"Charity surges to great heights when it is compassionately drawn to the lowly needs of neighbors."

Reading St. Gregory the Great (AD 540-604), "The Book of Pastoral Rule." Starting to figure out why Luther generally liked him. Or I should say, generally didn't dislike him quite as much as other early medieval theologians/popes. "Gregory was leprous when it came to ceremonies; he considered it a mortal sin to break wind." [LW 54.8]

Pastor H.

Thus Jacob, as the Lord looked down from above and poured oil on the stone, saw angels ascending and descending the ladder, which signifies that true preachers do not only aspire through contemplation to the holy head of the Church (in other words, to the Lord), but they also descend to the needs of the members through compassion. Likewise, Moses frequently entered and exited the tabernacle, and while he was seized internally with contemplation, he busied himself with the affairs of the infirm. Inwardly, he considers the hidden things of God; externally, he carries the burdens of carnal people. In times of doubt, he always returns to the tabernacle to consult the Lord before the Ark of the Covenant. Without a doubt, this provides an example to spiritual directors [i.e. pastors]: when they are uncertain about how to order secular concerns, they should always return in their thought, as it were, to the tabernacle and, as though standing before the Ark of the Covenant, consult the Lord as to whether they should inquire into the internal pages of sacred teaching. Thus, the Truth himself, made known to us by assuming our humanity, continued in prayer on the mountain but [simultaneously] worked miracles in the cities. And so he established the way of imitation for good spiritual directors, so that in contemplation they will already desire the highest things; but they will also show compassion for the necessities of the infirm, because charity surges to great heights when it is compassionately drawn to the lowly needs of neighbors. And the more it descends to the infirm, the more valiantly it reaches to the highest things.

Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, SVS Press 2007, pp. 59f.