For Pascal, diversion is not only useful, but (under the conditions imposed by the Fall) necessary

      "Thus Pascal doesn’t condemn divertissement, because he notes the utility of it, and even the necessity.  It would be a misinterpretation to see in the reflections of Pascal a moral condemnation, when he limits himself to an anthropological report.  One is [here] very far from the position [(positions)] of Pierre Nicole, who will go so far as to contest the necessity of divertissement:  'But if one wishes to examine matters of good faith [(les choses de bonne foi)], one will find that the need men have of diverting themselves is much less than one believes, and that it consists more in [the] imagination or in custom than in a real necessity' (Traité de la comédie, chap. 8).  To wish to plaster [(plaquer)] that Jansenist ideology onto the idea that Pascal made of divertissement is to wreak havoc with his [mode of] argumentation.
     "To give greater force to his demonstration’s argument from divertissement, Pascal crosses two themes:  [1] that of the divertissement that pushes ennui [temporarily] into the background, and [2] that of the obstinate search for an object or state the acquisition of which will not give happiness. . . .
". . . No one escapes [the necessity of the former].  Such is the condition of every man [including Pascal himself]:  if he is not diverted, he is unhappy.
     "This necessity constitutes a paradox:  divertissement is what diverts us from the necessary, and yet . . . is [itself] necessary."

     Michel Le Guern, "Pascal et le divertissement," Théophilyon 14, no. 2 (November 2009): 276, 280-281 (267–283).

Ps 119 (118):148

קִדְּמ֣וּ עֵ֭ינַי אַשְׁמֻרֹ֑ות

• RSV:  My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on thy promise
• NRSV:  My eyes are awake before each watch of the night, that I may meditate on your promise

Praeveniebant oculi mei vigilias

προέφθασαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου πρὸς ὄρθρον

• Benton:  Mine eyes prevented the dawn, that I might meditate on thine oracles
• NETS (Pietersma):  My eyes got a headstart at dawn, that I may meditate on your sayings

Praevenerunt oculi mei ad te diluculo

• Perisho (cf. 2 Cor 9:5 NRSV):  My eyes have gone on ahead to you at daybreak
• Douay-Rheims:  My eyes to thee have prevented the morning, that I might meditate on thy words
• Liturgy of the hours:  Dawn finds me ready to welcome you, my God

Mark the seasons [(tous kairous)]. Await him that is above every season [(kairon)].

πλέον σπουδαῖος γίνου οὗ εἶ.  τοὺς καιροὺς καταμάνθανε.  τὸν ὑπὲρ καιρὸν προσδόκα, τὸν ἄχρονον, τὸν ἀόρατον, τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς ὁρατόν, τὸν ἀψηλάφητον, τὸν ἀπαθῆ, τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς παθητόν, τὸν κατὰ πάντα τρόπον δι' ἡμᾶς ὑπομείναντα.

     Epistle of St. Ignatius to Polycarp III.2.

Lightfoot:

Be more diligent than thou art.  Mark the seasons.  Await him that is above every season, the Eternal, the Invisible, who became visible for our sake, the Impalpable, the Impassible, who suffered for our sake, who endured in all ways for our sake.

Lake:

Be more diligent than you are.  Mark the seasons.  Wait for him who is above seasons, timeless, invisible, who for our sakes became visible, who cannot be touched, who cannot suffer, who for our sakes accepted suffering, who in every way endured for our sakes.

Ehrmann:

Universalis:

Increase your efforts and watch for opportunities.  Look out for the one who is above time and has no need for opportunities:  the Invisible who became visible for us, the Intangible who is above suffering and yet suffered for us, who in every way endured for our sake.

divineoffice.org:

Increase your zeal. Read the signs of the times. Look for him who is outside time, the eternal one, the unseen, who became visible for us; he cannot be touched and cannot suffer, yet he became subject to suffering and endured so much for our sake.

