Gregory to Aurelius, of the Franks. On hearing of the passing of my sweetest lily, your brother, my written speech is not able to unfold with how great a grief I have been struck. I beseech Almighty God to console you with the breath of His grace, and to guard you by heavenly protection both from malignant spirits and from perverse men. For if after his death you endure certain tumults raised by some who oppose you, do not marvel. If you seek to enjoy good things in your own land, that is, in the land of the living, you must bear the evils of men in a foreign land. For the present life is a pilgrimage; and to one who sighs after his homeland, the place of pilgrimage is a torment, even though it may seem alluring.
But as for you who seek your homeland, amid the sighs you utter I also hear the groans of human oppression arising. This is done by the wondrous dispensation of Almighty God, so that while truth calls through love, the present world by the tribulations it brings drives back your soul from itself; and the mind departs the more easily from the love of this age the more it is impelled while it is called. Therefore, in what you have begun, devote yourselves to the care of hospitality, labour most earnestly in prayer and in tears. In almsgiving, which you have always loved, now labour more generously and more abundantly, so that afterward, in the recompense, the fruit of your work may grow for you in proportion as here the zeal of your labour has increased.