, and not faint.----Luke
18:1
Souls that have no habit of prayer are like a lame and paralytic body, which, though it has
hands and feet, cannot use them. Therefore, to abandon prayer seems to me the same thing
as to lose the straight road; for as prayer is the gate through which all the graces of God
come to us, when this is closed, I do not know how we can have any.----St. Teresa
Try to disengage yourself from so many cares, and take a little time to think of God and to
rest in Him. Enter into the secret chamber of your heart, and banish from it everything save
your Creator alone and what can help you to find Him; then having closed the door, say to
Him, with all your soul: "Lord, I seek Thy Divine countenance----teach me to find it!"----St.
Augustine
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* Published by Encyclopedia Press, 1913.
Prayer (Gk. euchesthai, to plead, to beg, to ask earnestly), By prayer we acknowledge God's power
and goodness, and our own neediness and dependence. It is therefore an act of virtue implying the
deepest reverence for God. Prayer indicates faith in God and hope in His goodness. The habit of
prayer helps us in many ways. Besides obtaining the gifts and graces we need, the very process
elevates our mind and heart to a knowledge and love of Divine things, and greater confidence in
God. Indeed, so numerous and so helpful are the effects of prayer that even when prayers are not
answered as we would like for them to be, we still receive the graces we need according to God’s
love for us and His good plan for our lives. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find:
knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Matt., vii, 7); "Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever
you ask when you pray, believe and you will receive" (Mark, xi, 24).