To John, Bishop of Constantinople, Asking for His Prayers

Gregory to John, bishop of Constantinople. [a]

If the virtue of love consists in loving one’s neighbor, and we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, how is it that your blessedness does not love me as yourself? For I know with what eagerness and with what anxiety you wished to escape the burden of the episcopate; and yet you made no objection to this same burden of the episcopate being laid on me. Clearly, then, you do not love me as yourself, since you have wanted me to take on the load that you were unwilling to have laid on yourself. But since I, unworthy and weak, have taken charge of an old and badly shattered ship (for the waves come in on every side, and the planks, battered by a violent storm every day, creak of shipwreck), I beg you by Almighty God to stretch out the hand of your prayer to me in this my danger; for you can pray the more earnestly, as you stand farther from the confusion of the troubles we suffer in this land.

My synodical letter I will send with all possible speed. Immediately after my ordination, while I was pressed by many serious engagements, I sent Bacauda, our brother and fellow bishop, as the bearer of this letter. [b]