148. К римским пресвитерам, прибывшим с епископами

You endured a lot of hardships, having undertaken such a long sea voyage, a lot of hardships - not for the sake of perishable everyday affairs, but for the good of the church. Even more important, therefore, are the rewards that you will receive for your labors from the man-loving God. Your labors and hardships, therefore, have their own consoling side, both for you and for us: for you, that your valiant feat is aimed at pacifying so many churches and will therefore serve to increase your crowns on the day of reward; for us, it is that they show us what kind of love we are fortunate to enjoy from you, what great care for ourselves we have received from so many such worthy men, and how tightly, despite such a long distance separating us physically, you have tied us to you with bonds of love. We deeply thank you for this and constantly glorify your great favor towards us. True, the very course of affairs speaks loudly about it, but we also constantly proclaim it with our own lips. If now we are writing to you for the first time, it was not due to our negligence, but due to the deplorable desolation of the place where we live. Having now found the opportunity to write to you with the most honest and reverent presbyter going to your place of stay, we bring you due greetings and earnestly ask you, having received our envoy with the love characteristic of you, when he returns on his return journey, notify us about your health, which is the subject of our ardent well-wishes. Regarding the measure of zeal that should now be shown to the very essence of the matter for which you have arrived, in my opinion there is not the slightest need to remind your reverence, since you have clearly proven this by your lively care for it throughout the previous time. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: