POPE SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT |
"There is need to bear in mind
that the specific finality of prophecy is not to predict the future but to reveal what is occult."(From the Homilies on Ezekiel / 1) |
Sheaf 6
Saint Gregory the Great
In the eleventh month of the
year 1981, Marcello Ciai retired in absolute silence,
in the presence of the Lord his
God, who took to teach him with the words of a pope who lived 14 centuries
earlier: Saint Gregory the Great.
" And I saw in a night-vision a woman of simple appearance, though she was very important. From her I would have received. I knew that I had to reach her, I felt like being forced. Then a figure of a man appeared. He told me that to be able to reach the woman I had to pass through the under-ground where he was indicating.
It was a dark hovel, with walls made of stone, humid and slippery. I hardly got inside for a short way when I got a glimpse of a long and difficult course, I would have lost myself easily, like in a labyrinth. The place was cold, bare and narrow and I doubted if I should succeed in reaching the woman. I couldn't even tell the time it would take, I was frightened.
I got back on my feet and
once in the light again, I addressed myself to the man I saw previously, saying
that I could not resist in the hovel, asking if there was another track, some
other way to reach the woman. Then he put a large book before me, measuring from
the ground the height of 14 vocabularies and he said: "In the meantime read
this one.
" On the green cover I read written in gold letters: "Time".
In my consternation I told him:
"The book is too big" and I justified myself saying that it would take
too long to read it. Then the man, seeing that I still resisted at his
invitation, handed me another book, much smaller : I had to read this one.
On the cover was written : "Saint Gregory", while a voice was saying:
"It's a best-seller".
I woke up at dawn without comprehending the dream. "
The Spirit of the Lord gave at that time the following interpretation :
The woman was the Power of God, the power of the
prophetic word, reachable through a walk of poverty, distress, dangers and
anguish, lived in secret.
The angel gave to Marcello, who resisted stubbornly to this course, a big and
allegoric volume, entitled "Time": "The time of the Lord". Marcello had to wait
fourteen years, in which he had to form himself with the writings of the fathers
of the Church, who teach the way in the fear of God ( in latin "time" means "have
fear" ).To encourage Marcello to face such a
long time and the great weight of such teachings, the angel of the Lord sought
him to read and learn the writings of Saint Gregory the Great, beginning from
the most read and widespread:
"The Pastoral Rule", the
best-seller !
An old and esteemed dean of Assisi, Don Aldo Brunacci *1,
indicated in Pope Gregory
the Great, that "Saint Gregory" of whom Marcello knew nothing. So,
"The Pastoral Rule" of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, his most famous
book, destined to bishops, resulting a real fortune for popes, kings, governors,
princes and whoever had commanding-roles, was a precious gift in the hands of
Marcello, as well as for leading the community as for his ministry.
Don Aldo, who by that time ran a religious library in Assisi,
gave to Marcello - whom he called "the prophet" -
other books of Saint Gregory, like "Moralia" and the "Sermons of
Ezekiel".
These writings permitted to Marcello to consolidate the prophetic initiation with his community, at the service of the Church.
" The Lord GOD hath given me the
tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him
that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as
the learned. " *2
(Isaiah 50 : 4)
*1 Decorated with the award by
President Ciampi.
*2 Isaiah 50 - 4 Bible of
Jerusalem.
Dove singing into the ear of Gregory the Great:
Links:
Books on a prophetic work risen in Assisi more than thirty years ago, which is involving the world
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