Letter 123: (To excuse himself for postponing his acceptance of an invitation.) I reverence your presence, and I delight in your company; although otherwise I counselled myself to remain at home and philosophize in quiet, for I found this of all courses the most profitable for myself. And since the winds are still somewhat rough, and my infirmity has not y...
Gregory to Theodore, declining an invitation.
I honor your presence and delight in your company, though I had otherwise resolved to stay at home and pursue philosophy in quiet. I have found this to be the most profitable course of all: a stillness in which the soul can hear the voice of God without the noise of the world drowning it out.
Forgive me if I postpone my visit. It is not that I value your friendship less, but that I value my solitude more -- at least for the present. When the time is right, I will come. Until then, consider my prayers as a kind of presence.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
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(A little later on, when the weather was more settled, Gregory accepts the invitation and proposes to come at once, but declines to attend the Provincial Synod.) You call me? And I hasten, and that for a private visit. Synods and Conventions I salute from afar, since I have experienced that most of them (to speak moderately) are but sorry affairs.
You owe me, even as a sick man, tending, for one of the commandments is the visitation of the sick. And you also owe to the Holy Martyrs their annual honour, which we celebrate in your own Arianzus on the 23rd of the month which we call Dathusa. And at the same time there are ecclesiastical affairs not a few which need our common examination.
Ep. CLVII. To Theodore, Archbishop of Tyana.
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