The dangers of an (understandable) obsession with the challenges posed by Entsittlichung

      "As in German Protestantism generally, so also in Hamburg [the] political 'rebirth' of Germany and [the] religious as well as moral 'renewal of the German people' circulated 'as diffuse rallying cries [(Reizworte)] and allowed the current situation of the church to appear as a kind of Babylonian Exile' (Kurt Nowak).  Thinking and feeling mostly as German nationalists, persevering in fear of [a] Bolshevism inimical to Christianity [(kirchenfeindlichen)], and giving credence to the NSDAP’s affirmations of 'positive Christianity,' an overwhelming majority of Protestants saw in the 'national outbreak [(Aufbruch)]' of Hitler’s cabinet a signal that a powerful national politics—the re-Christianization of society and the moral elevation associated therewith—[had] again now made an appearance in Germany.  Community spirit, clear political leadership, and the Christianization of society constituted, so Kurt Nowak, an intersection between what National Socialism promised and what those in the church wished for.  The affinity of the Protestant milieu for the NSDAP was therefore [an] expression of the problematic faith [that] the aporias of modern political and social organization could be overcome by the production of 'unequivocality [(Eindeutigkeit)' in a ‘community of the people [(Volksgemeinschaft)].''"

     Erik Eichholz, "Gefangenenseelsorge und nationalsozialistischer 'Strafernst':  zur Politik der hamburgischen Landeskirche in der Gefangenenfrage," Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte 12, no. 1 (1999): 173-174 (172-188).  A specialist could tell right away by the way I've translated these catchphrases that I have done very little reading in this area!

"Where no binding relation to the truth exists, the Word dies."

"Wo kein bindendes Verhältnis zur Wahrheit besteht, stirbt das Wort."

     Reinhold Schneider, as quoted without a citation in Heinrich Wilhelmi, Die Hamburger Kirche in der nationalsozialistischen Zeit 1933-1945 (Göttingen:  Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968), 295.  Whether "Word" should be capitalized, I don't know.  Just before this Wilhelmi quotes Hans Buchheim, citing "Struktur der totalitärien Herrschaft und Ansätze totalitären Denkens," Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 8 (1960):  180:

The darkening, indeed in many cases even the destruction of our relation to the truth is . . . that which stands at the outset of every kind of totalitarianism, and for which we bear complete intellectual responsibility. 

Die Trübung, ja in manchen Fällen sogar die Zerstörung unseres Verhältnisses zur Wahrheit ist es also, die am Anfang des Entstehens jeder Art von Totalitarismus steht, und dafür tragen wir die volle intellektuelle Verantwortung.

"it seemed important to me then, as it does now, to take the person out of the cover of office and expect a real personal testimony of faith from the spokesmen of the Church."

      Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, in "Benedict XVI laments lack of faith within Church institutions in Germany," Catholic News Agency, July 26, 2021.  For the German missing from CNA Deutsch, see (behind a paywall) Benedikt XVI and Tobias Winstel, "'War ich ein guter Seelsorger?'," Herder Korrespondenz 75, no. 8 (August 2021).

God isn't in the business of "sanctify[ing] our present way of life"

"Accept, O Lord, we pray, the offerings which we bring from the abundance of your gifts, that through the powerful working of your grace these most sacred mysteries may sanctify our present way of life and lead us to eternal gladness.  Through."

"Suscipe, quaesumus, Domine, munera, quae tibi de tua largitate deferimus, ut haec sacrosancta mysteria, gratiae tuae operante virtute, et praesentis vitae nos conversatione sanctificent, et ad gaudia sempiterna perducant.  Per."

     Super oblata, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Missale Romanum (and earlier).  The  problem with this translation is that though conversatio can certainly mean "way" or "manner," and though God is certainly interested in making our present ways of life progressively more holy (i.e. transforming them), it can give the impression that God is in the business of "sanctifying our present way of life" in the sense of giving it, unconverted, a kind of stamp or imprimatur.  (Also, the direct object of sanctificent is nos, not praesentis vitae . . . conversatione.)  So here's my stab at a more accurate rendition:

"ut haec sacrosancta mysteria . . . et praesenti vitae nos conversatione sanctificent, et ad gaudi sempiterna perducant":  that these most sacred mysteries may both sanctify us in the midst of (or even via (ablative of means)) the affairs of th[is] present life, and conduct [us] through [the latter] to joys eternal.