St Gregory the Great
St. Gregory was the son of Gordianus, a Roman regionarius, and Saint Silvia of Rome. He was the nephew of Saint Emiliana and Saint Tarsilla and great-grandson of Pope Saint Felix III. He was educated by the finest teachers in Rome, Italy.
He turned his home into a Benedictine monastery and used his money to build six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome. When he saw English children being sold in the Roman Forum, he became a missionary to England.
He was elected 64th Pope by unanimous acclamation on 3 September 590, the first monk to be chosen.
He collected the melodies and plain chant so associated with him that they are now known as Gregorian Chants. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church
If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore, we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them…. If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow…. we must not trust in our own virtues. – Saint Gregory the Great, from Be Friends of God
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen