An Effective Preacher

Et comedi illud, et factum est in ore meo sicut mel dulce. Liber qui viscera replevit dulcis in ore sicut mel factus est, quia ipsi de omnipotenti Domino sciunt suaviter loqui, qui hunc didicerint in cordis sui visceribus veraciter amare. In ejus quippe ore Scriptura sacra dulcis est, cujus vitae viscera mandatis illius replentur, quia ei suavis est ad loquendum, cui interius impressa ad vivendum fuerit. Nam sermo dulcedinem non habet, quem vita reproba intra conscientiam remordet. Unde necesse est ut qui verbum Dei loquitur prius studeat qualiter vivat, ut ex vita colligat quae et qualiter dicat. Ad praedicandum namque plus conscientia sancti amoris aedificat, quam exercitaio sermonis, quia amando coelestia intra semetipsum praedicator legit quomodo persuadeat ut despici debeant terrena. Qui enim vitam suam interius pensat, et exemplo suo foris admonendo alios aedificat, quasi in corde linguae calamum tingit, in eo quod manu verbi proximis exterius scribit. Unde admirabilis praedicator cum multa discipulis exhortando dixit, quia nullam intra semetipsum de conscientia contrarietatem pertulit, securus adjunxit: Si qua virtus, si qua laus disciplinae, haec cogitate; quae et didicistis, et accepistis, et audistis, et vidistis in me, haec agite, et Deus pacis erit vobiscum. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia IX

'And I ate it and it was made in my mouth as sweet as honey.' 1 The book which fills him within is made sweet as honey in his mouth, because they know how to speak sweetly of almighty God, who have learned in the depths of their heart truly to love. Certainly in his mouth Sacred Scripture is sweet, who is within himself filled with His commandments, because to him it is sweet to speak, whose interior is inscribed with life. For the word has no sweetness to him whose conscience by a reprobate life gnaws at him. Whence it is necessary that he who would speak the word of God, before he does so, should consider the worthiness of his life, that from it he gathers the worthiness of what he will speak. For in preaching the more the conscience is edified by Divine love, so the more is the effectiveness of the word, because with celestial love within him the preacher gathers how he should persuade that worldly things should be despised. Indeed he who ponders the life within him and with his own example edifies others without with admonishments, is as one who dips the reed of his tongue in his heart and with the hand of the word writes it outwardly for his neighbour. Whence that preacher is admirable to his listeners with his exhortations because nothing within himself he bears contrary to his conscience, and confidently he may conclude, 'Whatever is of virtue, whatever is of praiseworthy discipline, think on; and the things which you have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, these things do, and the God of peace will be with you. 2 Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 1, from Homily 9 1 Ezek 3.3 2 Phil. 4.8-9