A Communion Of Saints

Hoc itaque omnipotens Deus agit in cordibus hominum, quod facit in regionibus terrarum. Poterat namque unicuilibet regioni fructus omnes tribuere; sed si una quaelibet regio alterius regionis fructibus non indigeret, communionem cum altera non habuisset. Unde fit ut huic vini, alii vero olei abundantiam tribuat; hanc multitudine pecudum, illam vero ubertate abundare faciat frugum, ut cum illa defert quod ista non habet, et ista reddit quod illa non detulit, per communionem gratiae sibi simul etiam divisae terrae conjunctae sint. Sicut ergo regiones terrarum, ita sunt mentes sanctorum, quae dum vicissim sibi conferunt quod acceperunt, quasi fructus suos regiones regionibus impendunt ut in una omnes charitate jungantur. Sanctus Gregorius Papa I, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia X Source: Migne PL 76 890c-d

This is how God works in all the hearts of men, as it is done in the different regions of the world. For any land can produce some fruit, but if one region were not to require the fruits of any other, it would have no communion with them. Whence it is that this land produces wine and this one gives an abundance of olives and this one has a multitude of cattle, and another one a plenitude of crops, that when one brings what another lacks, it returns what the other does not have, and by a communion of thanks each of the different areas of the world are joined to one another. And as it is in the world, so it is with the hearts of the saints, that while they bring to one another what they have received, they are as the lands which offer up their fruits to other lands, that all might be joined in one love. Pope Saint Gregory the Great, on Ezekiel, Book 1, from Homily 10