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Morals on the Book of Job - Three Volumes in Four Books
Gregory the Great was pope from 590-604 and left behind a substantial literary heritage. His most ambitious work and one of the most popular works of scriptural exegesis in the middle ages was the Moralia in Iob, commenting the book of Job in 35 books running to over half a million words.Saint Gregory's Commentary on Job was written between 578 and 595, begun when Gregory was at the court of Tiberius II at Constantinople, but finished only after he had already been in Rome for several years.
2232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 600
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About the author
Pope Gregory I
278 books57 followersborn perhaps 540
From 590, Saint Gregory I the Great, known pope, increased authority, enforced rules of life for the clergy, and sponsored many notably important missionary expeditions of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in 596 to Britain.
Commonly vigilant Gregory guarded the doctrine of the Church. He founded numerous monasteries, including a school for the training of church musicians. He collected the melodies and plainsong, so associated and now Gregorian chants. In his time, he served as a monk, an abbot, and a leader of Italy. He also momentously influenced the Catholic Church through doctrine, organization, and discipline. People thought of his foremost skill in grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic in all Rome, Gregory of Tours tells us. Gregory sent as a patron of England. Gregory wrote Dialogues , one accomplishment, a book on the Lives of the Saints. Boniface VIII proclaimed him as a doctor of the church in 1295.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gr...
From 590, Saint Gregory I the Great, known pope, increased authority, enforced rules of life for the clergy, and sponsored many notably important missionary expeditions of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in 596 to Britain.
Commonly vigilant Gregory guarded the doctrine of the Church. He founded numerous monasteries, including a school for the training of church musicians. He collected the melodies and plainsong, so associated and now Gregorian chants. In his time, he served as a monk, an abbot, and a leader of Italy. He also momentously influenced the Catholic Church through doctrine, organization, and discipline. People thought of his foremost skill in grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic in all Rome, Gregory of Tours tells us. Gregory sent as a patron of England. Gregory wrote Dialogues , one accomplishment, a book on the Lives of the Saints. Boniface VIII proclaimed him as a doctor of the church in 1295.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gr...
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January 9, 2026January 9, 2026: Sum total wisdom gleaned from the exchange between Job and his 'friends': "...what else are we taught by the tutorage of blessed Job, but that everyone should learn to look to it heedfully, that in the season of sorrow he never urge words of upbraiding? For if there be some points which might be justly found fault within time of distress, they ought to be put aside, lest the comforter by rebuking heighten the sorrow, which he had it in view to alleviate."
This book is eminently quotable. See quotes for a sample of the wisdom within.
NOTE: NOT reading for the second time. I just stopped and restarted, so far, NO Dates finished
'For when temptation of the flesh moves us, our infirmity being made to tremble disturbs even the bed of the soul. But what do we understand in this place by ‘dreams’ and ‘visions’ saving the representations of the last searching Judgment? What we already have some slight glimpse of through fear, but do not see it as it really is. Thus holy men, as we have said, ever turn back to the secret recesses of the heart, when from the world without, they either meet with successes beyond their wishes, or with adversities beyond their strength, and, wearied with their toils without, they seek as a bed, or litter, the resting-places of the heart.'
December 17, 2025: resumed reading. Have finished up a few books and am returning to this.
I was going to reread The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, 1878-1903: Or a Light in the Heavens but have decided that I need to read this more. Thanks for the tip, Jack!
November 19, 2025: I haven't looked at this in a couple of months and have so many others I want to finish, so setting it aside for now.
This book is eminently quotable. See quotes for a sample of the wisdom within.
NOTE: NOT reading for the second time. I just stopped and restarted, so far, NO Dates finished
'For when temptation of the flesh moves us, our infirmity being made to tremble disturbs even the bed of the soul. But what do we understand in this place by ‘dreams’ and ‘visions’ saving the representations of the last searching Judgment? What we already have some slight glimpse of through fear, but do not see it as it really is. Thus holy men, as we have said, ever turn back to the secret recesses of the heart, when from the world without, they either meet with successes beyond their wishes, or with adversities beyond their strength, and, wearied with their toils without, they seek as a bed, or litter, the resting-places of the heart.'
December 17, 2025: resumed reading. Have finished up a few books and am returning to this.
I was going to reread The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, 1878-1903: Or a Light in the Heavens but have decided that I need to read this more. Thanks for the tip, Jack!
November 19, 2025: I haven't looked at this in a couple of months and have so many others I want to finish, so setting it aside for now.
December 3, 2014
"Therefore as the fitness of each passage requires, the line of interpretation is studiously varied accordingly, in that the true sense of the word of God is found out with so much the greater fidelity, in proportion as it shifts its course through the different kinds of examples as each case may require."
Good read for those studying the Church fathers or patristics. There are gems in there for the rest of us, but it's a really long read.
"It is a sympathy that lowers itself to his state of suffering, that knows how to estimate aright the meaning of the sufferer."
"To fear God is never to pass over any good thing that ought to be done."
"Knowledge is nought if it hath not its use for piety; ... piety is very useless, if it lacks the discernment of knowledge."
Good read for those studying the Church fathers or patristics. There are gems in there for the rest of us, but it's a really long read.
"It is a sympathy that lowers itself to his state of suffering, that knows how to estimate aright the meaning of the sufferer."
"To fear God is never to pass over any good thing that ought to be done."
"Knowledge is nought if it hath not its use for piety; ... piety is very useless, if it lacks the discernment of knowledge."
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