Pope St. Gregory contra materialistic consumerism! Oh, those Fathers, so ancient and so timeless ...
"I want to advise you to leave everything, but I do not want to be presumptuous. If therefore you are unable to abandon everything which the world offers, you must so hold those things that are of this world that you may not be held by them in the world; that earthly interests may be possessed, not be the possessor, and that what you have should be under the control of your mind. Otherwise, if your mind is bound by the love of earthly things, it may itself rather be possessed by its own possessions. Therefore, let temporal possessions be what you use, eternal things what you desire ...
"To carry out these things, we have a mediator between God and men, our helper, through whom we shall more quickly obtain everything, if we burn with true love for him, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen." ~St Gregory the Great, Book 2, Homily 36
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