Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 1st Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations, and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Lent
You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which you have prepared for those who love you.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop of Rome, Missionary, and Doctor of the Church
Ecumenical Commemoration
Gregory the Great, born at Rome about 540, held the city's highest civil magistracy before giving away his family's Sicilian estates to found six monasteries and turning the family house on the Caelian Hill into a seventh. Elected pope in 590 against his own protest, he governed Rome through plague, famine and the Lombard wars for fourteen years, wrote the Pastoral Rule and the Moralia in Job, and sent Augustine and forty monks to the English. He died on 12 March 604 and was acclaimed a saint at once.
Gregory was born around 540 into one of the great Roman senatorial families. He served as Prefect of Rome — the city's chief civil official — before converting his family palace on the Caelian Hill into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew and entering the monastic life around 574.
His contemplative retirement was short-lived. Pope Pelagius II appointed him one of the seven deacons of Rome and then sent him as apocrisiarius (papal ambassador) to Constantinople, where he served from 579 to 585. On his return, he resumed monastic life until Pelagius died during a plague in 590 and the clergy and people of Rome elected Gregory pope by acclamation.
Gregory accepted reluctantly — he genuinely mourned the loss of his monastic quiet — but governed with formidable energy. Rome was besieged by the Lombards, and Gregory effectively assumed civil as well as ecclesiastical authority, negotiating with the invaders, organizing food distribution, ransoming captives, and administering the vast papal estates across Italy and beyond.
His pastoral writings were enormously influential. The Regula Pastoralis (Pastoral Rule) described the duties and dangers of the episcopal office with such insight that Alfred the Great translated it into English and Charlemagne required every bishop to own a copy. His Dialogues, which included the only surviving biography of St. Benedict, popularized the Benedictine tradition throughout Europe. His Moralia in Job, a massive allegorical and moral commentary, was the most widely read biblical commentary of the Middle Ages.
Gregory's decision to send Augustine and forty monks to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons in 596 was perhaps his most consequential act. He also reformed the Roman liturgy — though the extent of his role in what later became known as 'Gregorian chant' is debated — and maintained an enormous correspondence (over 850 letters survive) that reveals a mind of relentless practicality and pastoral warmth.
He died on March 12, 604, calling himself 'servant of the servants of God' — a title popes still use.
Gregory became venerated as a saint almost immediately after his death. His own writings—particularly the Dialogues—shaped hagiographic tradition of medieval West. Later vitae elaborate on his virtues, his miracles (particularly miraculous knowledge and spiritual visions), and his role as a model bishop and spiritual leader.